Rhine River Cruise Pt. 3 (Heidelberg and Speyer)

By day 5 we had cruised to Mannheim where we boarded a bus to Heidelberg  which is a beautiful and historic town with many elegant homes.

The view  from the beautiful sandstone ruins of the imposing Heidelberg Castle provides a very scenic view of this very old city which has Germany's oldest University, founded in 1386.

The castle ruins are impressive with some parts still in use .

Within the castle grounds there are many examples of Gothic and Baroque buildings.

This map shows the layout of the town.

The Castle as seen from the city square in Heidelberg.

Just around the corner from the city square we stopped into a pub for a light lunch.

We ordered what we thought would be a small sampler of local meat and cheeses.  This is what a light lunch in Germany looks like.

Ross' face says it all "you've got to be joking" -  Is there an Army out there to help us eat this?

 Later that day we visited Speyer were the central feature of the town is a Romanesque Cathedral  built in the 11 century. This church has soaring interior features, graceful rows of sandstone columns and large stained  glass windows  installed in the western facade during a later Gothic period.

Speyer is a pretty town and very easy to walk around.

From here we cruised overnight to Kehl where we disembarked to begin a tour of Strasbourg which will be covered in Pt. 4.

Cheers Ross and Bev