Day 3
Trip Start
Mar 20, 2009
1
3
5
Trip End
Mar 28, 2009
Heidelberg, Germany
Sunday, March 22, 2009
After mass we left to go to the Schwetzingen castle and Castle garden, (That place is huge.) A whole 72 hectares (nearly 180 acres). This castle was first mentioned in a document all the way back from 1350. The castle has slowly been restored over the years starting from 1970. While there we saw a Turkish Mosque, we walked around the garden (we took pictures of course) and saw a bunch of birds. The castle garden was absolutely beautiful I can't even guess how many people come here during the summer imagine it's just packed.
After visiting the Schwetzingen castle we went to a town called Speyer. When we got there we noticed a crowd of people in the park. So after parking the car we walked over just in time to see a yearly festival the burning of a snowman figure to symbolize the end of winter and beginning of spring. After the burning of the snowman we walked around town and saw the cathedral very beautiful, after walking awhile we came across a protestant church. WOW that is definitely one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen.
We walked around town exploring for a while then started to head back to the hotel in Heidelberg. As we were driving back, we came across a really neat old town by the name of Otterstedt. While driving through we saw a really pretty, old looking church, by the name of St. Marie's so we decided to go in, this was also truly amazing. As we were walking out we met one of the deacons that was from a family that had been living in that town since the beginning. Frank showed us around the church and told us a lot of its history. The church we were in was built in 1891 and is considered the "new" church as the previous ones had to be rebuilt twice . The first time was because the Rhein River's path started to change and flowed right towards the church/town so they had to move the whole church and town by hand. the second time the rebuilt it was because the government bought the old church so they had to rebuild a new one. He also told us that this church had been built completely by the town, meaning the town donated everything ranging from the alter to the stain glass windows to the paintings on the walls. While we were in the church three elderly women that worked on the farms came in to say their prayers.
After visiting the town of Otterstedt we headed back to Heidelberg. When we got back to Heidelberg we went to dinner on a 100 year old ship ( it was really cool). Then for dessert we got ice cream.( this was also very good)
Until tomorrow,
Love James and Gary
Comments
Great Pics
James and Gary, the pictures and the story behind them are very interesting. Thank you for sharing your wonderful experience with me.