Friday, 15. July: Heidelberg

Friday, cousin Annemarie, Kristen, and I went to Heidelberg. We drove  to Königstuhl 

at the top of the mountain overlooking  Heidelberg past the Max Planck observatory and astronomical center.  We parked and walked to the summit where we could see the antique funicular train going down to the castle and had a good view of the castle and city below. Königstuhl is about 2,000 feet about the city of Heidelberg. After about a thousand foot walk down the winding path, 

we reached Jacob's Ladder an irregular staircase made from uneven rough-hewn sandstone, which we climbed down about 1200 steps to Heidelberg Castle and then an additional 400 steps to the city of Heidelberg. The staircase was built in 1844 and then restored almost completely in 1994.


  Heidelberg Castle was built in the 1200s but mostly destroyed by lightening and war in the 1700s and 1800s.   We went inside the courtyard but did not do the tour of the inside. Probably the most interesting thing was the huge barrel inside one of the buildings.  The castle itself is magnificent, but it's easier to appreciate that from above and from the Philosopher's Way, the path we walked up that afternoon.


After that we walked down to the city of Heidelberg, walked past the university and the jail where rowdy students had been locked up when they got out of hand, past the oldest building, the Hotel zum Ritter (Knight's Hotel).  We went to the Holy Ghost Cathedral and started walking across the Old Bridge At the base of the bridge is a bronze ape holding up a mirror. About half way across we noticed an abandoned purse.  First we waited about 15 minutes for the owner to come back.  After about 20 minutes, we started looking for a police station.  After about a 20 minute walk away from the bridge back where we had come from, the phone inside the purse rang, so we answered it.  The owner of the purse had finally realized she had mislaid it.  We met the teenage owner by the University  Square and then walked back towards the cathedral. Annemarie decided  that Philosopher's Way was too much walking for her, so we arranged to meet her at 5 at the square outside the cathedral, and Kristen and I went across the bridge, walked up Schlangenweg (Snake's Path) to Philosopher's Way where we had a great view of Heidelberg  and the castle.  We then met Annemarie by the Cathedral and went to an organ concert. After the concert the organize showed everyone the organ.  We walked back to the base of the funicular and took the funicular ride back up to the top of Konigstuhl. From the castle to the top was an antique funicular run by balancing the funicular coming down against the funicular going up.  We then drove back to Annemarie's apartment and relaxed.