Thingstatte

Today we traveled up the holy mountain in search of the open air amphitheater. After driving through narrow streets and tiny german neighborhoods, we finally found the parking lot to the Thingstatte.


You can reach this by walking up philosopher's way, but after our first attempt, where we hiked for hours without finding it, we decided to drive. The parking lot had this cool map of what you could find at the top of the hill. The path goes in a circle and there is a beer garden, the Thingstatte, and some monestary ruins.


I put Carosn in the wrap (boy, is he getting heavy) and Ben put Maddox on his shoulders, then we headed up the path. A little up hill walk led us to the front wall. We walked through the opening and found this:


We took some pictures and climbed to the top.






Maddox found a puppy on the way up.


View from the top of the other side (I should have counted the steps.)


Instead of retyping the history of this place I am going to be lazy and quote the Atlas Obsura website:
"As part of his mission to indoctrinate the entire German population during the Nazi regime, Joseph Goebbels started the "Thing" movement in 1933 to build huge outdoor settings where thousands of people could gather in specially constructed outdoor amphitheaters called Thingplatz or Thingstatte. At the Thingstatte, which often incorporated bodies of water, ruins, hills of historical importance, rocks, and trees, people would get together for propaganda presentations.

More than 1,000 Thingstatte were planned by Goebbels, but only about 45 of them were finished as the movement never gained popularity with the people of Germany. The first was built in 1934 and the last in 1936.

The Thingstatte in Heidelberg was started in 1934 and finished the following year. Situated on the Heiligenberg (Holy Mountain), the amphitheater covers 25 meters of sloping land and overlooks the city. The mountain is littered with ancient burial grounds and once hosted a Roman temple at the summit dedicated to the god Mercury.



Designed by the architect H. Alker, who worked for the Reich Labor Service, the Heidelberg Thingstatte features two hexagonal towers constructed to hold flags, lighting, and sound. On the opening day, 20,000 people turned out to hear Goebbels himself. After the Thingstatte fell out of favor, this site was turned into a public park and remains one to this day."




Once we got to the top, we kept walking up the hill to find the St. Micheal's Monestary ruins.






Here is the history cited from the Heidelberg Tourism website:
St. Michael’s Monastery, today surviving only in ruins, sits at the top of the Heiligenberg, and can be reached by the Philosophen Weg. (You can also drive up to near the top of the hill, and walk the rest of the way to the monastery.) The first church was constructed on this location in 870 by Abbot Thiotroch von Lorsch. In 1023, Abbot Reginbald, who later became Bishop of Speyer, built St. Michael’s Monastery, and it is these remains which are still visible today. After the death of Abbott Friedrich in 1070, the monastery became a place of pilgrimage. In 1503, the last three monks living in the monastery were killed in their beds when part of the steeple collapsed. After that, the monastery became abandoned and was forgotten.

Here is the headstone of Abbott Friedrich. Miracles are said to happen at his gravesite and people still place flowers and candles on his grave.

Past the Monestary ruins there is a stone wall that was once thought to be from the middle ages and a part of the monestary. Now it is believed that they are much older than the monestary itself. We didn't see this wall on this trip. Something to save for next time...

Bad Durkheim Wurstmarkt and Hardenberg Castle

Our outing today took us to the popular Winestrasse (wine road). We drove for 45 minutes, following the autobann until it ended and the speed limit dropped, all of a sudden, from 130k to 60k. We went from freeway to little country road surrounded by grapevines. We were headed to the 500 year old Sausage Market in Bad Durkheim. You'll find less of the sausage at this market and more world famous wine. This is the largest wine festival in the world and is held every year in September. There are 150 different wines from 50 different places.

We were expecting a bunch of wine tents, some music, and maybe an "uppety" feel, but what we got was more of a carnival! The first thing we saw was a giant ferris wheel, then we saw the rides and rollercoasters that were set up around the perimeter. This place was huge and there were hundreds of cars packed in to every tiny parking lot. We pulled in to a lot that was all full, so we had to keep driving down the road and ended up parking on the side by a vinyard. I'm glad we parked there because it was free and I really don't know how we would have maneuvered out of that lot. Those cars were parked unbelievably close together.

We took a few pictures and started walking toward the festival.





The atmosphere of this festival was like our local fair times 10! There were rides, food and wine vendors, little shops set up selling everything you can think of. There was even a booth selling nothing but dog toys (the germans love their pooches.) They also have concerts and fireworks, but we didn't stay for those. The first thing we had to do was get a picture of the giant wine barrel. This is supposedly the largest wine barrel in the world (although I do remember the same thing being said of the one in the Heidelberg Castle).


Maddox found a ride with cars and trucks, so of course he had to ride it.



Twice.



After we dragged him off the ride we set out to find some wine. To my surprise they give you this huge glass of wine, but only fill it half way. The other half is filled with sparkling water. It didn't taste very good, but we drank it anyway.

