Heidelberg

You have to love the military for making Josh go to work close to cool places. Josh has been traveling to Ramstein to help out with an Air Force Reintegration Program over the past few weeks. The kids and I decided to go with him on this trip. In a nut shell, the government has alloted a lot of money to help SP's returning from war zones. They spend a few extra days on their way home in a kind of "safe to diuscuss their experiences" place with the people they have been working closely with for the last 6 months. It is supposed to help them learn to deal with their experiences and kind of how to handle things once they get home. Josh really likes doing this, and I think he may want to do this when he gets out. One of the ideas is to take the group out to a public place to see how they deal/react to being back in a normal setting. I didn't understand this at all, but Josh explained that when they are deployed, the military members get used to people moving out of the way when they walk past or having tons of children mob you for candy. Taking the people out to a public place helps them adjust to being just another Joe-schmo. So, this group went to Heidelberg. We tagged along with Josh on this one and went up to see Schloss Heidelberg. The castle is considered a ruin and one of the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps. It has only been partially rebuilt since it was demolished in the 17th and 18th centuries. The castle is on the northern part of the Konigstuhl (a nice walk up a 45 degree incline) and has an awesome view of Old Heidelberg. (see above picture)
We happened to visit the castle during a European heat wave so we were climbing in about 92 degree heat. Remember, there is no AC in most of Germany. There was "schvitiszing" galore in our family! We toured most of the castle grounds and there are a ton of pictures following this blurb. After we left the castle, we climbed down 340 stairs and took a quick walk to the centrum. There is a beautiful church smack in the middle and we ducked inside to take a look around. I actually posted pictures of two different churches, so bear with me on that one. They are both really beautiful, but I didn't get the names. Josh is due to go back to Ramstein in a few weeks and we may go again. There is talk that they may go to Trier and I really want to see the Dom there. (A really old church)
Enjoy the pictures!