6 Juni - Castle Illumination

Today we went to watch the infamous castle illumination in Heidelberg in remembrance of when in 1689 and 1693, the troops of the Sun King of France blazed the castle and the town, and left behind them the ruin.

After wandering around town a bit, we hiked up to the 500 steps to the castle to wander the grounds.

Then we walked down to the old bridge and took more pictures.  Skylar takes pictures of nearly everything these days.  I have been trying to get him to start a blog even if it is just of his favorite pictures, but mostly he just likes to take them.

In the marketsqaure there were all kinds of arts and crafts being sold, music being played, and different foods to try.  The illumination of the castle began at nightfall when a red light bathed the castle in what looked like flames.  Followed by a spectacular show of fireworks.

After the show, there was more music and festivities with masses of people milling about.  Cars and bikes were trying to weave their way through the crowds of people in the streets.  We were also on our bikes and got yelled at by a police officer because Skylar's light was not working (might have broke from the accident last week).  He kept yelling at Skylar in German and Skylar kept trying to continue.  When I got up to them I asked him to repeat in English and he practically bit my head off and said we had to walk the bikes.  

Finally making it back to the train station after midnight, we missed the last direct train back to Heilbronn and had to take a roundabout way to Karlsruhe and then to Heibronn.  I have to give Skylar credit though, he may be high energy, but there are not many kids who could have withstood such a day, sat on the train for 2 hours, and then still biked home at 2am with not so much as complaint.