Heidelberg, Frankfurt

Heidelberg Castle
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Today saw the final leg of our tour around Germany with the bus taking us to the ruins of a castle atop the city of Heidelberg. Upon the death of the brother of the King of France, the husband and rightful owner of the castle, the King took claim on the castle. This however was rebuked by the wife of his dead brother, who wanted to keep it for herself, and defended it along with her army. The king decided that if he could not have it, then no-one would and went about to destroy the castle beyond repair.

Castle Ruins
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After our tour of the ruins of the castle, we were lead into the celler of the castle, where currently stands the wine barrel in the world. A person standing next to this cask is dwarfed by its size. The contents of the barrel used to be pumped up to the dining room and consumed by the diners at a rate of 3 litres per meal!!

Our Germany tour comes to an end...

After the castle tour the group were driven down to the centre of Heidelberg where we were given nearly 3 hrs of free time to walk the pedestrian mall, buy souveniers and find something to eat for lunch. The town is inhabited by a large number of students as it has the largest university in Germany in its bounds. The pedestrian mall goes on forever and Joe is fairly sure that we pass more than one of the same store on our venture. After getting to one end we turn and decided that we are running out of time. We decided to pick up a slice of pizza each and eat as we walk down to the river and up to the medieval bridge that still exists. From this we get a great view of the city, the castle and down the river.

Castle Celler - Largest Wine Barrel
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We bumped into some of our tour mates and discover that we still have just on an hour till we have to get back (we got the meeting time wrong), and decide to head up to the mall again to get a coffee. I weaken and decide to get an icecream, although was unable to find my favorite german walnut and maple flavour. Before long it is time to head off for our rendevouz with the bus.

We finally head back to Frankfurt and arrive at the hotel at about 4:30pm. With the farewell dinner note planned until 6:30pm, we have time to start re-packing our bags for our next international journey. Finally we decide at 6pm to head to the bar and join any other of the people on the tour who might be there having a celebratory drink. Unfortunately we had to hold the bar up on our own!!

Heidelberg Medieval Bridge
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The farewell dinner was nice, being salad for entree, pork with carrots and herbed noodles, then a warm pancake with ricotta and custard for dessert. Maria the tour leader had her final farewell word and toasted a successful tour - which we all energetically agreed with. Lastly the young fellow who was on the tour was today celebrating his 14th birthday, so Maria arranged a cake, and he blew out the candles and we sang the customary song. After dinner goodbyes were said by all and wishes for safe onward trips home.