Castle Heidelberg is outside of town on a hill commanding the river valley. That means that it's quite a way from my hotel. If I were smart, I'd hop a tram to the kornmarkt and take the old cable car up yo the castle. Not being the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, I opted to walk the distance.

After passing the required amount of time blundering around lost, I found myself at the foot of the hill below Schloß Heidelberg. I followed the winding road uphill. The road is ancient. It's the only way uphill for wheeled vehicles, so the builders must have had to haul each and every stone used in the castle's construction up this very road. Coincidentally, an attacking army would have had to haul its seige engines, or later, its cannon, up this same road. Naturally, the road has defensive strongpoints in strategic places, such as the switchbacks in the road. There are parapets and small towers for archers and other foot soldiers to use defensively, while the attackers would be exposed, suffering tremendous casualties on their march uphill. Amazingly, the castle was captured around 1700 by french troops, who cheated by coming around back while Freidrich's army was off in Bohemia. Cest la guerre!

On I trudged, until I came upon a "shortcut". What happened is, I saw a little gate in the stone wall that surrounded the road up to the castle and took the footpath worn behind the gate. I figured that the trail had been used enough to stay clear of brush and whatnot, so it must go somewhere. I took off on a hike through the forest.

It really was a great hike. The forest closed around me and I had a good time pathfinding my way to the castle. As luck would have it, however, I overshot the castle by a long way and ended up at the cable car stop above the castle. No problem, it was an easy hike back down to the castle and I got some great views of the river valley and the back side of the castle where those french troops approached back in 1700.

Looking through the drawbridge to the castle gates

So, I found myself at the castle gate where, coincidentally, there is a ticket booth. I bought a ticket from a pretty little Japanese girl and went inside. The next tour in english was a long time off, so I checked the place out on my own. I took some pictures. I went to see the royal vault. Interestingly, since Heidelberg is in a winemaking area, the peasants were not taxed in gold. They paid up in wine, and there's a monster wine barrel in the vault. I checked out the museum of pharmacology and an art exhibit. Basically, I goofed off. After a while I heard a voice. A girl was saying "the San Juan River. I've fished there". Since I was wearing my stylish, yet demure, San Jaun River T-shirt, I figured that she was talking to me and we struck up a conversation. It seems that she had been laid off from AMD in Austin, Texas, and was out blowing her unemployment checks in Europe. We started goofing off together.

The "modern" part of the castle was built after the french went home

We went on the tour, guided by a truely enthusiastic and entertaining local fellow whose name, sadly, I've forgotten. We learned about the castle's history, including the demolition of the powder magazine in one of the castle's towers. This tower has walls of stone over thirty feet thick and the ruins are remarkable. We saw the reconstructed palace and the royal chapel. It was a good tour and I recommend it if your travels take you to Heidelberg.

Looking through the old ruins to the later architecture

After the tour, we decided to take the cable car up to the top of the hill. The view was said to be very nice. I put a couple of Euros into the vending machine and bought a ticket for cable car and off we went. Naturally, I wanted to impress her so I regaled her with the story of my pioneering in the woods while I was hiking around lost. We had to change cars at the place where I popped out of the forest and we checked out the old mechanism of the cable car hoist. Remember, she's an engineer, too, so geeking out over gears, pulleys and whatnot is right up her alley. We went to the top and the view was outstanding. It was a great trip.

Let's fast-forward to the next day. The next morning I had to be in Frankfurt to hop a plane home. I got up and paid my bill at the hotel. The girl at the desk was from California, oddly enough. I had breakfast and headed for the train station. I had to change trains in Manheim and again in Frankfurt. There are two train stops at the airport and, predictably, I tried the wrong one first. By the time I got to the terminal I was running a little late. The girl at the Continental Airlines counter scolded me and I stood there and took it. In the post-September 11th era the folks at the ticket counters have vague and ambiguous powers to make life grim for the impolite traveller, so it's best to let them have their fun. After all, they've taken a lot of crap for a lot of years, so now that the shoe's on the other foot the least I can do is try to be gracious about it and let them rant and rave. The dialog went like this:

"You're late."
"You're right."
"Doesn't your ticket have the 'time of departure' printed on it?"
"I suppose it does. But it has a lot of stuff printed on it and the 'time of departure' is hard to find." How lame!
"Well, it's your responsibility to know when your plane takes off."
"Yes, it is." Why can't she let me off the hook here?
"Why are you late?"
"The train was slow".
"Aren't there any earlier trains?" She's like the Energizer Bunny!
"Yes, ma'am. I'm sure that there are."
"Well, hurry up or you'll miss your flight!"

For crying out loud! Instead of telling me to hurry, I had expected her to ask "you're sure that there are, what?", but she probably didn't think of it. I'm sure that, as she was savoring the exchange after the fact, she said "damn! I could have asked him that. Next time I'll use that, 'you're sure that there are, what'. Trains? You think that there are other trains? Is that it? Answer me, you swine!". At any rate, I ran for at least a kilometer and had to pass through mulitple security checkpoints before I reached my gate. But, eventually, I got home and my dogs were happy to see me.

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