Heidelberg Walking Tour
So this was our afternoon of the fourth day of our Ry River cruise in May and June. We went to H Highleberg for a walking tour. And this is the view as we got off the bus looking out at the Nekar River. And the first thing that strikes you is that you have this beautiful vista in front of you. And it’s yet it’s a really really busy street with a lot of noise and a lot of bustle. Behind us is a palace up on the hill and that’s our goal. We’ll walk through the town leaving the bus and heading toward the first point of interest which is called Carl Splats. Carl Splat is a plaza and there are a number of plazas in High Idleberg with different names. So Carl Splats is Carl’s Plaza and what we saw on the way was some of the examples of the architecture in H Highleberg. It’s pretty gothic. It’s kind of what you would expect, although the colors really were striking. And the overall ambiencece was really, really breathtaking. that happens to be um a jewelry store over there. And this is really just a shopping area, but you can see that people are keeping flower boxes in the windows and they’re keeping the whole area looking totally beautiful because they know that tourists are coming to see them. The day we were there, there were a lot of people coming through. Uh there were a number of things that were happening at the same time. It was a bank holiday which meant most of the business uh were closed and at the same time schools had just let out. So there were uh a ton of people in the plaza. So we’re headed toward a statue that is dedicated to Sebastian Müster who was a 16th century cosmographer basically a mapmaker of the stars. He worked in the Franciscan monastery in H Highleberg and he made maps of the heavens. So it represents the work uh the work represents the orbits of the planets and the different figures in the in the different phases of the planets. It’s just a tribute to him. The Madonna statue there was put there in 1718 and it’s just there to draw crowds and get people excited about the area. So, moving on, we make it to the station to get on the finicular railway to the palace. This is a railway that essentially goes at almost a 45 degree angle up the side of the hills. And to get you to the palace, it’s up at the top of that hill. There’s an option to walk up. And nobody, and I mean nobody, was willing to take that walk because it started to get really warm out. And it was it was getting tough just walking around. And as you can see, the train ride itself is really only about a minute long. While you’re on there, it seems longer than that. And we were packed in those cars pretty well, of course, because it was a busy day. But we finally gradually got to the top. And the station is really modern looking. It’s a nice little ride and it’s a really great way to get up there. So, here we are walking out of the station. And as you get off, uh, as we got off, the first thing that struck me was that we had these gorgeous views. And we’ll see in just a few minutes that the views from this vantage point are just incredible. So, here we are headed toward the palace. It wasn’t really a far walk, but there were just so many people there. It was a challenge to get to the palace. Um, and we had a mixed group. So, there were some people that were good at walking and some people who weren’t so good at walking or couldn’t walk particularly quickly. So, uh, we got there when we got there and that’s part of what happens when you are on a river cruise and tours. Uh, you have to move at the speed of the, uh, least capable person in the group. Uh, you can see that it’s May and June and the foliage is out in full bloom. And look at the sidewalks. Everything on the street, everything is cobblestones. So, there’s another challenge. We’re walking on cobblestones and uh, it’s out. So people are people are struggling. So it’s a good thing that Robin and I were wearing were wearing our hiking boots because it would have been a serious challenge otherwise. So here we are. Uh this this particular area is rock shell and it was a little bit better paved. Um but even so there were people that were actually falling on our trip. One guy got hurt really really badly and luckily he recovered but he was out of commission for a few days. So now we’re walking out onto an area that basically surrounds the castle. And here’s where you get to see the views that I was talking about. Uh it took me a couple of minutes to get to a vantage point where I could get a decent shot without a whole lot of people in the way. Uh but yet and so you can see from here um that building is a is a portion of the patio that we’ll be on later. And this is just the lookout over the vista. You can see the river. You can see uh the churches in H Highleberg. And we we headed toward those churches later on. And so uh that that’s the walk up the mountain. Nobody wanted to make that walk. It doesn’t look really bad. It It’s a lot more challenging than you think. So, here we are lined up, queued up to enter the H Highleberg Palace grounds. There were so many people that there was a line and they were only letting in a few people at a time. Uh, this place was like a dream for Robin. It was a castle. It had a moat. It had, you know, the only thing it didn’t have was a drawbridge and uh a damsel in distress from the hanging from the towers. But here you can see the the area that used to be the moes. And this is Robin just looking around going, “Yay! I really love this kind of thing.” I was kidding her about this being Robin World. A girl that loves to read Gothic novels, this had to be a dream come true. I’m glad she was able to get here and I’m glad she was able to have an enjoyable time. There was also something interesting going on that day. On top of everybody being out of school and no work, there was a wedding going on and the castle. It was going to happen later in the day. And as we’re trying to walk in, the wedding party is trying to walk out. And um so we’re we’re trying to navigate all of this traffic. Um, there must have been hundreds of people in this wedding party trying trying to get in and out of the castle or the the palace while we were trying to get in and out. And uh, made it a challenge, but we finally made it in. And this is the courtyard of the palace. Uh, interestingly, we never were allowed inside the palace except for the wine celler, which you’ll see later on, or a portion of the wine celler, which