December 1 - Second day in Heidelberg

We had made plans to all meet for breakfast at 8:30 a.m. Sheilagh and Vicky made it to the breakfast room at that time. The rest of us woke up after 8:30! The breakfast room was beautifully decorated, and the breakfast spread was fabulous. And the coffee was superb!

Angela wasn’t joining us for the day as she wanted to get ready for our dinner party tonight. The six of us headed to the funicular. It took us up to Heidelberg Castle. Heidelberg Castle is a ruin in Germany and landmark of Heidelberg. The castle ruins are among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps.
The castle has only been partially rebuilt since its demolition in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is located 80 metres (260 ft) up the northern part of the Königstuhl hillside, and thereby dominates the view of the old downtown. The earliest castle structure was built before 1214 and later expanded into two castles circa 1294; however, in 1537, a lightning bolt destroyed the upper castle. The present structures had been expanded by 1650, before damage by later wars and fires. In 1764, another lightning bolt caused a fire which destroyed some rebuilt sections.

We marveled at the architecture – all built without the use of electricity! The Heidelberg Tun (Great Barrel) is an extremely large wine vat contained within the cellars of Heidelberg Castle. There have been four such barrels in the history of Heidelberg. In 1751, the year of its construction, the present one had a capacity of 221,726 litres. Due to the drying of the wood its current capacity is 219,000 litres. One hundred and thirty oak trees were reputedly used in its construction. It has only rarely been used as a wine barrel, and in fact currently enjoys more use as a tourist attraction, and also as a dance floor since one was constructed on top of the tun.

We enjoyed the fabulous views over the river (took a team picture minus Angela) from the balcony and then toured the Apothecary Museum. What a fascinating place with fabulous furniture!

We climbed back on the funicular and went up to Molkenkur. We transferred from the new funicular line to the old funicular line. The train trundled up the mountain with some sections having a 22° slope. The top of the line is 568 meters above the river level. The views were fabulous. We went back down to the castle level. Rather than take the funicular back to town level, we walked and marvelled at the houses perched on the sides of the hill. Some of the houses, we found out from Peter, are frat houses. Pretty fancy digs for students!

Back at town level, we walked for a bit near the markets, but ultimately opted for a very late afternoon tea/coffee break. Notice that we didn’t stop for lunch during the day – not needed after such a late breakfast!

Right on time, two taxis that the desk staff at the hotel had ordered for us showed up at 3:45 p.m. We were in Eppelheim by 4:00 p.m. More hugs and exclamations of happiness! After the obligatory house tour and glasses of wine, we had dinner. It was Raclette which is a Swiss dish that uses a heated grill. Each person customized his/her dinner - chorizo, potatoes, cheese, peppers, baby corn, tomatoes, etc. What a spread! We laughed our way through dinner and then made a huge dent in the enormous plate of homemade Christmas baking that Angela's cleaning lady, Milka, had brought that day. Well fed and watered, Peter shuttled us home in two convoys. We have a 7:00 a.m. date with two taxis to go to the train station. Next stop - Dresden. See you there!Read more