Frohe Ostern

Nothing screams Easter like schnitzel in Germany.  Except maybe Chinese food. On Easter Sunday.  In Germany.

We hit the road for the four-day Easter break and drove to Heidelberg, Germany.

Things got a little messy, and we wound up swimming at the hotel and going out for Chinese on Sunday.  But we got it right the day before the holiday with a dinner cruise down the Neckar River, and again the day after the holiday with a tromp through Heidelberg Castle and a fancy Easter brunch inside one of its 15-century towers.

And don't get me wrong, swimming and Chinese food was a mighty fine way to spend Easter together.  The Easter bunny still found us, and that's all that matters.

Heidelberg is nestled on the banks of the river Neckar, just north of the Black Forest.  It survived the bombing of WWII, and it's narrow and winding medieval streets and buildings are still very much in tact.  All except for the castle, but it is in ruins due to the Thirty Years War way back in the 17th century.

The Thirty Years War was fought all over Europe for a variety of reasons, although one might say it was primarily a territorial war waged in the name of religion, with Catholic rulers and Protestant rulers vying for power.

The battlefield was mainly in Germany, and the signed peace agreement at the end of those thirty years re-configured the map of Europe for good.

The castle and Old Bridge:

Schloss (castle ruins):

Germany has been home to many a philosopher over the years.   There's a Philosopher's Way hiking trail in Heidelberg, and below is Philosopher's Corner at the castle . . . deep thoughts, boys, deep thoughts.

Mark Twain loved Heidelberg when he visited in 1878, and was especially enchanted by the castle, which he wrote about in A Tramp Abroad (love that title):

"From the north cage one looks up the Neckar gorge; from the west one he
looks down it. This last affords the most extensive view, and it is one
of the loveliest that can be imagined, too. Out of a billowy upheaval
of vivid green foliage, a rifle-shot removed, rises the huge ruin
of Heidelberg Castle, with empty window arches,
ivy-mailed battlements, moldering towers--the Lear of inanimate
nature--deserted, discrowned, beaten by the storms, but royal still,
and beautiful. It is a fine sight to see the evening sunlight suddenly
strike the leafy declivity at the Castle's base and dash up it and
drench it as with a luminous spray, while the adjacent groves are in
deep shadow.

I have never enjoyed a view which had such a serene and satisfying charm
about it as this one gives."


A lot of other literary celebs also found their way to the castle, mesmerized by this fallen tower.  Since the 1600's it has remained exactly like this, as if halved into ruins.

Photo courtesy of Abigail.

 Medieval brunching:

One thinks Heidelberg by day--with its surroundings--is the last
possibility of the beautiful; but when he sees Heidelberg by night, a
fallen Milky Way, with that glittering railway constellation pinned to
the border, he requires time to consider upon the verdict.

Cheers, Mark Twain!  One needs a stein to toast to that!