Heidelberg Germany

We drove to Heidelberg to check out the old castle ruins, the "100 things to see in Germany" app I have rates it as #8.  It was about 2 1/2 hours west of us, but with German winters it gets dark at 4:30 pm we didn't have a lot of daylight to explore all of the city.

Artist drawing of what the castle grounds 

looked like in the 1650's before any destruction.

Kim took some great panoramic shots.  

There is a huge dry moat around the entire castle grounds.

The castle has been sitting un-inhabited since 1720 or for 294 years!!!  The first mention of the church was 1214!! Construction was finished in 1619 due to the thirty years war and this was the first time that weapons had ever been used against the castle.  The castle was overtaken 3 times during the thirty years war, in 1649 after it was taken back, King Ludwig moved back into the castle ruins. The French had placed explosives around the castle and blew up many sections of the castle during the nine years war of the late 1600's.  In 1720 the ruler at the time decided to forgo the repairs and moved the castle court members to nearby Mannheim castle, in 1764 the head of Bavaria was going to move the court back to the castle but lightning struck the castle twice in a row setting it on fire.  He took that as a sign from heaven and changed his mind.  In 1800 the local counsel decided to conserve the castle ruins, up until then the  townspeople was using the castle stones to build buildings in the town.

 I would loved to have seen this in its prime, this castle is HUGE!!

Castle grounds entry way.  

 The retractable metal gate at the entrance looks like teeth.

Panoramic view of the castle grounds.

What you see when you walk through the castle gate.

 The Friedrichbau,  Elector Frederick IV commissioned to have this building, his residence, revamped from 1601-1607.  The entire building was restored in the latter half of the 1800's , the ground floor is the castle chapel and the paid castle tour will take you through all the restored rooms.  The building to the left is the Fassbau it is the Kings hall, in the basement is the wine cellar.  A huge barrel was built in 1591 to hold all the wine that the wineries would pay their taxes with.

Jonah and I thought that this was a huge wine barrel, but.............................. 

Then we saw this one.......it holds almost 53,000 Gallons!!!!! The original 1591 barrel was destroyed during the thirty years war, this one replaced it in 1664.  There is a dance floor on top of it that the court jester would perform on.  Perkeo the court jester was in charge of keeping watch on the wine, legend has it he was a heavy drinker, he would always be drinking wine.  The legend says that one day he picked up and drank from the wrong glass, that was full of water, not wine and he dropped dead. Pretty funny.

 The heads sticking out are kind of freaky.  
They are all heads and statues of rulers of the area.  Frederick is the one holding the sword.

Kim keeps making the wizard of oz reference "puuuut em up......puuuuuttt um up" 

The Ottheinrichsbau was built in the 1550's. The front is adorned with statues of ancient heroes and Roman emperors.  The roof was damaged during the war with the french but the lightening strike of 1764 burned out the entire building.  There is an Apothecary museum in the basement.  The first floor has been restored to its 1500's glory and can be viewed with a payed tour.....we missed the last tour by 15 minutes.

This tower was called the "herb tower" although it housed the castles supply of gun powder when the French blew up the tower during the war they got lucky and placed a placed an explosive on this wall and the powder inside helped blow it in two.  Look how thick the walls are!

This is like a six or seven story column on the outside of the castle wall, I think that the blocks sticking out use to hold the wooden floors, but don't know for sure.  You can see the castle hallways that come to every floor, it looked really cool.

Jonah took a good pic of us out on the terrace overlooking the city, beautiful views.

A view of the Karl Theodore bridge, built in 1786 by its namesake.  A portion was blown up during WWII in 1945 but the townspeople rebuilt it in 1946.

Elisabeth's Gate was said to have been built in a single night in 1615 from Prince Elector Friedrich V as a birthday present for his English princess, Elisabeth Stuart. 

"The Father Rhine" the only remaining water feature left on the castle grounds. It is off and water drained for the winter but it still works after all this time. Built 1616-1619 by Solomon de caus.  Below are some of his other water fountains that did not survive the wars.

He created many wonders around the castle gardens.  He used techniques that used air, solar and water power to make his creations come to life. Many people who saw them thought it was magic.

 Entry ways like this where all over the garden area and Solomon had his creations throughout to entertain the high court and their visitors.

This is a view into the entry way. 

You can see the water that Solomon used to fill the ponds is still running today.

Jonah and I climbed to the top of the church and were able 

to take a couple of great night pictures of the castle.

