Heidelberg and its castle

Our very good freinds Thomas and Julia live near Heidelberg and everytime we go visit them we try to see something different.

This time we went and had Mexican food in a cute restaurant and then made our way up to the castle. Its supposedly quite a famous castle because it was saved from bombing in the second world war (Don't mention the war! I did it once but Ithink I got away with it!). It wasn't bombed because a famous author liked it alot and was goods freinds with Winston Churchill and put in a good word about it.

Anyway, enough of that, on with the pictures.

Street artists, they're everywhere, like flies :)


A view up the main shopping street up to the castle.

This is in the restaurant.


The famous castle


The walk up to the castle was MUCH steeper and longer than we anticipated, but totally worth the climb.






This gate amused me somewhat. It is locked and those stairs go down down down to .. nothing. But the sign says "Women only"






For a castle that wasn't bombed, its in pretty bad shape to be honest. When we were there they were doing some major repairs so maybe its looking a little better now.

Bremen

We (the family) went to Bremen to fetch my company car. While we were there we took some time to take a tour through the old city.

Its actually quite famous as this is the home of the famous Musicians of Bremen. If this sounds strange to you, take a look at some of these pictures and you will realise what I am talking about.




This barge had me fascinated, what a way of life!



Almost as impressive as the Hollywood walk of fame :)



These bells below here actually played an amazing melody for 15 minutes at the stroke of 6pm





Did I mention that I am totally amazed and fascinated by the sculptures and art just randomly strewn throughout Germany?

Stuttgart

This is just going to be a random collection of interesting and odd things from Stuttgart, most particularly Koenigstrasse (which is one LOOOONG shopping street - no cars).

Schlossplatz - This is the gardens in front of the castle.


This is a view of it from the top floor of the art gallery at the top of it.

Summer time, when you are young and desperate, the fountains are great for cooling off.


Tanning on the grass also seems to be a favourite pasttime.

You can see how old this post is by how small Levi is in the picture.

Even when its cold in winter, its still a centre for a lot of activity.

As always when you have a lot of people passing by with money to spend, you get street artists, buskers, and all manner of strange people.






This guy was part of a troop of "Native Americans" that played "Indian" music ...


This guy was quite impressive. With some spray paint, odd shaped lids, boxes and cardboard, he made some of the most amazing space scapes I have seen in about 15 minutes.





There are a couple of people that are regulars there, winter and summer.



It's also an ideal place to have shows.





Did I mention weird and strange people?



Stuttgart Koenigstrasse is also home to the famous Stuttgart Weinnachtfest (Christmas Market) and anyone coming this way in December has to make an effort to see it. Roasted chestnuts, gluwein, hot sausage in a bun, Christmas lights, shows for kids (of all ages) - what more could you ask for?