Zee Castle on Zee Hill

While doing my own traveling in Europe this summer, I was both impressed and amazed at the history – especially castles built centuries before the United States was even established as a country. Now, Mr. World Traveler is experiencing some of that.

Today after school, several of the "foreign" students (that does include him, ha) got to tour the famous Heidelberg Castle. I think it's the most-visited landmark in Germany.

In this file photo you can see what it looks like on a nice sunny day. It snowed in Germany today. Carter said it didn't stick where he was but there were reports of major accumulations further north. So he had a cloudy gloomy day for his visit. Still, props to him for taking some pictures with his phone so he could share them with us.

Its history is impressive. The earliest castle structure was built before 1214 and later expanded into two castles in 1294; however, in 1537, a lightning bolt destroyed the upper castle. The present structures had been expanded by 1650, before damage by later wars and fires. In 1764, another lightning bolt caused a fire which destroyed some rebuilt sections. Some how, a lot of it is still intact.

According to internet sources, which may or may not be correct, the oldest description of Heidelberg from 1465 mentions that the city is "frequented by strangers", but it did not really become a tourist attraction until the beginning of the 19th century. Count Graimberg made the castle a pervasive subject for pictures which became forerunners of the postcard. At the same time, the castle was also found on souvenir cups. Tourism received a big boost when Heidelberg was connected to the railway network in 1840.

 Loves those windows and sculptures!

In the 20th century, Americans spread Heidelberg's reputation outside Europe. Thus, Japanese also often visit the Heidelberg Castle during their trips to Europe. Heidelberg has, at the beginning of the 21st century, more than three million visitors a year and about 1,000,000 overnight stays. Most of the foreign visitors come either from the USA or Japan. The most important attraction, according to surveys by the Geographical Institute of the University of Heidelberg, is the castle with its observation terraces.

And what a view! Glad Carter took this so we could see just how big Heidelberg is. The population is about 160,000 (bigger than Green Bay but smaller than Madison) with a quarter of those being students. Carter also learned before going there that 10% of the population is American. So really, I should feel ease.

Haha. Are you laughing, too? I know. As long as I get a picture now and then or a text, I'll keep breathing.

In the meantime, I'll share what I can so we can all pretend we're studying abroad!