Heidelberg Castle

Although it was nice sleeping at the Johnson’s house on Wednesday and Thursday nights, Friday morning we packed up our duffle bags and hit the road again for our next adventure!  The plan was to drive to Garmisch, stopping at the Neuschwanstein Castle on the way down.  Unfortunately it was a very rainy day at the Neuschwanstein Castle and a lot of southern Germany, so we decided to spend the morning in Heidelberg, where it was overcast, but at least it wasn’t raining.  We had wanted to tour the Heidelberg Castle anyway, so we just switched a few of our days around.  It ended up being just fine.

The Heidelberg Castle today is just a bunch of ruins.  It was the residence to most of the Prince Electors but it was destroyed by lightening and fire in 1764 leaving it permanently uninhabitable.  In 1800, Count Charles de Graimberg began the difficult task of conserving the castle ruins. Up until this time, the citizens of Heidelberg had used the castle stones to build new houses.

 

The castle is actually a combination of several buildings surrounding an inner courtyard, put together with a haphazard look.  We waited in the courtyard for a little while waiting for our tour to start.  

 

The tour began in a little room that had a model of the castle of what it looked like in all its glory.

Our tour guide took us into a few rooms in the restored part of the castle.  It was fun seeing some of the ornate ceilings, floors, and furniture, but honestly, I’m not sure the tour was really worth the 18 euro we had to pay.   

The largest wine barrel in the WORLD is located in the wine cellar of the Heidelberg Castle.  It hold 58,124 gallons of wine.  It was built in 1751 by Prince Elector Karl Theodor to house the wine paid as taxes by the wine growers.

From the castle up on the hill, we had some gorgeous views of Heidelberg and the River Neckar.  That’s the Old Bridge down below.

We then hiked back down the hill to walk the Hauptstrasse (Main Street) in the old town of Heidelberg.  We walked a little bit of it on Wednesday night when we were there for dinner, but we didn’t go very far.  This time we walked quite a ways down the mile-long street.     

Nothing says Germany like a big delicious Bratwurst!  Sweet pickles, crispy onions, and BBQ sauce . . . . so good!

And this big round thing is called a Schneeball (snow ball).  Schneeballen are actually strips of dough all glued together in the shape of a ball, and then fried and topped with anything from cinnamon sugar to chocolate and coconut.  They are a German specialty, so of course we had to try one!  We bought a “ballen mit caramelfulling.”  The ball looks soft, like you should be able to take a big bite out of it.  But they’re actually kind of hard.  It works best if you kind of break the ball into pieces before you eat it.  They’re not the best thing I’ve ever eaten, but they’re not bad either.  It was definitely fun to try it!

Rothenburg

 

“Rothenburg, Germany – my new favorite place in all the world!” was my facebook status at the end of this day.  I just LOVED this town.  LOVED. IT.  Rothenburg is Germany’s best preserved medieval town.   Rick Steves calls it “the king of medieval German cuteness.”  In the Middle Ages, Rothenburg was Germany’s second-largest city, with a whopping population of 6,000.  Today, it’s a tourist hot spot.  I just loved walking around this place knowing that it looked exactly like this hundreds of years ago.  Most of the buildings within the city were built by the 1400s.  Isn’t that amazing?  Lucky for us, Rothenburg is only an hour and a half from the Johnson’s house, so it was an easy day trip.

Dan and I standing in the Market Square.

Rothenburg has a legend . . . . It goes like this:  In 1631, during the 30 Years War, Catholics besieged the Protestant town. The Catholic General announced that if anyone was able to drink a 3 Liter tankard of wine, in one gulp, that the Catholics would leave the town. Rothenburg’s Mayor Nusch accepted the challenge, drank the 3 Liter tankard in one gulp, and saved the town!   Today, tourists gather on the town square several times daily for a reenactment of this legendary chug at the old clock tower (below).  It’s actually kind of lame . . . . haha.  Those two little windows on either side of the clock open up, one has a wooden Catholic General and the other has a wooden Mayor Nusch that chugs the wine for a few seconds.  It’s pretty nondramatic. 

 

The above picture is the Town Hall in the Market Square.  See that tower in the middle of the building at the top?  We climbed to the top of that 200 ft. tower for the best view of the town and surrounding countryside.  It was definitely an interesting little journey climbing to the top of that tower! 

 

At the top of the tower!

It was soooo windy up there!  Can you tell? 

Amazing views of the town and the most gorgeous countryside in the background.  Don’t you just love all the red roofs?

 

So, I haven’t really explained Rick Steves yet . . . . We were introduced to the wonderful world of Rick Steves’ guidebooks by Chris and Lisa.  It’s their favorite guidebook, so naturally, now, it’s our favorite too! (haha!)   But really, he has amazing guidebooks that take you on self guided walking tours through cities with all the interesting details and history that you want to know about what you’re seeing.  Don’t go to Europe without his guidebooks!  One of us always had the book and we would gather around the person reading to learn about the sights. 

