- Starting our European Cavalcade – leaving England
- European Cavalcade – Amsterdam
- The Rhine Cruise
- Heidelberg in about one hour
- Now for a walk in the Black Forest
- A quick photo opportunity at the Rhine Falls
- Lucerne for a few nights
- Our landmark in Lucerne
- Ascending Mount Stanserhorn
- Loving Lake Lucerne (plus a great little shop in Picton)
- Lichtenstein is not what Frankenstein does with his tongue!
- The Wilten Basilica, Innsbruck, Austria and the Bon Alpina Hotel
- Innsbruck in Austria
- Fair Verona
- Apologies… and into Venice
- The paths through Venice: September 2015
- The courtyard of the Doge’s Palace, Venice
- Inside the Doge’s Palace, Venice #Venice #Costsaver #Trafalgar
- The Museum in the Doge’s Palace, Venice #TrafalgarTours
- Our first day in #Rome
The Trafalgar Costsaver Tour entitled “European Cavalcade” is, as I have insinuated before, a kind of taster experience for Europe. During 18 days you can expect to do a lot of miles (or kilometres) by coach with a number of short stops. The real value is in the two night stopovers. Everything else is kind of nice, but rushed.
Leaving our Rhine cruise behind us, we were whisked off to nearby Heidelberg (see Google Map above). Now this city is a place of history with associations relating to prehistoric man (Homo rhodesiensis) , Celts, Romans, Medieval monasticism, Martin Luther and Protestantism. All this said, we were dropped off at a little plaza and told that we had about an hour to look around. So yep, we weren’t going to see much of this history.
The tour guide pointed out to us a tavern that had been used in that wonderful 1954Â musical “The Student Prince” and I subsequently started humming “Drink, Drink, Drink…”. It’s the red coloured place right at the very end of this lane below.
But it was the castle high above that she mostly encouraged us to visit. Apparently (if Wikipedia is to be believed) “The castle ruins are among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps.” Cool!
This visit was nice in theory. Problem here is that I am an unfit (and fat) middle-aged bloke. The climb subsequently caused my family much delight as they raced ahead and took photos of my struggles.
But I made it.
Eventually.
In all honesty the view up here was spectacular once I caught my breath.
Admittedly by the time we had got up there we had to go down again. So we did not really get to look around the castle. But here is a little of what we saw.
Ok – that one above I reckon has possibilities in some creepy art work.
So we stomped on back down the hill where a couple more photos opportunities arose before leaping back onto the coach.
This church is the Church of the Holy Spirit which, apparently had its foundations laid in 1398 and has been built, burnt, rebuilt on and off ever since then.
And then in no time it was over and we had to leave.
I had enjoyed my visit to Heidelberg but it had been far too brief.
Next time…
Anyway, thanks for reading :)
Greg
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wow, so many memories! … ah, greg, if i only had known, i had told you that you could have used a small very romantic hill-train, from the church up to the castle, it costs only few euro, and is an adventure itself :-)… yes, heidelberg is a beautiful town, and the surroundings are spectacular… what i liked most is, that it is also the place in germany with the warmest sunniest weather… now i live in the cold northern area of germany… lol… thanks for sharing the fotos, these ones are particular special to me.
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Thanks Doris :) It certainly was sunnier than I expected. :) Mind you, this was my first time to Germany. I’m stoked that you liked my photos :)
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I visited Heidelberg a few times, it’s a lovely town! :)
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Thanks :) I just wish that I get a chance to go back and explore more :)