Heidelberg, Germany June 15, 2009

Schloss Heidelberg

We decided to take the train this time just to say that we did ~ it cost us about 30 Euros one way (about $45) to get there. It turned out to be a 2 1/2 hour ride vs. 1 1/2 hours by car). It was fun for the kids to ride on the train, but we are not sure how often we will ride a train...it may be convenient and less wear and tear on our car, but you are limited on what you can carry with you. Once we got to Heidelberg we had to take a bus to the Schloss (castle). We were told at the info desk that we could ride the bus for free with our train ticket...hhhmmm??? No one asked us for a ticket ~ so. We then had to take a cable car up to the schloss, or our other option was to walk up 320 stories ~ pregnant and with 2 strollers...NOT!! At this point we were thinking about the movie "Planes, Trains and Automobiles".

While in the cable car it started to POUR down rain and of course the castle is outside. So we waited in the terminal, had some Cheetos for a snack and waited until it slowed down some. It never really stopped, but we went anyway. We didn't want to come all this way to see the castle from a distance and eat Cheetos in the terminal.

In order for us to see anything in the castle we had to pay to get in...AND pay for a tour. We were able to see about 1/4 of the castle, because everything else was closed to the public or was under construction. This is how big the castle is:

The tour was an hour and we saw a few rooms..the wine cellar which had probably 20 feet tall barrels, some artifacts and were told a lot of history. Overall we thought the tour was ok, but mostly a huge tourist trap (unfortunately).

We also were allowed to see the medicine museum which was the most interesting because it was neat to see what was used for medicine and how it was made....some of the stuff they used is pretty scary.

Here are a few pictures of the outside of the Scloss .