The main attraction to Heidelberg, and the activity that occupied most of our second
day in the city, was the giant castle on the hill, Schloss Heidelberg.
The castle has been destroyed a couple times over the years, but is still well maintained by the city and is constantly undergoing renovations.
This castle had been in existance since before 1200 AD, but had been destroyed and rebuilt a number of times. What came first, though, was the long hike in the hot (for me) 85 degree weather up to the castle. The stairs were numbered, but it wasn't exactly fair since some of the steps were about 2 feet long, and some were close to 5 feet long before the next step.
Once we got to the top though, the view was great of the surrounding Old City. This was all of the touristy area of the city. The castle basically overlooked the entire town, which you could see from the outer walls closest to where we walked in.
We all walked around and enjoyed the weather outside, and Sebastian held his mom's umbrella as she took a picture of us.
We enjoyed the view from the ramparts again.
After walking around the outer walls we made our way into the ruins on the inside. The castle had been struck by lightening twice since originally being built, and repaired once. The second time it had been out of use for so long it wasn't repaired. But there were ruins all over the place and some of the collapses that happened to it were pretty cool.
Some stairs that apparently lead nowhere. The door didn't work.
There were also reconstructions of the giant barrels that used to be placed in the basement of the castle and used to brew beer. They were enormous. They had a couple of small cafes built into it where people could eat. Besides the outer walls and the ruins on the inside, we walked around the castle gardens area, a giant terrace behind the castle, set up against the hillside. The city keeps them well maintained with trees and flowers, and it's nice to walk around on a sunny afternoon.
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