Marion's Miscellaneous Musings

As I said in a previous post, Schloss Sanssouci and Schloss Schwerin were not built for defense. When you say the word castle to someone like me (from the US, reads about them in fantasy books), pictures of stone towers come into mind. Ugly, ones, too...probably English. So when Michael said that Heidelberg had a real castle, I voted to go there.

I wasn't disappointed!

This castle had been built for defense, and it showed. Both in location (top of the hill) and condition (well, to put in bluntly, broken,). It had been repeatedly stormed, including lightening (pun discovered and left in on purpose). In 1764, lightening struck the castle. The event was seen as a sign from God, and the prince (one of the many Karls) decided to stop work on the building.

Parts of it have since been restored. There is a pharmaceutical museum there, and it was even translated into English! But none of the pictures turned out because I couldn't use a flash. Except for this really really big beer keg. (Because a flash was used. But not by me. )

The sundial probably would have worked if the sun was out. But it wasn't.

The gargoyle is kind of cute.

Anyway, enjoy the view. I did. It was raining that day, but I bought a book (of course) where they photoshopped clear blue skies in!

Update: For those of you not on Facebook, the younger daughter sided with the French Kid! Probably out of pure sympathy. But, on the good news front, the French Onion Soup was approved of by the Fench Kid. (And no one else, but who else's opinion counts?) Now I make something Dutch!