The German railways offer special "Lander" tickets within each region which allow families to travel unlimited kilometres in that given region. On the weekends you can start as early as you like but on weekdays, it has to be after 0900. Our region is Baden Wurttemberg. The special pass allows travel on every train except the fast Intercity trains which means the journey is not necessarily direct but that you may go through beautiful countryside which is what happened in our case!
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| We finally got to Heidelberg! |
One of the places we had wanted to visit was Heidelberg on the banks of the Neckar River which has a famous castle and bridge. We knew before we left on the 0702 train from Bermatingen that it would be a long day with lots of train travel but it was worth it and would have been more tiring by car and more of a hassle trying to find parking.
The little train from Bermatingen was just a carriage with a driver! Some locals who were headed to Stuttgart Airport and flying to Spain as the locals do, helped us with the ticket purchase. We were very grateful.
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| Random beauty! |
The day was once again sunny and perfect for a day trip and when we arrived in Heidelberg we followed our noses to the Altstadt, the old town, and started exploring. One of the first buildings we went into was the University's Bibliotek (library) in search of a toilet facility! Although our mission failed, Luke was intrigued to notice a wonderful example of an ammonite fossil embedded in the marble columns!
It was very much lunch time and we walked over the historic Karl Theodor Brucke, the old bridge, to find a spot for lunch on the banks of the Neckar. The bridge itself is lovely and only open for pedestrians and bikes. The statues on the bridge represent piety, justice, agriculture and trade. The bridge has been built quite a few times (and three arches were destroyed in WW11), but was originally built between 1786-1788. There is also the statue of the bridge ape (Bruckenaff) which seemed to attract lots of people for photos, including us!
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| Karl Theodor Brucke over the Neckar River. |
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| Statues on the bridge |
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| Piety... |
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| Looking towards the castle |
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| Lunch spot on the banks of the Neckar |
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| Gateway to the bridge |
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| Panorama looking towards the old city |
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| The bridge ape eating Annika! |
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| The boys wrestling with the ape! |
Walking through the old town we were never short of "Ah" moments as the buildings are so delightful. The Gothic Church of the Holy Spirit was perhaps more impressive on the outside than from the inside; a personal opinion.
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| The Church of the Holy Spirit |
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| The Church of the Holy Spirit |
The house Zum Ritter Sankt Georg or the knight of St George is one
of the few buildings to survive the War of Succession. It is a late Renaissance style building and named after the sculpture at the top.
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| Haus Zum Ritter Sankt Georg |
From the river bank we could see the Heidelberg Castle, one of our goals
for the day. Who could resist it?! We set out over the ridge and up
through the old town for the castle. There was a steep climb on
cobblestones to the entrance to the magnificent old complex. The
facades were looming over us against the blue sky. Statues of
Friedrich, Ludvigus and other royalty adorned the facades.
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| Approaching Heidelberg Castle |
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| Steep approach to the entrance. |
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| Coat of arms - the Lion strikes again! |
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| Karl and me defending the castle. |
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| View over the river. |
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| Me! |
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| Brilliant facade. |
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| Where there are steps there is a spot for a jump! |
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| Huge door, Luke looking dwarfed by its size! |
The castle houses the Museum of Apothecary which was an intriguing
display of all sorts of historic lotions and potions. Luke was
fascinated by all the materials once used. We discovered that the
Germans discovered Aspirin. Funnily enough, we can't buy what we know
to be "over the counter" medications such as aspirin and paracetamol in
supermarkets here like we can in Australia. It is the pharmacist's job
here (which adds to the price of course!). Having said that, alcohol
and spirits are for sale at the check out at service stations just
before the motorists take off at 200kms per hour on the motorways!
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| Great spot for a handstand! |
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| Stairs to ?! |
The castle has extensive gardens as well and as we wandered through we
could see a "fat" tower with its front blown off thanks to the French in
1689. According to Mark Twain in A Tramp Abroad: "Misfortune has done
for this old tower what it has done for the human character sometimes –
improved it" (1880)
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| Thanks to the French and according to Mark Twain, this tower is better like this! |
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| A pet black fox?! |
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| Tim being a statue!! |
After a snack in the gardens we hot footed it back to the station to buy
a bit of food for our journey and catch the train back to Bermatingen.
It was a lovely circuitous route through the Black Forest at sunset,
through many mountain tunnels, passing beautiful farmland and mirror
still streams reflecting the lovely evening sky. After a few train
changes, we made it back to Bermatingen.
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| At Karlsruhe, on our way home to Bermatingen |
At Radolfzell, our last train change, the train left from a different platform than advertised. I did my citizen's duty and told a girl (in my basic German) standing on the wrong platform as there was no announcement. There were several other people waiting on the wrong platform and no announcement was made but I didn't want to hop out of the train again and I couldn't yell out of the window, and tell them in my basic German, that they were on the wrong platform. Guilt! It was late and the next train was an hour away and I thought some of the locals might have risen to their civil duty!! I felt sorry for those standing on the platform thinking their train was about to arrive for them.
Travellers beware!!
It was a really fantastic day out and worth the travel. Highly recommended!
Pet fox is freaky, eh. I met a pet WOLF on a lead ( a very very long one made of chain), owned by Germans. It had a haunted look about it and was exceedingly shy. To me it looked very much a wild animal, although the "owners" kept it as "their" animal. There may be quite a liberal attitude / law for wild animals being "owned" as pets?
ReplyDeleteYep this fox had a wild unrestrainable look in its eyes and a pretty confident looking owner who wouldn't like to be challenged - strange, I thought too!
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