Philosopher's Walk - Phew!

Originally I had planned on taking us out to Rothenburg ob de Tauber, but Ben was called in to work around 3am to handle some business with his platoon. He didn't get home until 7 and slept until noon, so I had to make a change in the itineray. I refused to let another weekend go by without any sightseeing so we made our way to a local point of interest called Philosopher's Walk (Philosophenweg). Its name comes from the practice of Heidelberg's philosophers (students) and university professors of walking and talking here. I read in the Heidelberg Tourist booklet that there is a garden, observation tower, an old celtic well from around 200 B.C. (read about this online, but haven't found it),ruins of two monestaries, an amphitheater, and this just in...a bier garden!

After hiking for almost 3 hours we only made it to the first monestary, so we called it a day and headed back down. If we had only known about the bier garden waiting for us at the top we would have trucked on through. I guess we will have to take another trip.

There are two ways to get to Philosopher's Walk and the Philosopher's Garden: cross the Old Bridge and follow the winding "snakes alley" up the side of the hill, or drive. We drove, of course, since we were carting two little bambinos, plus it's a couple hundred steps...no thanks. The roads were very narrow and we couldn't figure out where to park. We saw some people parked on the sidewalk, and, even though there was a tow sign close by, we decided to do the same.
People walked in front of us and weren't in any rush to move out of the way.

Cool garage in the side of the mountain (had to take a pic).

A short walk landed us in the garden. Everything was in bloom, the flowers, the trees. It was absolutely beautiful.

There were benches all along the path for people to sit and take in the view.
Here is the view across the Nekar River towards the castle ruins.

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Maddox enjoyed walking along the garden for a little bit, but soon wanted carried. His hiking legs didn't make it very far.


Carson hagning out in the umbrella stroller like a big boy.

The steps from snakes alley leading down to the street.

The "Post Card" view with 3 of Heidelberg's major sights: the castle ruins, the Old Bridge, and the Church. It's impossible to take a bad picture at this sight.

What started out as a leisurely stroll through the garden turned into one hell of a hike up the Heiligenberg Holy Mountain! There are several different paths to take while you are climbing. We knew there were some ruins and an amphitheater up here and started the search. When the path came to a Y there were stone markers with german words and arrows pointing in different directions. We had no idea what they said, so we guessed a direction. For the most part, it wasn't too steep. There were mountain bikers, runners, and friendly locals going in the same direction. One old local man stopped to chat and when I told him we didn't speak german he tried speaking some english. We couldn't really understand what he was saying but he kept pointing to the boys. I picked out a few familiar words "light", "man", "woman", "good". We just smiled, said "ya", and eventually went on our way. We walked and walked, wondering where everything was. We couldn't even see views of the city anymore. At one point we stopped going uphill and came to a tower. Finally! Turns out we took the long (very long) way around.
Here we are taking a break at the tower. There is so much graffiti all over everything here. That's one thing that suprised and disappointed me.


Ben climbed to the top with Maddox to take a look at the view.

After a short breather we decided to continue upward. We knew we were on the right track to get to the ruins now. The path got quite a bit steeper and, not having had any REAL excercise since Carson was born, I was struggling to say the least. We came to a small observation sight with a bench, so we sat. When we started this excursion I knew we would be doing some hiking, but I had no idea we were going to the top of a stinkin' mountain! If I would have known that I would have packed better. We were bogged down with bottles, formula, diapers, wipes, juice boxes, snacks for Maddox. There was so much stuff in the diaper bag that I didn't bother to pack any water for us. Boy I could have used it. I only packed 2 juice boxes and didn't want to leave Maddox high dry. We opened it up, but limited ourselves to a few sips (this is where knowing about the beer would have come in handy.) While looking out we realized you could see our housing in the distance, so we took a picture.

And we continued on the way up. We have come this far, we had to see the ruins. My legs felt like jello, I was carrying Carson in my wrap, and Ben was pushing Maddox in the umbrella stroller. I was starting to lag behind, so I grabbed ahold of Ben's back pocket to help with the momentum (ok, so I needed a little help with the upward climb. I'm just glad his pocket didn't rip off.)

