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Today we managed to ignore the rain and catch the train to Heidelberg to see the castle there.  We decided to pay for the guided tour, which turned out to be a VERY good investment.  We missed the first tour by minutes, and the second tour consisted of the tour guide, and the two of us…no one else!  The guide was very nice, her name was Kathrena, and it was her first tour in English.  She was excited about having such a little group, and we helped her find a few words in English (like fencing, chimney, scaffolding…).  The castle was built by a man that was part of a group of people who get together to elect the next king (I can’t remember what they were called), starting in the late 12^th century.  Each of his successors then built a new building until the 30 year war, which resulted in the burning of part of the castle.  There was more building after that, some restoration, and a few more destruction periods.  The last guy to live in the castle said “to heck with all of you” to the people of the town, and moved to Mannheim and built a new castle.  The Heidelberg Castle sat unoccupied, and the towns people used the bricks for building materials, until 1800 when a French nobleman came and took up residence in the castle, and began to restore and rebuild parts of the court.  Long story short, they continue to preserve the castle, but no longer attempt to restore or rebuild.  They maintain the changes that were made in the early 20^th century, but want to maintain the history of the destruction as well.

After the castle, we walked down more very steep cobblestone streets to the “kornmarkt” which is a really long road full of shops and restaurants.  It took us a long time to get down the road (very pretty), and we ate dinner when we got to the very end.  Today we looked for some German linens or doilies to bring home, but apparently a shopping center is not the place to find them (this was even “old town!”).  Just as we were headed back to the train, we did find a linen store that sold more than just things made in Indonesia.  We purchased what we think is a dish towel?  But will likely be used as a table center piece.  We will continue looking for something tomorrow.The only unusual activity of note today occurred while Nashon was taking money out of the ATM at the kornmarkt.  Jamie was sitting on a small brick wall waiting for him, when a young Indian man came up with his cell phone and took her picture.  No idea why (perhaps because she was blonde and there weren’t many around?), but he said something to her she didn’t understand, showed her the picture, then walked away.  Nashon thinks he wanted the picture because Jamie looked crazy, though Jamie disagrees (after all, if the young man thought she were crazy, he would have taken the picture from far away, not three feet!). The train ride each way was about 90 minutes, and we have both found that it is really hard to stay awake for long on a train after a full day of walking around everywhere!  Though the moment we get home we are both wide awake and ready to eat our pastry (our daily treat thanks to all the fresh bakeries).  However, we are mastering the train system in this part of the world, and hardly have to look at the time schedules ahead of time to get to where we’re going.  We’re pretty sure that even on Saturday when we head to Italy we’ll be able to manage without TOO much help.