I was getting a little stressed out because there were so many people crammed into these little streets. Maddox wanted to get out of the stroller, but I wouldn't let him for fear of losing him. We turned a corner and found a park! Thank goodness! This provided some relief from the chaos. We spent a good deal of time there, drinking our wine and letting the boys play.






We took a stroll through the gardens and found the Rathous (town hall).



We kept walking down a little path and found a play park hidden in the trees. They really know how to blend in with the land here. They even used a hill to make a slide out of stone.






By the time Maddox was done playing, we were pretty hungry. We got a slice from a not-so-little pizza stand. I thought it was pretty darn good, but Ben wasn't a fan of the clumps of cheese.



Here is the ferris wheel that you can see from miles away, and underneath is a wine tent. We noticed they all had bottles of water next to their wine glasses, so maybe this is done at the festivals to help with hydration??


We decided it was time to go, turned in our 2euro glasses to get our deposit back (unfortunately 1 broke first), and headed to the car.


On to adventure #2.........

Ben knew there was a castle ruin nearby, so we drove for a little bit and found the Hardenberg Castle ruins.



We had to park in a lot at the bottom of a hill and figure out a way up. I remembered seeing steps up from a residential area while we were driving and Ben looked at a map and found a little road. I thought the steps would be closer and faster, so we decided to go that way. As we walked by the houses we looked through a gate and someone had donkies in their yard!


We found steps and started up the hill. It didn't take me long to decide this was a big mistake! It was quite steep and exhausting. Carson had gotten much heavier since the last time I wore him in this wrap. I had to grab on the Ben's belt to get a little help on the way up :)



We finally made it to the top and Maddox had to go pee-pee (one of the pitfalls of potty trainig). We followed the signs to the "toiletten", but it was closed. Ben took Maddox in the woods and he went pee-pee outside for the first time! Yay, Maddox! (no pictures of this)

We walked around a little bit, but we couldn't go inside because it was closed. Here are few pictures from the castle ruins.







On the way home we drove through Mannheim and saw a McDonad's fitness center combo. Very funny.

Castle Illumination and Fireworks

Three times a year Heidelberg hosts a Castle Illumination and fireworks show. We missed the first two because it takes place late at night and we didn't want to take the boys out. We almost didn't go tonight, but I am glad we dragged them out, even though Maddox was pretty unhappy about it. He was excited to get dressed and get in the car at 9pm, but by the time the fireworks started at 10:15 he was whining and asking to go home. I don't blame him since this is way past his bedtime, but we asked him to hang in there. We had planned on parking in the old town and walking across the Old Bridge to the other side of the river bank. We walked past cute little vendors selling candy and crepes along the way.



Unfortunately, when we got to the bridge it was closed off to all traffic, including pedestrians, because they were going to set the fireworks off from there. We'll have to remember that for next time. So we walked along the Neckar River and found a spot where we could see both the castle and the bridge. The polizei closed the roads off to traffic and it was packed with people waiting for the show to start. Maddox whined and wanted to go play in the river, but he eventually climbed in the back of the stroller, cuddled up in a blanket, and pouted.



Carson, on the other hand, was happy and enjoyed smiling at all the old ladies who were going ga-ga over him.





Apparently this event has been going on for quite a while as Mark Twain watched a similiar show and wrote about it in his 1878 book "A Tramp Abroad." This show is to commemorate 2 important events in Heidelberg history. The first was when the Prince Elector Fredrich V welcomed his new bride with a 2 hour dazzling display of firework in 1613. The second event is not so happy. The fireworks start with a type of reinactment of when Heidelberg and its castle were captured by Catholic forces, which ravaged Frederick’s wonderful garden (called the "Eighth Wonder of the World") and carted off the city’s legendary library, the Bibliotheca Palatina, to Rome as a gift for the pope.
The city was destroyed and the castle was burned in 1693.

A few minutes before the fireworks started the castle and bridge when dark. Then there was a loud "boom" from the bridge. The castle was lit up and fireworks shot from high above it.


When the fireworks stopped the castle was lit up with red flickering light, simulating a fire and it's burning down. The red light died down and the fireworks started from the Old Bridge. It was advertised as a huge, spectacular show and it was neat to see, but I must admit I was expecting more. Maybe there is more of an impact from from the other side of the river. The boys were good during the event. Carson was scared of the loud noises and wanted daddy to hold him.


Maddox watched with wide eyes, but didn't make a peep. I tried to get a picture of him, but I had the flash off for the fireworks, so they either came out too dark or too blurry.

On the long walk back to the car the bumpy cobblestone streets put Maddox to sleep, so Ben and I stopped and enjoyed some ice cream :) Sorry, Maddox. I attempted to share with Carson, but it was lemon flavored and he wasn't too thrilled.

Both of the boys fell asleep on the car ride home and were easily transfered to their beds. Maybe they will sleep in tomorrow....no such luck!

Here are a few photos of the fireworks.