Heidelberg

Castle balcony

Castle stove--there are little doors in the wall in the back where you can load the wood into.

Castle courtyard.

The giant wine barrel and statue of the dwarf.

View of Heidelberg.

I was excited to visit Heidelberg, since several Germans told me that it is a beautiful town. Indeed, it is more like what I imagined a German city to look like (based on TV and my imagination, haha). It is on the river, and has a large castle and several smaller, older looking buildings. Many of these old buildings have small doors, since people back then were shorter due to poorer nutrition.

After parking the car, we climbed a steep, cobblestone path to the castle which has been quite well preserved. A travel website recommended going on the tour, and I'm so glad we did--it is only 2 euros for students, and you see so much more. Without the tour, you do not get to enter the castle. Our tour guide made a lot of bad jokes, but there was a really nice American girl who laughed at them. See, Americans are so nice :P Otherwise there would just be awkward silence, and he's kind of old, so I do think we should try to make old people happy. Anyhow, back to the castle. I especially appreciated a lot of the insignificant details, like the carvings on the doorknobs, and intricacies of the locks. The clock had golden suns on the pointers, and the stove had feet with little lions drawn on them. Apparently there is a ballroom that you can rent for $1000 euros (which is not too bad a price to pay in order to host an event in a castle!)

The castle also houses the world's largest wine barrel, which holds about 200,000 liters of wine. Beside this barrel (there is also a smaller, but also enormous barrel in the adjacent room) is a statue of a dwarf that the King supposedly appointed to guard ti barrels. Since he was always drunk, his name is Perkeo, which is supposed to sound like "porque no," as in "why not," which was his attitude to having an additional glass of wine.

A fun fact about winding staircases in castles--they usually spiral down leftwards because most people are right handed. Thus, it is easier to defend (fighting downwards) than to attack due to the way the stairway is shaped.

And the last joke the guide left us with: "A guide finished his tour, and people asked him, 'are there any ghosts in the castle?' To which he answered, 'no, of course not!' And then the people asked him, 'how long have you been working here?' To which he said, '900 years!'"

After touring the castle, we went to a really nice German restaurant called the "Gulden Sharfe," or the golden sheep (I might have spelled the German wrong), that had amazing lamb dishes. They have been around since the 1700s, and was originally established to serve food to people who worked in the castle. Today, it is delicious and reasonably priced, and I'd highly recommend it if you go to Heidelberg. The decorations are medieval styled, and they have an English menu too. Apparently a lot of German tourists to Heidelberg go there too, which is why they are not as overpriced as other tourist places (or so my friend theorizes).