Du Stadt am ehren Reich. Am Neckar und am Rhein, kein andere kommt dir gleich.

The first lines of an old song praising the beauty of Heidelberg, my short pit stop after my adventures in Gengenbach and Europa Park.
It is a pretty town located on a river between 2 hills. The main draw of this university town is the castle. Or more closely, what is left of it. Unlike the others, this huge red brick stone castle is not on top of a hill, and lies heavily in ruins. It was besieged and fell during the 30 Years War, a huge war all across the land of Germania (what the Romans used to call Germany as it was a collection of nation-states ruled by kings and arch-bishops until the early 20th century and not a unified country.) Mainly the facades and towers are left, much has crumbled, and very interestingly, in the tower that stored all the explosive powder there was an explosion, blasting off a huge chunk of the tower that fell in tact to the ground below at the base of the tower and has remained there for hundreds of years. There are parts inside that are ok and are visitable, such as the gift shop, the apothecary museum, which has all kinds of devices and medical stuff from 200 years ago. The castle ruins also has…the world’s largest barrel of alcohol! More specifically, the world’s largest wine cask deep in the cellar. It is called the Groß Fass (big cask…it…is enormmmoouusss). And also, it wouldn’t be Germany if I didn’t visit something involving “World’s adjective+est noun.” Excluding Oktoberfest.

See here for stories and photos of the castle: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidelberg_Castle

I will return and post photos of my own, I will let you know when and provide the link in a future update.

*it is with some regret I must say I cannot currently post any photos for at least tonight, and maybe tomorrow, as my primary photo storage card is being backed up online, and my secondary storage card contains all my photos in Heidelberg. Backing up 5600 photos is not quick or easy.*