Hochwald

Decided to take a quick train up to Heidelberg for the day. What an interesting city. The old town is a few kilometres from the train station, so we jumped on a bus.

First stop was the Heidelberg Schloss, or Castle. It sits on the side of a mountain overlooking the city. Lucky for us, there's a funicular railway up to the castle. A short ride, but worth it.

The castle was fascinating. It was built around 1214 and had been destroyed and rebuilt a number of times since then. So it's an interesting mixture of rings and renovations. Not a bad view of the valley and town below. We had a good day for it.

The castle has a giant wine barrel that was used for collecting wine as tax. It held 221,726 litres of wine, although it was more of a tourist attraction than a useful wine store.

The castle also has an Apothecary Museum, which has a number of exhibits about medical care back in the 1700 and 1800's.

Afterwards we wandered down to the old town to see the Christmas Markets and have a little Glühwein.

After returning to Stuttgart, we paid a visit to the Christmas Markets there before collapsing in a heap back at the hotel.Read more