Monday 28 May - travelled to Heidelberg by train from Frankfurt (about 1 hour). The scenery was picturesque. There were various crops growing including barley, carrots, corn and soya beans.

Barley

Carrots

Corn

The train on the way home got up to 200 km/ hour. It was the first train that we had with a sign for the speed.

Heidelberg was very picturesque. It has a very large old castle, a large university and is on the Neckar River.

Heidelberg Castle's first building was built from 1398 to 1410. Other buildings were erected during the 16 & 17 th centuries. Some of the buildings were damaged by fire and wars and were rebuilt. To get to the castle we wnet on a funicular train.

Outside Heidelberg Castle - the watch tower on the right has fallen down into the moat. We could see that the walls were about 2 metres thick.

The entry gate to the castle.

View as we entered the castle. On the left was the servants quarters and on the right the pump house for water. Directly in front is the King's residence.

King's residence with the library on the left.

The quarters of the ladies-in-waiting

The quarters for the knights

The King's residence is now used for special events and weddings.
Inside the King's residence are several wine barrels holding wines from the grapes on the slopes nearby.
We had a wine tasting of 3 wines.

This is the medium size barrel.

This is the large barrel which was over 2 storeys high.

The view of Heidelberg from the balcony of the castle.

Under the Knights building was a Pharmacy Museum.

Palace garden
It was huge and had several very large terraces and some fountains. In the 16-18th centuries it grow most of the food for the everyone living at the castle which wa about 1,000 people.