Heidelberg: Day 6
2/9/07
Hi again.. Guess who? :-}
It's getting late (or at least I'm getting tired) so I might just put
a few more pics up and hit the sack. Excuse my Australianism for those
of you who aren't from there!
There are quite a few from today, so there's no way I'll get them all
up tonight! Today was the day we went to the three castles in one day
after a boat trip up the Neckar. Awesome!
Scenes
like this you just don't get in Sydney!
Which is a shame
really. If we did, there might be more cycle paths around town..
My favourite statue / sculpture from Heidelberg is this
thing.
I dubbed it the "horse-chicken" but you make up your
own mind as to what it is! There are more pics of it later which show
it from better angles, so maybe you should wait a bit to make your
judgement..
We JUST made it in time for the boat after being delayed due to a VERY
slow lunch waiter / chef but we made it.. Once one
the boat though, we could relax and enjoy the trip up river!
More of
the castle from yesterday. This time
from the water.
The old
stone bridge of Heidelberg.
And more beautiful buildings.
The first lock (to move boats from one level of the river to
the next) I've ever been through, or even seen I think! Water
fills the lock. And we're on our way again!
A monastary just out of Heidelberg, apparently still
inhabited by Benedictine monks, so the lady told us!
Not a bad place to live eh?
Coming up to the second lock of our trip upriver..
More architectural gems.
Swans.
Okay, enough of this hoohaa, on with the castles.
But first.............................................................. A horse.
Another castle.
The previous one is privately owned so you can't get inside. Did I say
nice place to live??
This, despite not being able to get to it in the short time we had
there is my favourite of the three.
It's dubbed the
"swallow's nest" for fairly obvious reasons.. Not sure I'd like to be the one
attacking it.
This one is the one we got to climb up and have a
close up look at.
The private one again.
Great spot, but it's a shame about the clear fell logging that's just started up here.
Finally off the boat!! Now we can start the climb to the castle! We took the low road and they
took the high road and it looks like we made it before them!
Basically it's mostly ruins now, but still completely amazing. The view from
the top wasn't bad either! And I have absolutely no idea what this is
about, I'm fairly sure the castle is older than this! :-}
I just
learned something! I typed the words there into babelfish translator
and apparently it means "hessian forest administration".
Maybe that's
who's doing the logging.. Forestry administrations are good at that
sort of thing.
Hey, here come the others. They made it! Well, to the bottom of
the tower at least at this point..
Again, the view from the top was pretty spectacular.
And again, the private castle nestled in the trees, as seen from
the top of the one we were on.
Me, Sharon and Tina at the top. Tina doesn't look
real happy to be there for some reason!
Not finished today's pics yet but too many (!!!!) to do in one
sitting.. See you all soon with some more..