Deutschland, Part 7

Since I had some time to kill after leaving Stuttgart, and before I had to be in Frankfurt for the auto show, I decided to see Heidelberg, a beautiful town with an overlooking medieval castle on a hill. The pictures mostly speak for themselves.

To start off the tour, there were scale models of the castle in both its heyday:

And in its present state:

This is the giant wine barrel in which the ruler of the state would put the wine he collected as taxes from the farmers. The farmers would all bring their most rock-bottom wine (who's gonna waste the good stuff when they know its fate?), and it would sit in the barrel with everyone else's wine, plus a ton of air, and they would serve it at huge banquets. Of course the stuff was nearly undrinkable, so they discontinued the practice.

And here's the view of the city below the castle.

They told us on the tour that historians are able to identify who built the castle by their stonemason signatures.

There was even a museum of pharmacy inside the castle.

Well, that's all for Heidelberg. Be sure to check back soon for Frankfurt.