Germany 2016: Christmas Markets, Cathedrals, Castle, Cousins, and Candy (Part Two)

Day 3: That Time I Went in a Castle/ Nikolaustag

It was Saint Nicolas Day, which meant that we put our shoes by the door before bedtime the night before and in the morning, they were filled with candy! Somehow that Saint Nicolas knew to give me gluten free egg free candy! Josh and Geneil must have left him a note or something. That was nice of them.

That morning Geneil took us on a walk in the fresh air (read: cold air) to Penny, a typical German grocery store. The town/village they live in is quaint and small, and it was a 5 minute walk to the store. While we were in the store I shamelessly bought a lot of German candy to bring home---chocolates, gummy candy, and those caramel butter waffle cookies that Greg loves.

Sidenote: In Germany they are very environmentally conscious. Most houses only use windows to circulate the air inside (no central heating or A/C), they sort their trash into 5 groups of recyclables/compost, everyone exclusively uses reusable shopping bags, etc.

In the afternoon we went to Heidelberg. It's a delightful city on the Neckar River in the wooded mountains/hills. The streets zigzagged their cobblestones up the side of the mountain, and we followed them to the funicular to ride up to the castle. A short ride up and Laurie and I paid to take a guided tour of the castle.

Old on left meets even older on right. Up close the details around and between the windows are statues of Catholic Saints.

See how the building dwarfs the giant Christmas tree that dwarfs that tall Euro van?

Blurry tourist and I ogling that Renaissance-era architecture

And I'm happy about it!

 The castle was first built in the 1200s and underwent many periods of expansion, destruction, and reconstruction. It changed hands between France and Germany many times, and the guide said that it was even used as a base of operations during WWII. Fortunately for tourists like me, they left the ruined parts standing! Our tour began in the ruined/medieval section.

Our tour guide, pointing at medieval latrines (not pictured) in the ruined part of the castle

From the spot near the latrines, we saw the dry moat that separated the walkway from the outer wall, looking down on the city below. I thought about the people that had walked on that walkway, maybe doing guard duty and other important castle-y things. From there we walked up a stone (castle!) staircase, through one of those short wicked old wooden doors, and into various Gothic style rooms with recreations of things like charter documents, money, books, official seals, etc. We even saw an original stone tablet with medieval Latin on it. Some kind of memorial to fallen castle inhabitants after a battle, if I remember right. I cursed myself in that moment for never learning Latin.

Gothic style ceiling, lighter and easier to build than earlier blocky Romanesque ceilings

Dining Hall, prepped for some fancy occasion

In all seriousness, they rent out the newer parts of the castle for weddings, parties, etc. We walked through this room while a musical group was testing the sound system. NBD.

Baroque decor, note fancy ceiling and statue on the right

Fancy wooden doorway. It's casual, there were tons of these.

In this series of rooms our guide pointed out a small (like maaaaaayybe 5 feet tall) ornate door leading to an 18th century toilet. Cuz 18th century German/French rulers prided themselves on hygiene, apparently. 

One of my favorite parts of the tour was going down a narrow set of spiral stairs in a little turret/tower of the castle. The turns were really tight and the stones were really old and there were these tiny windows occasionally and I could not get over the fact that I was in a castle. At the bottom of the staircase was the chapel.

Baroque chapel

Religious art was very important back in the day because most people couldn't read. Doctrinal principles were taught via art, like this painting of the baptism of Jesus.

I couldn't help myself and took a zoomed-in pic of this cherub's nude butt.

I failed to get a representation of the scale and size of this wine cask.

One of the things that Heidelberg Castle is famous for is this enormous wine cask. Back in the day, when the dude who lived here was an alcoholic, it was apparently always full and ready to keep people sauced.

Castle at night with M in front of it

After the wine cask, we went out to another part of the outside of the castle. At this point the tour was over. It was completely dark and the view from the castle was spectacular. All the lights of the city were bright against a black backdrop, cozily nestled in the trees. The lights reflected off of the dark, glassy surface of the Neckar River and for a few minutes, I was blissfully unaware of anything but the magic that I was witnessing.

We then rode the funicular back down the mountain and went to the market in the old downtown. This market was probably the biggest I'd seen yet. The downtown buildings were close together, with long walkways and in pockets of open space were groupings of vendors. I tried some ham with sauteed onions and pommes (fries). The fries were really good. Think steak fries with a crispy texture and lots of seasoning. Just like I like 'em. The ham and onions were decent. Apparently this is pretty standard German food.

These gingerbread cookies are also in every market. This says something like "I have for you so much love".

I could go for another plate of these fries.

Unicorns find me, I swear.

At this market I bought some Christmas ornaments to gift to friends back home and I went to an upscale gummy candy shop. I unabashedly bought about $20 worth of gummy candy here. 

One of my favorite things about this market was seeing a thirty-something guy dressed up as Saint Nicolas, handing out plushy toys to little kids. And they were nice toys, too. He was so jolly and kind and all the kids were so excited to see him. So much Christmas spirit in the air! 

I went to sleep that night feeling like a very lucky lady.

Day 4: Limburg is a Fairy Tale Town

The morning consisted of preparations for our trip to France!

In the afternoon we went through Wiesbaden to the Army base where Josh and Geneil had eye appointments. Laurie and I had late lunch with M and L during said appointments and chatted. I feel like Laurie gets me. She sees and appreciates the things that I like about myself. She's one of my favorite people.

Then we all went to Limburg, a small town that wasn't really bombed during WWII, from what I understand. This place is dreamy and picturesque. Lots of little rolling hills, with these slightly crooked buildings leaning on each other. Be still my heart!

These buildings are for real! Unbelievable. 

People live and work in these buildings!

Another street view

A short walk up the hill led us to see the cathedral and the outside of the residence of the Bishop of Bling. Hard to believe that this small cluster of modest buildings cost $43 million to renovate...

One of the buildings that comprises the official residence of the bishop of Limburg

The Cathedral of Limburg

Laurie wanted a peek inside the cathedral, so we poked our heads in the side door. As it happened, a service had just finished and we sneaked in for a hot minute. The priest was closing up for the night and was sincerely very nice to us while trying to get us to leave ASAP in pretty good English. Another pretty cathedral with very nice art, but I was too flustered by our shenanigans to take any pictures of the inside. 

We walked back through the market and the girls went on the carousel like 4 times. Josh's excellent command of German saved me from eating gluten-infused food at the market, but I snagged a swell consolation prize.

Of course I got more hot chocolate. I know quality when I taste it.