you’ll see later on. But this is all original structures here. Uh there you can see that on the left. Um this would be the servants quarters. Uh but you can see that some of it has been restored, but for the most part it’s all original. They looks like they do a minimal amount of restoration work, just enough to keep the buildings from falling and to to make sure that um it’s safe. But you can see that this building uh was the dormitories for the workers. And it looks like it was um damaged during probably one of the world wars, the first and the second world war. Um and the building on the right was food prep area and for storage. Uh you can see the main palace right in front of you. That’s where the royalty lived. But this is a big open plaza inside the palace. So, this is where we’re headed out to the uh castle balcony. Again, all cobblestones. Thank goodness for the Colombia hiking shoes. Not a paid endorsement. Some of it got pretty precarious because They don’t maintain the cobblestone walkways and streets, so it’s pretty bumpy and it’s easy to to trip and fall. So, you can see uh this is an opportunity to to get out on the balcony and look at the different uh views that are out here from an elevated view. Uh you can see the number of people that are there. We were The little dome building that you see at the end there was the part of the building that I saw. Not that one, but the the other one was part of the building that we saw from the previous um walkway where we were able to see out. This gives you a slightly different view of what the area looks like. And it was just because it was such a clear day, the view was just incredible. You can see for miles and miles to the horizon really. So, I’m going to give you an opportunity to soak this in for a couple of minutes. All right. So, now the only part of the castle we’re able to get into or the palace. I keep saying castle, it’s a palace was the wine seller. And aside from the commercial aspect, you could see they were selling wines and glasses of wine. Uh I’ve never seen wine casks the size of of what we’re we’re seeing here. You saw the wine cask on the right. It was huge. But wait, there’s more. The area where we’re all kind of funneling into right now is a place where we can walk in, walk upstairs, and walk over the cask. And we’re going to do that. Robin’s looking at me like, are we really doing this? And yes, we are along with everyone else. So the wine cask was called the great ton. And to give you an idea of how big that cask is, you can see people walking up the stairs next to the cask. It’s huge. And it’s so big that there are two stories of stairs to walk around. And they they actually built a landing on the top of the of the ton so that you can stand there. And all of this was used for for wine storage. I can’t imagine how you could get so much wine in there and store it. I guess they would store it for for the off season or for the entire year, but it was it’s an incredibly huge huge wine cask. So, we’re about to see the landing area on the left. Here’s a quick shot of it. And then you’ll walk back down. So you can see that none of the inside here has been restored. It’s all original. The walls are all original. And it’s amazing to me that this castle is still standing today. Uh survived wars, not just world wars one and two, but also survived uh wars between France and Germany. um over the over the centuries. It’s just amazing that this castle is standing. There’s another view of the stairs. You can see how how tall the stairs are. So, now we’re on our way to uh see the church of the Holy Spirit. We did not go inside, but we did get to see the church from the outside. This place is basically the religious center of H Highleberg. It was survi it survived a fire in 1693 and it was constructed in the first half of the 15th century. This is us headed toward the famous H Highleberg Bridge and the bridge is supposed to be a place where we can look out and just see everything in all different directions. What’s interesting to me is that there’s really nothing particularly special about this bridge except for the gateway, which you can see in this shot. The gate uh the gateway itself with those two towers is really famous. You see this in all the tourist brochures for H Highleberg. Um and and this is one a bridge that has survived multiple wars, all sorts of disasters, and it’s still standing. Now, this bridge has been restored. Parts of it have been modernized and restores, but some of it is still original. If you look uh as we as we move forward on the left, that’s an original statue. Um, and you can see that that it’s been reinforced, but that’s that’s original. So, here’s a view back at the castle that we were just at in before. And you can see we’ve walked quite a ways to get from the castle to this bridge. Now, you see the bridge down at the other end of the neck? That’s where our buses are. So, we have to walk all the way back there to get to our buses. But you have to you have to agree the views are stunning. Now the day was gorgeous, but there was a lot of H Highleberg that we didn’t get to see. Uh and and that’s one of the things that happens when you go on these tours. Uh when you’re on a river cruise, uh you get a taste of the area, but you only get the highlights. Now, this is the famous H Highleberg monkey. And and what that monkey is about is a bridge monkey. He’s just an attraction that gets a lot of attention. It’s a bronze sculpture of a monkey and it’s just next to the old bridgegates and it’s a sculpture that was created by Ghard Rump who was an arts professor and the monkey basically turns its back toward the river and holds a mirror in one hand. Supposedly, you can put your face up next to the monkeys and you can see yourself in the mirror, but we didn’t get a chance to try it. uh the Church of the Holy Spirit that we’re walking past right now. That church uh survived a fire in 1693 and it’s at Mark’s Plots. So, Mark’s Plaza, which is another plaza. It was used as a final resting place for electors. So, and it and uh we saw it really in two different views. Uh they were taking us to a Marx Plaza. At this point, we barely had maybe a half an hour or 45 minutes before we had to leave. So, we didn’t have time to do it justice.
Heidelberg Walking Tour – highlights include the Sebastian Munster Fountain, Madonna at Kornmark Square, Heidelberg Palace, Church of the Holy Spirit, and the Old Bridge