Liam and I got up early today to go up to the castle here in Heidelberg. It is cold and raining which didn’t make for a nice walk. We took the trolley into the marketplace and then had a 20 minute walk from there to the bottom of the hill. It took us just under 10 minutes to climb up the 315 steps to the top of the hill only to find that we could have driven up there! The 315 steps were totally worth the walk as the view from up there was incredible. The castle was truly amazing, when you think of how old it is and who and what kind of people of walked on those stones well before us. I wonder, back when the castle was in full use hundreds of years ago did they think that one day that Liam and I would be walking on those same stones?...No. (Ed)
Taken from Wikipedia - The earliest castle structure was built before AD 1214 and later expanded into 2 castles circa 1294; however, in 1537, a lightning-bolt destroyed the upper castle. The present structures had been expanded by 1650, before damage by later wars and fires. In 1764, another lightning-bolt destroyed some rebuilt sections.
We were only up there for a short time ... see above re: lightning bolts - (Ed) as we had to be out of the hotel by noon so we could only spend a little bit of time up there; mind you a lot of the castle was closed off so you can’t really explore a lot of it.
The most amazing part of the castle was the wine room. The wine keg there holds 228,000 liters and is 9 meters in diameter and is made out of oak, it was built from 1750-1751. I know a few people that this keg would do for a night. ...hehehe...(Ed)
The walk back down the stairs was a lot easier for some of us and not for others. Apparently someone in flip flops and a long sleeve t-shirt a lot younger than I am can’t go down the stairs as quick as others (not naming any names here). We walked back through the village and stopped at a couple of shops - not necessarily to look but to get warmed up. We ended up back at the hotel before checkout so we sat in the room to get warmed up a bit.
Around noon we headed off to meet up with the VW people at the hotel in Frankfurt which turned into an adventure. They do not number any of their “ausfahrts” ("exits", how do you like that one Janie) ...Janie is Gord's niece. (Ed) so when Mapquest tells you to get off on street names for ausfahrts they may as well make them in German- oh, they are, sorry. We got so turned around that I had to do my first middle of the highway u-turn with the help of the handbrake. ...niiiice. (Ed) We had good directions from the airport so we drove there and it said it was 12kms but I am sure we did 50.
After a lot of stopping and map deciphering we actually stumbled upon the hotel which was a bonus. There was nowhere to park out front so we found a parkade behind the hotel. We walked out of the parkade and walked out onto the scummiest street I have ever seen. It sure was obvious that we were not in the high-end part of town. We got a lesson on how to shoot heroin and smoke crack on a sidewalk, something both of us could have done without. Apparently the area where our hotel is is one of the most dangerous areas in Germany - we were told - nice lucky us. We are across the street from the train station and I guess it attracts the wrong kind of people. Our hotel is very nice and modern you just don’t want to walk around at night time - so we didn’t.
We met up with the others this afternoon and headed into town where the shopping district is. There are a few girls from VW in the group that wanted to spend some money. Liam and I went and had some lunch while they all shopped. The shopping area is a closed off road with all sorts of stores and hundreds and hundreds of people, doesn’t anyone work here?
There is every mix of culture here in Frankfurt that we didn’t see in Berlin. Actually the contrast between Berlin and Frankfurt is huge. Like I said - in Berlin I felt totally safe at all times and here I don’t feel safe at all.
We went out to a Mongolia restaurant for dinner which was very nice and then after dinner we headed off to the indoor karting track for everyone to have some fun after a day of walking. I chose not to drive as it would have done no good to my ego and we all know it is all about me. Having just a couple of pounds more on Liam, he would kick my butt and I would never hear the end of it - so I took the high road and said that I couldn’t drive in the shoes I was wearing.
We head down to the track in Hockenheim in the morning to meet up with the team in the afternoon. Liam has a driver’s meeting tomorrow night at 6:00pm. Finally we get to do what we came over here for!
We are back in the hotel room locked inside safe and sound and off to sleep so that is all for now, good night.