Happenings in Heidelberg

Sorry for no post on Friday! I don't even remember why I wasn't able to write anything! Dinner on Thursday night with Jon and Steph was super fun. We ate at this brewery, called Brauhaus Castel. I of course had the same thing I eat in every restaurant (steak) and it was really good. Since J&S were leaving at the crack of dawn for Dublin it was an early night. Friday was pretty uneventful. I did laundry, met Deaner for lunch, and spent the afternoon ironing his work shirts and watching TV. So domestic. Friday we went to dinner and came home early because we wanted to get an early start to Heidelberg!!

We got to Heidelberg around 11:30 or so on Saturday morning. It only takes about an hour to get to this wonderful little city! I loved it! I had never been before but Deaner had been. This is the hotel that we stayed in.It was so great! We had the suite because a normal double was not available. I can't believe we were right over this Irish Pub! The balcony that you see on the top floor was off of our bedroom. The Dubliner was located PERFECTLY, was super spacious, clean, and reasonably priced. We may or may not do another overnight trip here but if we did, we would definitely stay here.We laughed at first about what a waste of space this little sitting area was because because it was sort of an odd place to go chill because there wasn't any TV or anything but it turned out to be the perfect place for me to put on my makeup and dry my hair ect. As I was blow drying my hair Saturday night I turned my head to look out the skylight and nearly screamed bloody murder. Here is what I was looking at...Crrrrrrap. That thing was practically staring at me! Anyways, once we got checked into the hotel we went to lunch here.I had delicious tomato soup and french fries. As soon as I ordered I realized by looking around that this place was famous for making sandwiches on their home baked pretzels! Ooops! I wish I could have changed my order! After lunch we headed up the funicular to the top of the Konigstuhl. It carried us up 1700ft to spectacular views of Heidelberg. Deaner and I have really perfected the hold the camera out and take our on picture shot.After enjoying these views we rode the funicular down to the castle. The Castle was HUGE and definitely beautiful. It is also home to the largest wine cask in the world and it holds 58,500 gallons of wine! Holy crap! It was too big for me to even take a picture of it! Here are some shots of the castle grounds and the views from above Heidelberg.Instead of taking the funicular back down from the castle we decided to walk back. It was a beautiful day and we just wanted to enjoy the down hill stroll. On the way down I noticed several Europeans in the most inappropriate shoes for this type of walking! First of all we are on a huge decline and secondly the walkway is COBBLESTONE. This is not the worst pair (heel wise) that I saw but they were definitely the most hideous!The church that can be seen in the background of most of these pictures is right in the center of Heidelberg and the main shopping/dining area in town. I was actually able to take a picture inside this church (yes, they were allowed!) because it was very light inside. Typically my small camera doesn't have a powerful enough flash and most churches are too dark to photo properly. Since the church is smack in the middle of the city there is no way to take a picture of the entire church while standing by it. Thank goodness for the arial views!I think we pretty much saw it all in one day! Here are a few shots of the view off our balcony. We didn't spend too much time at our hotel since we were out sight seeing all day. The last picture is a shot of the castle from a bridge in town. It sort of gives a better idea of what it looks like as a whole!As a whole, the overnight trip was a huge hit! We will definitely be taking guests here in the future because it was easy to get to and manageable in one day. Of course we enjoyed staying the night, consuming several beers, and arguing about whether it was right or wrong for Matthew Stafford to leave UGA before his senior year. That is another whole story but I don't believe my husband for a second when he says that he would have stayed to get his degree instead of taking the 80 million! :) This morning we could not figure out why there was such a raquet going on in the street below. Church bells were ringing, people were shouting, crowds of people were clapping. When one of us finally got up to see what all the commotion was we realized that it was the Heidelberg Half Marathon that we had seen signs up for! There were thousands of runners running through town and the rest of the city was out cheering for them! It was pretty neat to see!Now we are back in Wiesbaden and getting ready to start another week. We have a meeting on Tuesday with our banker and architect regarding the apartment we are thinking about buying. Keep your fingers crossed! I really really want it! Hope that everyone has a good week!!