St. Jakob’s Church – This church was built in the 14th century and has been Lutheran since 1544.  Those stained-glass windows behind the alter are originals from the 1330s.

 

Beautifully carved choir stalls.

These medallions hang above the choir stalls.  They are the coats of arms of Rothenburg’s leading families.  Isn’t that awesome?

Rick Steves: “At the back of the church, take the stairs that lead up behind the pipe organ.  In the loft, you’ll find the artistic highlight of Rothenburg and perhaps the most wonderful wood carving in all of Germany: the glorious 500-year-old, 35-foot-high Alter of the Holy Blood.  Tilman Riemenschneider, the Michelangelo of German woodcarvers, carved this from 1499 to 1504 to hold a precious rock-crystal capsule, set in a cross that contains a scrap of tablecloth miraculously stained in the shape of a cross by a drop of communion wine.”  Did you get that?  This entire carving was built to hold a little scrap of tablecloth.  Crazy!!!                               

The piece of tablecloth is held in that capsule in the center of the cross.

Then we walked through the Burgtor entrance on the west side of the city into the Castle Garden.  I loved all the old doors and seeing the layers of fortifications they used to protect their town.

So cool seeing the “pitch nose” mask – designed to pour boiling tar on attackers.  And those slits on either side of the mask were for the chains to the wooden drawbridge. 

The Castle Garden is the site of the old Rothenburg castle, which was destroyed in the 14th century.  Today it’s a peaceful little park with big trees.  

This chapel in the park is the only bit of the original castle to survive.

A view of the south side of the city from the Castle Garden.

See that cute little house built on that tower?  It’s called the Toppler Castle and was built 600 years ago by the medieval Mayor Toppler.  It’s outside of the city wall, and the rumor is that the mayor used this place to protect/hide his mistress.

We walked along the outside of the city for a little while.  It was so beautiful and peaceful.

We only had the youngest two Johnson kids with us, Luke and Matthew.  They were such great sports all day, just following along everywhere we went.    

So sad when Matthew face planted it on the rough road . . . . kind of funny that Dan captured it at the right moment.  Lisa hasn’t even realized what has happened yet, and Scott’s just trying not to step on him!

Poor little Matthew!  Luckily he was hardly banged up at all.

Can’t you just imagine medieval knights galloping down these paths on their horses?

And what medieval city is complete without a moat?

We went back into the city and walked the wall.  This was so cool!  The wall completely surrounds the city and is only 1.5 miles around.  We probably walked half of it.  It gave us some great views of the city.

This is the Galgentor gate and tower on the east side of the city. 

There are a few towns in Germany named Rothenburg, so this one is officially called Rothenburg ob der Tauber which in German means “Red fortress above the Tauber,” referring to the old red castle and the Tauber River.

One of my priorities in Rothenburg was to hit up the headquarters of the Käthe Wohlfahrt Christmas store.  It’s pretty much the mecca of all Christmas stores . . . . with all kinds of German Christmas trinkets and decorations.  It was a winter wonderland in the middle of summer!

Photography was actually not allowed inside the store, but Dan managed to sneak a few before getting caught.  We had it down to a science . . . . Dan counted to 3, and then I would fake cough while Dan snapped a shot.  haha!                

I’m not expecting you to know what these are, or to ever want one . . . . but I’ve wanted one of these for a long time.  They’re called Pyramids, a traditional German Christmas decoration.  You light candles at the base of the pyramid to make the windmill and the nativity figurines turn.  My grandmother had one from Germany all of my growing up years, and to me it’s a fun memory that I associate with Christmas and my grandparents.  We bought the one on the top, far left and another one for my mom as a gift for watching our kids.  I can’t wait for Christmas!

Back at the town square, we did the Night Watchman’s Tour.  This same guy has been narrating this tour for over 20 years now.  He really has it down.  As Rick Steves explains, “The night watchman jokes like a medieval Jerry Seinfeld as he lights his lamp and takes tourists on his rounds, telling slice-of-gritty-life tales of medieval Rothenburg.”  He’s pretty funny and this was definitely fun to do.

I’m trying to stay in the front of the pack to get a good spot close to him at the next stop!  haha . . . . .Don’t want to be stuck all the way in the back:)

We only spent half a day in Rothenburg because Chris worked in the morning, and although it was nice having a relaxing morning to recover from our Paris trip, you could easily spend a whole day here.  Oh well, we’ll just have to go back!  I seriously loved this place.  For all other family members that are planning on visiting . . . . this place is a must see!