Days 13 & 14 - Basel & Heidelberg

Tuesday morning dawned another beautiful day and we ( Edi, Bill Jann) decided that best way to spend our last few hours of visiting together for this trip as a visit to the Basel Zoo.  It is an amazing facility right in the middle of town with some building dating back to the early 1900s and some under construction today.  We spent about 3 hours wandering through the grounds and the various building, including reptiles and a stellar aquarium.

 

This made us think of our friends -- the Touacans!

 

This peacock & her chick were along the walkway - you can see Bill's foot at the top of the photo!  Know that Niece Christy will like this!

 

 

The aquarium was delightful!

After a light bite, that had to include a bier, we hugged our dear friend and then headed to Heidelberg. 

As we have done at every opportunity, we chose a hotel in the old town – and this one turned out about 50 feet from the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit.  These have definite advantages that we savored to the fullest – but they also come with some distinct challenges, including no ice machines and air conditioning, though this time of year, open windows are delightful.  Our hotel was also was on a street where spirits were available long into the night, so quiet was something that did not happen until about 3a!

 

We settled into the hotel  and then wandered the city for several hours before rain helped us choose a restaurant!  We had dinner with a quite interesting Brit who has now lived in Namibia for 40 years.

Wednesday morning dawned cold (the rain was the lead-in of another cold front) but clear.  Our goals for the day were the castle and the funicular that goes to the top of the mountain behind the castle.

 

The castle is mostly in ruins, but it was a good two hours walking through the remains.

 

This is the powder tower - held ammunition and gunpowder.  You can see in the foreground, the side of the tower that literally fell off during a bombing raid.

 

Here is the castle from the massive gardens around it.

 

View of the Old Town from the Castle

 

Up the old funicular to the Konigstuhl

 

View of the Necker River Valley from the Konigstuhl

 

The old funicular car, which is the upper half of the trip.

When we returned from the top of mountain, we had a delightful lunch of – yes, bier – and bratwurst & sauerkraut at a local place on the Market Platz. 

 

The Cathedral of the Holy Spirit was open by then and we were amazed at the simplicity of this church vs many we see.  What a delightful surprise – there was an organ concert of Bach & Mendelssohn scheduled for 5:15 that evening that we really enjoyed.

 

After the concert, we strolled the Old Town and stopped into a hotel for dinner of Mushroom Risotto and Wiener Schnitzel.   Tomorrow is an “easy day” to enjoy the city in the morning and then off to Frankfurt for the night.