Day 7: Heidelberg, Germany

Well, Day 7 was another wonderful day in Germany. We went to an a.m.a.z.i.n.g place - the Heidelberg castle. Castles are everywhere in Germany...it's so cool. You just ride down the rode and see random, abandoned castles on the sides of hills. Wouldn't it be neat to have an ancient castle down the street?!? Now, the Neuschwanstein Castle was amazing in its own right, but the Heidelberg Castle may be even cooler. It's A LOT older and part of it is in ruins. That just adds to its uniqueness, though.

Here's a model of what the castle used to look like:

Pretty archways...

Castle courtyard...

Walking through the castle gardens and walls, you can just imagine the things that took place there...and what it would have been like to have lived there all those years ago. Of course, after reading fairytales as a child, you can't help but picture knights in shining armor, ladies in distress and fire-breathing dragons...haha. It was SO neat! I felt like a little kid walking through the place...my imagination was running wild. Even the knobby trees in the garden seemed to have friendly faces and personalities of their own.

Here's a pretty panorama of the city:

The castle gardens were so beautiful...

A tower in ruins...

This statue is also in the gardens...

Part of the castle moat...so cool!

Castle courtyard...

We found a knight! Look at those pointy shoes!!!

Gorgeous view!

The wine cellar in the castle was pretty awesome. The pic below was of a GIANT wine barrel...that thing used to hold A LOT of wine! Haha.

Okay, so they played a joke on me here...You pull on this handle, and a furry thing pops out at you...I wasn't expecting it. Can you tell I was surprised? Haha. It was hilarious.

After wandering through the castle, we ventured down to the town below - Heidelberg. It was definitely one of my favorite little German towns that we visited. It was so incredibly unique. We stumbled across a violin shop and after peering into the shop windows, we saw a man hand-carving the violins. He was so into what he was doing, I don't think he even noticed we were there. It was SO cool to come across something like that!

Up ahead, we walked up to a bridge that had a gorgeous view of the city. The church towers always look so majestic standing tall over their city. The Neckar river that flows through the town is very pretty too. In fact, it is the river that inspired Mark Twain to write "Huckleberry Finn." The view of the castle from down below was also breath-taking.

When we left Heidelberg, we drove back to a town close to Kit & Donna's house for dinner. We ate at an Italian place called "The Red Rooster." I had spaghetti and Brad ordered a delicious pizza. But guess what - We had escargot too!!! Can you believe that??? Snails! We had never had it before. The most surprising thing was that we actually liked it! It was served with butter and herbs, and it was delicious with a piece of toast.

Escargot!