We finally made it up to the first ruin, St. Stephen's monestary! Woo - hoo!! That took long enough. Honestly, I was huffing and puffing, didn't think I was going make it. I even got snippy with Ben and threatened to go back down (not cool, I should apologize).

Are you ready for the icing on the cake? As we climb relentlessly towards the ruins, vision blurring from exhaustion and dehydration, what do we see...... A PARKING LOT!! We could have driving up this thing? Seriously?

Oh well, it was a good workout. Here is the tower, which Ben climbed.


Stairs? No way, not after that hike! The boys and I waited at the bottom.

The views were fantastic.

We had been hiking for hours and the kids were going to have to eat soon, so we decided to head back down, which was much easier, and much faster since we followed the correct path. We will drive up another day to see the other sights (and visit the bier garden!)

Was the car towed? Nope! Our lucky day. But, how to get down this narrow road to the bottom? The road was way too narrow to turn around, so when there was a break in the mobs of people walking up and down the hill, Ben expertly drove in reverse all the way down. He said his ATED (anti terrorism evasive driving) skills came in handy. Whatever it was, excellent work, hun.

Potty Training - Yeah Right, Mommy!

Maddox is now 2 years and 4 months old. I bought a potty and pull ups when he was 18 months and wanted to start potty training then. Everyone told me he was too young, not ready, and I needed to wait until he was older. Well, my question is, how much older?

A few days ago he was in the tub for only a few minutes before he stood up and started to pee. So Ben and I whipped him out of the tub and tried to sit him on the potty. He started screaming for a diaper and would not continue to pee until his diaper on.

This is when we decided that it was time to start. He obviously knew he needed to pee and had the ability to hold it when he wanted to, plus he was starting to show a dependency on diapers.

So the next day, Maddox and I went out to the PX by ourselves to get some potty training essentials. We bought something called a potty caddy that is a little box with special toilet paper, toddler magazines, a book, and a sticker chart specially made to entice the tiny tot to go on the potty. In addition to this I bought M&M's to reward him when he goes and he picked out a dinasour book that came with little dino toys as a "prize" for when he consistantly goes. The idea was to keep this visible, but only give it to him once he had mastered going on the potty for a whole week. Yeah right!

As soon as we got home he started throwing a fit because he wanted the M&M's AND the dinosaur book. He could have cared less about the toddler magazines or potty book, but was interested in the stickers. I held firm on the candy, but broke down and let him play with the dinosaur book ONLY when he was sitting on the potty. He must have sat on that thing an hour the first time! And we had success! Twice! But he also peed all over the house the rest of the day. Here is break down of our potty training experience:

Day 1: First time in the potty! Woo-hoo! I hope those dinosaurs stay interesting. 30 minutes later, he peed in his room. Ate lunch and sat him on the potty again - no go, even though he sat there for a half hour. Another accident in the living room. Ate dinner - sat on the potty infront of the tv pretending to be playing to Wii for 45 minutes - Success! We put up the sticker, gave him the M&M's and thought, this might work....and another accident. Time to get ready for bed and put a diaper on.

Day 2: Sat on the potty first thing, but pinched his little booty in the seat. No more potty sitting for that boy! No way, Mom. Cried for a diaper all day, finally gave in and put one on. I don't think it's happening today, let's go to the park.

Day 3: Bribed him to sit on the potty by giving him an M&M for just sitting on it. Had to put it in front of the TV and give him the dinosaurs to play with. He sat on it several times, but with no success. Tried letting him wear his "big boy, Mickey Mouse undies" he picked out instead of the padded training underwear. Told him not to get Mickey wet and tell me when he needed to pee. Didn't work. I might need to buy more paper towels and put a heavy duty shower curtain over the couch.

