Heidelberg

In Indianapolis there was a restaurant called Heidelberg Cafe ... it was in the ghetto, but was one of my favorite places. They had this huge mural of Heidelberg, and when I went there for the first time on a field trip in kindergarten, I remember thinking that I wanted to go there one day! Well, 23 years later ... I finally got to visit the real Heidelberg, and it did not disappoint. 

The drive was a couple hours from Schweinfurt, which was our longest road trip yet, and our first time out of Bavaria. We got there with ease, but, once again, had issues with parking. Our Jeep is huge compared to German vehicles, and we always seem to have issues finding parking spots - especially in parking garages. This one in particular was, I believe, built for Matchbox cars. Vic had to reverse several times just to get around the corners ... it was so nerve-wracking! I was sweating like Patrick Ewing in the fourth quarter until he got around all the bendy turns. Then, I had to direct him into a spot like an air-traffic controller - as a few Germans, with their tiny cars, were starting to stare. We ended up a little further from the sights than we thought, but it was a nice walk to the downtown area. 

This is the castle from the downtown area. It was built in 1214-ish, and is our favorite castle yet. 

We decided to take this train up the mountain, instead of hiking up the stairs, which was a wise decision.

Like all the other pictures I've posted, these don't do justice for how huge and beautiful this place was ... we probably could have stayed up here all day just looking at the views. 

Of course, Elliott was asleep for most of the castle tour ... he misses all the good stuff.

Looking down into one of the destroyed towers.

This tower had been destroyed by an explosion of some sort, but you could still see the huge hunk of wall that came off. It was really cool.

This was in the inside courtyard of the castle.

From doing research I knew the World's Largest Wine Barrel was housed in this castle. When we walked in this was the first barrel you could see, and we assumed this was it, because it was huge.

But, upon further searching we found the real one. It was, seriously, the size of a house! You could even walk on the top of it - note the observation deck in the picture. Apparently you can get married at the castle and use the top of the wine barrel as your dance floor. Crazy.

Another picture of the tower, you can see the big piece of wall I mentioned earlier.

View from the outside of the castle ...

There was also a Pharmacy Museum in the castle ... thrilling, I know. It was part of our ticket, so we decided to walk through. It was about as exciting as you can imagine a Pharmacy Museum would be ...

We have a picture of Vic at every castle door that we have been to ...

He's awake! We had to change his diaper during the castle tour ... not every kid can say they have had their diaper changed in a 13th century castle!

We decided to take the stairs back down the mountain, and there were a lot of them - so much that they numbered them.

Once we got down the mountain we did a little shopping. Every trip we take Vic gets a beer stein, and I get a Christmas decoration. Since Heidelberg is such a touristy town, it wasn't hard to find our souvenirs. After that we grabbed some lunch.

Elliott was breaking my back at this point, so Vic and I traded backpack for baby.

This as Vic's first attempt at  the baby harness-contraption, and he was a pro. Women were literally squealing with delight as they walked by the two of them.

Or final stop was for gelato, our new favorite thing, and then we started on the trek back to the toy parking garage (which we escaped, unscathed).

The houses along the river were HUGE!!

Every trip we take I find a new favorite city in Germany. I wish we could have stayed longer, but hopefully we can make it back before we move further away in October.

Tomorrow we are headed to the Alps for a three-day marriage retreat, courtesy of the Army. It's our first overnight trip with the baby, and I have packed his entire nursery into a large suitcase. Surely he doesn't need 12 pairs of pajamas for a three day trip, but you never know.  The area we are visiting is BEAUTIFUL, so stay tuned for some amazing pictures!!