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.



Sunday 27 May - boat cruise down the Mosel River from Trier . There was beautiful scenery.

Bridge from the Roman days

Crops growing on the flat land

Grapes on the slopes

Villages along the way

There are always many jet streams from planes in the sky.

Then we left Trier for Frankfurt by train. The trip to Frankfurt followed the Mosel river until it entered the Rhine River and then we went upstream most of the way beside the Rhine River.

Saturday 26 May in Trier - did a bus tour of the city sights and visited 2 museums.
The city centre or what they call Market Square where markets are held some days.

Fountain in Market Square

The Palace and its gardens

 The Throne Room or Basilica beside the Palace and it was used for special events. It is now used as a church. Some of the walls were up to 7 metres thick.



Entrance to a church which was behind the shops

The Cathedral which was like 2 huge buildings joined together.

The first museum we visited was next to the Porta Nigra or Black gate and contained statues and paintings from the 16 & 17th centuries.

The second museum was tremendous with exhibits dating from the Roman times. They were well presented and the documentation explained it all. One of the best museums that I have been to.

Parts of buildings from the 1st - 3rd centuries

This was one of the mosaic floors on display. It was about 4 metres square. There was another 7 on display of similar size , all with tiny mosaic tiles in complex patterns.

At 5pm we went on a bus trip to a winery. We went on a very old bus owned by the winery. The winery had been in the one family since 1770. One member of the family had become a Professor in wine making and lived to 99 years. We looked at the making of wines and then had a wine tasting of 6 wines. The whole thing was supposed to be 1.5 hours but we were there for almost 3 hours as the family member who conducted the tour kept filling our glasses with wine. The trip cost 10 Euros ( equivalent to $12 Australian).  Bottles of wine could be purchased for 5 Euros each.