Day 4: Let him pick out which underwear he wanted to wear. Set a timer for every 30 minutes and pumped him full of juice. When the timer ran we sang "It's potty time" song. He would jump around singing, but had no desire to use the potty. Later on, he sat on it for a long and talked to Grandma (Maw) on Skype in Japan. Did he go potty? Nope. Let him off the potty. 20 minutes later I ask "Do you need to go potty?" "NO PEE PEE!" is the answer I recieve. Not 5 minutes later, you guessed it! Time to clean up again....and again...and again.

Day 5: I'm done. We'll try again later. OH - and he's been holding his #2 this whole time...great....

Four Day Weekend

This was a 4 day weekend for Ben, he had Friday and Monday off. We had planned on taking a USO tour of the town of Ladenberg, but the boys were not feeling well the day before. Maddox had the stomach flu and Carson caught a cold. We canceled the trip, there will be another one next month and it's close by, so we could even drive down ourselves if we want.

The weekend wasn't a waste though. Friday we took care of odds and ends, I finished my online teacher application for DoDDS and made a trip to some schools to drop off a resume. Saturday we took Maddox bowling for the very first time. He absolutely loved it! He was cranky when we walked from the car to the building because it was sunny and hurting his eyes, but as soon as we walked in and he found out he got to wear new shoes he was in a much better mood.

They didn't have bumpers, but they gave him this ramp that they put the ball on and then pushed it down. He would push it down, move to the side to watch it go down the lane, then jump up and down when it hit the pins (I think he just liked the sound his shoes made.)






It didn't take him long to learn that he wasn't supposed to chase the ball down the lane or run up behind daddy while he was in the middle of a roll, he rarely ended up with a gutter ball and bowled a higher score than me on both games.


After the first game we got some beer and pizza.




Sunday we ran more errands and lounged around the house:


Maddox is obsessed with airplanes and anything else that flies:



Monday we took a trip to the Altstadt - Old Town - which is just below the castle.


There is a statue of the Modonna in the Kornmarkt (Corn Market) built in 1718 by the Jesuits, to try to motivate the people of Heidelberg to switch to Catholicism.


This is Marktplazt (Market Square). The Church of the Holy Ghost is in the background and the Herculese Fountain is crowded by tourists (including one looney old man talking loudly and looking lost). The fountain was built between 1706 and 1709 to commemorate how hard it was to rebuild after the destruction of the Thirty Years War.

Since the Middle Ages, this square has been used for public proceedings. But these were not just limited to markets. Witches and heretics were burned at the stake here, and citizens charged with petty crimes served their time hanging in a cage, for all to see and torment.


One of the few buildings to survive the many wars of Germany's past is the Church of the Holy Ghost. And even though the foundation was laid in 1398, it took until 1544 to finish the tower.



The church has been home to Catholics and Protestants throughout the centuries. In 1706 a divider separating the two denominations was put in when both wanted to have services there, and it remained until the 1930’s. The church also has the tombs of the prince and princess elector.





We decided to pay 3 euro to climb to the top of the tower, 204 steps up. That didn't sound like much of a feet at first, but carrying a baby, toddler, and very heavy diaper bag up winding stone staircases turned out to be quite a challege.
This is the little door we had to go through. The ceiling was quite low at times.


There was a landing halfway up that had many sculptures of gargoyles and a beautiful view of the inside.




The view from the top, finally!!


I was way out of breath, dizzy, but releived that the feelings of claustraphobia had finally subsided.


Long way down...

Zum Ritter St. Georg (Ritter Hotel)was built in 1592, and is one of the very few buildings in Heidelberg to have survived the War of the Palatinate Succession


Going down was much easier, even though I was worried about missing a step and falling all the way down while holding Carson. I don't think I'll be climbing any more towers any time soon....

Next we went to the Alte Bruke (Old Bridge - The Carl Theodore Bridge)


Prince Elector Carl Theodor built the bridge in 1786. The twin towers on the city side of the river were once part of the city wall, and contain dungeons used for housing criminals. In the center of these, hanging above the portcullis, is a plaque giving acknowledgment to Austrian troops who helped defend the bridge against a French attack in 1799.


