Day 8 - Sunny Heidelberg

This morning we were moving down river toward Speyer when we got up.

We arrived late in Speyer so everyone was waiting with bated breath to get off the boat…

Lining up to get off the boat.

This arch at Heidelberg castle was a birthday present for Elizabeth, the Elector Prince’s wife. It was assembled and put up overnight as a surprise for Elizabeth.

Looking down over Heidelberg from the castle garden

Heidleberg cadtle was destroyed by the French during the 30 years war.

The clock tower is the only tower still standing. There used to be a silver shield between the two soldiers but the French army confiscated it and used the silver to mint French coins with the imprint of Heidelberg on them.

Walking into the castle courtyard

The statues between the windows portray all of the elector princes ruling the area back to Charlemagne

Heidelberg and the Neckar river from the castle

Heidelberg castle has the largest wine barrel in the world. It even has a dance floor on top of it large enough from 20 couples to dance.

Then we headed down into the town to wander around.

We headed down Hauptstrasse and stopped in at the church

The bridge tower

Then it was back to the boat on the bus. We passed many brilliant yellow fields of rapeseed.

Then it was back to the boat so we could take off downstream to Rudesheim.

Heading north on the Rhine we are beginning to see the hills move closer to the river and are finding little towns nestled against the hills and the river. We are also beginning to see vineyards along the river.

Along the river in Wiesbaden

We are now docked at Rudesheim where we will explore tomorrow before heading north through the Rhine gorge and up to Koblenz. Tomorrow will be a day of castles, castles and more castles.