Off to the World Cup - 2006!!

The castle in Heidelberg was a grand affair apparently, until a young prince went off and married a young English princess, and remodelled the fortifications into beautiful English gardens for his bride. The castle was captured the next time it was attacked, and was eventually razed by the troops of Louis XIV, campaigning in the Rhine River valley. By razed, we mean not just that they muddied the carpets, but that the stone towers were trashed, and the roofs caved in. The Princes attemted a rebuild in the late 1700's, but a lightning strike burned the new roof, and the grounds were abandoned. It wasn't until the early nineteenth century that the German Romantics fell in love with the place, and a French tourist inspired the local government to stabilize the ruins. Parts have since been restored, but it remains as a monument to the old Prince-Electors, and what they tried to build here.

Brad and Marilyn are both a little under the weather, so they're resting up in the hotel while I catch up on the posts. Off to Koblenz and the Rhine Valley tomorrow. We're actually looking forward to familiar beds back home....