Heidelberg Part II

Okay, to resume where I left of yesterday...

After lunch we met back at Karlsplatz (the square with the crazy trees) to head up to the castle. It was a rather steep road up, and most of it was slicked over, so there was only a single-file area near the rail that was clear. We eventually made it up safely.
The castle was built a long time ago (1200s), and has been repeatedly destroyed/added onto/renovated throughout the years, so who knows how much of it's actually original (but still really cool!) Basically every time a new prince came into power, he would renovate to his liking, sometimes drastically. Then there's war, or growth, etc.
Anyway. Pictures.



This is one of the fantastic views of the city from the castle.

Me enjoying another fabulous view.
Lol, the tower makes it look like I have an antenna...

This is one of the parts of the castle that was rebuilt after the mass destruction in Heidelberg in the 1700s (as Ursula put it: "It was a really bad century for Heidelberg..."). If my guess is right, it's in the baroque style.

You can't tell very well here because Tonatiuh walked into my picture, but this is a MASSIVE wine barrel in the castle cellar. I believe Ursula said it holds over 120,000 gallons of wine. Let's just say there's a platform on top that lots of people could walk around on.

Courtney and me in front of one of the "smaller" wine barrels.

An old archway into the castle. Now part of the ruins, as you can see.

A part of the ruins that has an unusual Roman flair...

A ruined tower -->

One last panoramic view before hiking back down into the city...


















Two rather picturesque little houses just down from the castle. I believe Ursula said they were used to house some sort of university club, which sounded a lot like a fraternity. Even if that is quite a hike up the hill, fairy-tale cottage/manors sitting just below an 800-year-old castle are WAY cooler than any frat house in the US!!!!


This theater (the Harmonie Lux) must be dedicated to showing Hollywood films, because these are all American movies. 2 of them are even pretty new (despite the fact that they usually take a while to come to Europe). For those who didn't work at a theater and therefore don't recognize movie posters on sight, they are: Benjamin Button, The Spirit, The International, Bolt, He's Just Not That Into You, and Twilight.



Ah, the Swatch store... We went through all kinds of things to get Courtney to this store to buy a watch. We saw it on the lunch break, but then didn't have time to go in. We contemplated parasailing down from the castle and landing in front of the store to save time, but we couldn't find any parasails, lol (people do parasail down from the castle, though) Anyway, once we got there, it took so much time that we could hardly to any other shopping. The kicker: once we left the store, she realized the watch didn't work. It started working, randomly, about 4 days later. The watch's design name? Irony.


One last picture. This is the oldest house in Heidelberg (other than the castle). It was the only one to survive the wars and fires of the "bad century for Heidelberg". It is now a hotel.










On the way back from Heidelberg (about 4:20 in the afternoon), about 20 minutes into the trip, a girl realized she had lost her wallet in Heidelberg. So we turned around. Fortunately, she knew exactly where she'd left it (in a restroom) and, by some miracle, it was still there. After that, it was a relatively uneventful ride home.
Back in Schwabisch Hall, Courtney, Andrei and I went to eat a Bali Kebap (our typical go-to restaurant), and then we headed back to the Wohnheim, chatted with Kate up in her and Courtney's room, and then went to bed to prepare for church and Hallia Venicia on Sunday.

The End.