Heidelberg.

The drive to Heidelberg took all of 10 minutes then we were tooling around like the Griswolds looking for a place to park.  We found a spot, about 4 stories underground, right between the Altstadt and the castle.  We weren't sure where we were in relation to the rest of the city, so we set out for what looked to be the center of town in hopes of finding an information office.

Some of us had to use the restroom, and, again, not knowing where we were, we began looking around for public facilities.  We saw that we were right by a university, and it being a university, Kirk figured it would have restrooms somewhere, so we 5 American tourists scoped out the University of Heidelberg for a place to take care of business.  We found it in the basement of the library building and left as inconspicuously as 5 American tourists could.  Kyle wanted to ditch us immediately.  I know he was humiliated by us!

We kept walking around and finally came upon a stadt plan, a big layout of the city, and got our bearings.  I think a week of waking up in a new place and having to negotiate our way around a different city and/or country every day was messing with our navigational mojo!  It looked like rain, so we decided a tour of the castle was our best option.

The hike up to the castle is strenuous, to say the least.

Look how steep the road is!

It's a steep, cobblestone road to the top, but once you are there, the views are amazing.  You can see the Neckar River and the Old Bridge and the Altstadt below.

A model of the castle before it was destroyed.

The castle was started at the beginning of the 1200s and expanded in the 1600s.  Like Ruine Hochburg, it was damaged during the Thirty Years' War and again in the late 1600s by the French.  People continued to occupy the good sections until the 1800s when some government officials decided to restore it in order for it to be used as a tourist destination.  In fact, Mark Twain visited Heidelberg Castle on his travels during the 1880s.  Here we were 130+ years later seeing it as well.

The courtyard inside the castle walls

We decided to take a guided tour and got the funniest little guy as a guide.  He kept cracking jokes that he thought were really funny, but the acoustics were so bad that hardly anybody caught what he was saying.  I would laugh, because some of his comments were pretty hysterical, and then a few others would chime in politely even though it was obvious that they had no idea what they were laughing at, but he just kept on making jokes and chuckling to himself.  He told us about one of the kings who used to have his gamesmen catch deer and put it in the moat so he could shoot them, however, he was usually so drunk that the gamesmen would have to stand behind him and shoot as well, and they would actually kill the animals not the king.

The tour took about an hour or so, and it was nice to get to go where regular folks can't go.

We went down to the basement where there is a wine cask so big that people used to dance on top of it!

The stairs going down from the top of the wine cask

Afterwards, we headed down to the city to walk around the Altstadt and buy some souvineers and get a snack.

Claire found a German-type hat for Tate, as they have a running hat joke.  Emily found a snow globe for her friend, Rebecca, because Rebecca collects snow globes from all over the world.  I found a very nice matted print from 1830 of some type of pretty pink flower.  We walked around the streets and looked in the churches and stores.  We went to the Old Bridge and walked out on it.  It was really windy and actually a bit chilly.

Heidelberg Castle from the bridge

Emily got into a hot game of Rock, Paper, Scissors with Kirk and Kyle.  She and Kyle kept doing the same move each time.

Scissors!

Paper!

After, we decided to get a late lunch before heading to our hotel to get ready to leave tomorrow.  We found this restaurant that has been in business in this same spot for about 500 years and decided to eat there because that that is not something we can do in the US!

We sat down inside, and Emily and I ordered potato pancakes with spinach, Claire potatoes and sauerkraut, and the guys got bratwursts.

After we finished "linner," we stopped in the Lindt store for some candy to take back as souvineers.  There was a lot of chocolate!  All kinds of choices and flavors we don't have in the US.  It took a long time to pick!

We went back to the car and headed toward the town near Ramstein where our hotel was.  It is a really, really nice hotel!  The inside is immaculate and the beds are the most comfortable ones I've slept in so far.

The wifi was better in the kids' room a couple of doors down, so we all gathered in there to upload pictures, text friends, and check email.

We were finishing off the last of our food, and I started feeling a little belchy.  Kind of full, like I had too much to eat, and it wasn't sitting well with me.  A little while later, I started getting a bit nauseous.  I thought at one point that I was going to throw up, but I didn't.  And then I did.  I threw up about 4 or 5 times and felt better.  I thought maybe the grease from the potato pancakes was making me sick.  Emily had the same thing, and she was fine, so I didn't think I had food poisoning.  About 15 minutes later, I started throwing up again.  I felt awful.  All I wanted to do was lay down with a pillow tucked into my belly and sleep.

I started freaking out a little because we are supposed to get up at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow to drive to Ramstein to try and get on a plane for 8 hour plus flight to the US.  I hope I feel better by the morning!

Thankfully the kids' room has 4 beds.  I've asked Kirk to sleep in there with them so we don't have to be loud when we wake up the kids in the morning, plus, I'll have the bed to myself, so maybe I can sleep.