Today we took a coach tour to Heidelberg......2 - 3 hours drive from here. Driving through the German country side is very beautiful - it's very green! But so often today my thoughts turned to the war and I imagined soldiers hiding and running through the fields and forests...being here in this part of the world where so much fighting and killing took place....it is sobering for me. Somehow things take on a different perspective.....
Heidelberg was not bombed during the war - it must be one of the few places that wasn't. There is a strong history of the Protestant church here and in the 1500's the Lutheran church was established.
The city hall in the main town square
The church in the main square.....of interest...it has 7 different points of entry. The men and women used to be required to enter separately from each other.
Heidelberg has the oldest university in Germany - it was established in 1386- and all up around 148,000 people live here.
One of the main tourist attractions is the Heidelberg castle....it is massive! It towers over the town high up on the hill. We took a cable car type thing to get a closer look.
Just one small part of the castle from the inner court
Check out this wine barrel. It holds 225,000 litres of wine and took the oak from 120 trees to make it.
The local wine makers were required to bring a tenth of their wine harvest (a tithe) and pour it in, from there it would be pumped into the dining room!
That's a lot of wine!
This tree was also fascinating .......so ancient.....it is wound round one of the pillars in the outer court.
It looked so very cool but I imagine maybe not so good on a long trip....ha! The buses we have been using are very comfortable - even have footrests.....it's the little things huh?
Here's Robyn Cooney and I standing on a castle balcony high above the town of Heidelberg
So after all the history we needed some fortification so I thought it must be time for apple strudel! I had been hanging out for this and it wasn't hard to find a few others who were keen as well.
Yeah.....it was soooo good!
As we wandered around I couldn't resist taking a photo of this old Mercedes bus....
And check out the cobble stones....all the streets are like this....so very old and so very not suited to high heel shoes!
So another interesting day in this beautiful little corner of the world. We are back on board our boat, the Amadeus Princess, having been given a beautiful dinner once again.
The crew on this boat are mainly from Romania. They work for 10 months, then have 2 months off. That's 10 months every day.....no days off! Sometimes they might get a couple of hours off in an afternoon.
Filip our waiter, is a young man from Romania, who is married with a son who is two and a half. He has to go where the work is, and does so to provide a better life for his family.....my heart goes out to him.
I am trying to imagine if my little grandson only saw his daddy 2 months of the year......can't bear to think about it. We are truly blessed to live in a country like NZ.
Till next time.......
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