Ken Klingler Family: Heidelberg

This was the city Ken was most looking forward to on our trip. He lived here over twenty years ago and had some very fond memories of this beautiful city.

Ken on the Fussgangerzone (Pedestrian shopping center) in Heidelberg with the beautiful castle in the background.

The old bridge in Heidleberg

If you look close you can see out hotel in Heidelberg. It was a big building, but next to the main church in Heidelberg it looks microscopic. The hotel has been in operation for 450 years.

The lighting wasn't very good, but you can see the castle, the huge church and the old bridge in this pic from our morning walk/Hike. I don't think you can see our hotel from this angle.

This Amphitheater on the hill across the river from the Castle was built by the 3rd Reich (The Nazi's) so they could hold propaganda rallies. Hitler never made it to Heidelberg and the Amphitheater has only been used a few times for cultural events. It is built to hold 8,000 sitting and an additional 6,000 standing.

This cool tower was build about 80 years ago using the stones from a 7,000 year old monastery. The tower was cool, but it is a totally bummer that they tore down a 7,000 year old monastery to build it. We wanted to post pictures of the ruin's of the monastery (The main reason for our 4 hour hike) but the only day of the week they are closed is Monday. :-(

The monastery was pillaged for stones for several hundred years. What remains of it looks a lot like Machu Picchu. If you want to see what Heiligenburg or the Monastery looks like (Not out pictures of it of course) go here.

Another tower made from the bricks of the ruins of the monastery.

A better picture of our hotel. The huge catholic church is on the left.

Heather eating a Doner Kabab. (Best lunch ever)

This is the front of the Heidelberg castle. The only part of the castle that has been fully restored. This castle is so beautiful. It would have been awesome to see in person back in its day.

This is the back of the same section of the castle. Notice all the detail and sculptures. The castle was built in the height of the romantic period and was ultimately answerable to Rome, so Zeus and his cohorts are all present even though everything really revolves around the Catholic church.

Ken in front of the worlds largest wine barrel. The local farmers in the area are mostly wine makers so they would pay their taxes in wine. This is where the local nobility would store the wine.

The back courtyard of the castle. Notice the blue sky through the section on the right. It was eventually decided that the renovation of the castle was too expensive and it was not going to provide any additional revenue to the city to redo the whole thing so this is the state that the castle will be in forever. The maintenance to keep it in this state is actually pretty expensive.