I lost my heart in Heidelberg …

Having arrived overnight at Mannheim, we joined the bus after breakfast and headed for Heidelberg. (Sadly, Mannheim was 85% bombed during World War Two. Its main claim to tourist fame is as the place where Carl Benz invented the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine in 1894 (the original is in the Volkswagen museum in Wolfsburg). After a 45 minute drive through lush countryside and forests bright with spring green, we reached the spectacular ruined castle complex high above the city of Heidelberg. Here we met our guide Susanne (25 years in the business, and CEO of 80 other guides), who gave us an excellent private tour. Heidelberg Castle hosts a million visitors a year. With its dramatic history and jaw-droppingly dramatic setting, I can see why visitors from Goethe and Mark Twain to today’s coach loads from all over the world have found it so impressive. It’s the ultimate romantic ruin.

Susanne took us first to the exquisitely-carved gateway which led to the terrace garden which Frederick V (1596-1652) constructed for his dearly-loved wife Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of King James I of England. Frederick was the hereditary Elector-Palatinate, a major player in European politics of the day. He was one of the seven nobles and bishops who elected the Holy Roman Emperor (in practice, usually a Catholic Habsburg). Frederick, a Calvinist (Protestant), was elected King Of Bohemia in 1619, but was swiftly defeated by the Catholic Habsburg Army during the ruinous Thirty Years’War. Exiled, he was known as “The Winter King.”

in 1688 the obnoxious Louis XIV (spoiler: the more I read about him, the less I like him), tried to grab the Palatinate for his equally odious brother the Duc d’Orleans, who had surprisingly fathered three children on his Palatinate heiress wife, despite his interests being otherwise inclined. This led to the Nine Years War. The Imperial (Habsburg) Army jumped into this miserable conflict. In 1689, Louis ordered the beautiful castle and city of Heidelberg to be razed., Four years later, he had the castle and palace blown up in a single day with 38 mines, leaving the devastation you can see today. You can go right off some people.

Attempts to rebuild were stymied by two lightning strikes and consequent fires that burned for thee days . At this point the townspeople gave up and left the palace as a ruin. Heartbreaking for them at the time, but a spectacular contribution to German Romanticism later.

We did get to see the giant wine vats in the palace cellars. One is the biggest in the world. A trip down the funicular railway (like Wellington’s cable car, only shorter and steeper), brought us to the city below. Here we found a tragic memorial plaque to the Sinti (Gypsies) rounded up by the Nazis and sent to concentration camps. On a happier note we stopped for a coffee (advertised as Flat White, but 6/10 to fussy Wellingtonians). Much better were the ice creams - bitter chocolate and yoghurt (D,) bitter chocolate and salted caramel (N). Yum!

We took a last walk across the Neckar Bridge, admiring the broad reach of the river where it flows down from the Black Forest. The Neckar has always been subject to high flooding. Susanne reached up on the wall of a building to show us the record level reached is 1784. Huge barges navigate the 160m drop in water level through 27 locks. Germsn river engineering is amazing.

Then back to the Leonardo da Vinci which had caught up with us, and moored alongside. Time to start packing as we leave the ship tomorrow.Read more