The castle looks awesome at night.

This is the Hotel Ritter.  Built by a cloth dealer in 1592, but has been a hotel since 1705!!

Across from the hotel Ritter is the Church of the Holy Spirit. I got this picture off the web so you could see the round tower column on the left side of the bell house.  Jonah and I walked the 208 stairs to get to the platform there so we could take a picture of the castle at night.

Seemed like we went up for ever! 

Jonah was pretty nervous about this pic, it was pitch black we couldnt see very far in front of ourselves.  We walked around the entire platform.

These statues where on the second floor of the church.......quite odd.

It isnt the most lavish church we have visited thus far, but it is still beautiful in its own right.  It is the most famous church in Heidelberg, the church was built in 1398 and completed in 1544.  From 1706-1720 there was a partition installed so it could be used by BOTH Catholics and Protestants simultaneously!  

This pipe organ is different than all the others we have seen.

The main alter is still decorated for Christmas.

We had a great time in our short visit to Heidelberg and will be heading back for some more exploring.  Hope you enjoyed the pics.  So many places to visit, So many things to see.

CHRISTMAS MARKETS!!!!

We have been traveling around going to as many Christmas markets in as many different towns as we can.  Some have been way to crowded and others seem to just have store bought items marked up for sale.

 Heading up the hill to Parsburg Castle's Christmas market.

 On Parsberg Castle grounds this one was pretty small, but we got a couple of things.

 Candy Shack

 Fresh made Crepes and Gluhwein. Gluhwein is a red wine with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and honey served hot which is great when its below 30 outside. It is served in a souvenir mug that you pay a deposit for, we are collecting the mugs.

Regensburg Christmas market with St Peters in the background. 

 Kim and Jonah checking out the pretty stuff 

 We loved this booth, they are snowflakes made out of wood shavings and straw.

 The fluffy things above her are angels made from feathers. 

A wine store made a Christmas tree from corks

Christkindlmarkt in Munich

Christmas market is at Old Town Square great backdrop

 Chocolate galore

 I like the Feuerzangenbowle better, it is an alcoholic drink where a sugar cube is flambéed with rum, dripping into mulled wine and fruit is added. Also in a souvenir mug.

These are all the cups we got this year, each has the town name on them.

 we seem to gravitate to the wooden ornaments

 These are so beautifully made

 I loved the tea light booth

 No shortage of sweets

Took this pic for my Daughter she collects snow globes, but its hard to find one that says Germany

Christmas Market in Prague, Czech Republic.  Sorry this is the only pic, as we got closer it was so packed I had to get out of there.

 The market in our town of Velburg, it was small but nice.

The had a wood burning oven and was making fresh pizzas.

Nuremberg was our favorite, set mainly in front of Frauenkirche (Church of our lady) built 1352-1362.

 They put this Christmas pyramid on top of a fountain, it made a good center piece to watch. 

Der schoene Brunnen Fountain, it is over 60' tall and built in 1385.

Nuremberg's "Zwetcshgenmännle" or Prune people! They have been made since the 17th century during the 30 years war by parents who couldnt afford toys. You can read more at: http://www.christkindlesmarkt.de/en/your-visit/shopping-souvenirs/the-world-of-the-prune-men-1.2373657

Lots of wooden figurines.  

 I love the wood carvings.

Kim loved this one, she LOVES snowflakes. 

 The lady was hand-painting these little cottages.

 A better view on how the Feuerzangenbowle is made we had to squeeze our way up to the front to get a cup they where very popular. 

 Awesome scroll saw work.

 These hand made dragon oil lanterns are awesome.

Star lamps are pretty

Schloss Guteneck Castle Christmas market is one of the few that you pay to get into, but it seemed to have a higher quality of goods and it had some items other markets didnt. All the vendors where also wearing period attire.

View from the castle walls.

Jonah said the owl looked like the ones on Legends of the Guardians movie.

They brought a few birds, another man was walking around with a Golden Eagle that was huge. 

Wooden peg crossbow game, he did good at it.

The Glassblower was making items while you watched, it was really cool.

 This is a hand cranked swing!

 our dinner, Hamburger, Fries, and pizza.

.

 Looking down on one of the sections there was probably 5-or 6 different areas, there was also an area with a  petting zoo, pony rides, and camel rides.

We had a great time at all the Christmas markets we only went to 8 markets this year, next year we will plan better and go to see more.  This year we learned how it all worked.  Hope you enjoyed the pics.