One of the most notable items on the bridge is the statue of a monkey holding a mirror. The legend surrounding this curious statue tells us that it symbolizes the fact that neither the city-dwellers nor the people who lived outside the city were better than the other, and that they should look over their shoulder as they cross the bridge to remember this.



This pilar holds the high water marks from flooding.


On the bridge is a statue of the goddess of wisdom, Pallas Athena:


And also a statue of Carl Theodore, himself:


We stopped at this restaurant to eat. It wasn't busy and they had a menu in English.


Maddox was a pain at first, but once his french fries were served he was a little angel. He is now too sophisticated to eat his french fries with his fingers, he must use a fork. Wait...two forks.

The Cathedral of St. Peter in Worms

We traveled out to Beurdstat today to pick up some bikes we bought off of the Mannheim bookoo website. This turned into a bit of an ordeal because the bikes were old, therefore they were shaped differently and didn't want ot fit on the bike rack. Ben improvised and made them fit.



The girl who we bought them off of was young, a college student, and friendly. She came out to chat while Ben was loading the bikes and told us that Worms was just a few minutes down the road. Since we were so close we decided to stop and see the Cathedral of Saint Peter.


When you drive across the bridge you can see the cathedral's towers on the skyline. As we keep driving, we go around a curve, and there it is, in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of the city.



I am glad we decided to visit on Saturday because on Sundays it is closed to tourists for services. There was a wedding today and they were having a photo session on the east end. What a beautiful place to have a wedding, and with so much history to it makes it that much more amazing.




This is supposed to be one of the most important cathedrals in Germany and it holds the ancesters of the Salain royal family which can still be seen in the crypt. Strange to think that you can go visit close to 1,000 year old bodies on a daily basis if you want to. In 1184 it was made one of the three imperial cathedrals in Germany by emperor Fredrich I Barbarossa. The buidling is called many things: Dom, Wormser Dom, Kaiserdom, and Dom St. Peter. I go by the latter because the plaque at the entrance of the cathedral used that name.


The entrance is on the south side of the buidling and was changed from Romanesque style to Gothic style in 1300. The following is something I read but am unsure of how factual it is. The southern entrance is called the southern portal. There are women statues decorating it. These statues are carved in the back with demons that someone just passing by can't see. This is a sign of the low place women held in medieval Europe and in the church. I didn't know about this until we got home, so I didn't look very closely. There are also lions and sculptures of frightening faces to ward off the devil and evil spirits.





Inside, on the north side are five late gothic tympana. They picture the tree of Jesus and four scenes from the life of Jesus. Here is one of the birth of Christ.




There is a model of the cathedral outside and it gives you a good overview of the structure of the buidling. It was built to resemble a cross. There are four towers, two on the west and two on the east, and then small structures that jut out from the north and south, exaclty opposite each other.


The original structure was built as an early christian cathedral around 625 A.D. but it was much smaller and none of it remains now. It was all rebuilt around 1000A.D., but two years after it was dedicated a big portion of it collapsed and had to be rebuilt. The base of the east choir and the base of the two east towers are still from that era.



The east choir area is the oldest, but the part Maddox an I are standing in front of is the high alter. It was redone in a Baroque style in the 18th century by Balthasar Neumann after the city was damaged in wars with the french. In all the glitz and glamour of gold accents there is St. Peter and Paul with two angels pointing at the Madonna and Child who are supposed to look like they are coming right out towards you.
It is a breathtaking sight, very extravagent.



Here are Ben, Maddox, and Carson in an older section of the east side of the cathedral. I'm not sure what year this section is from, I think 1132, but it leads to the crypt where you can see centuries old bodies.



Enscribings as you enter the crypt.



The stained glass windows are the most recent additions to the Cathedral. They were blown out from bombings in WWII. I read somewhere in my research that there are almost 2,000 window panes and they are almost all used to tell stories. The windows of the Mary Chapel tell the life story of Mary.
The history of Worms is also depicted in the windows, from the earliest mentioned Bishop Victor at 345A.D. up to the destruction of the city at the end of World War II in 1945.


Here is Maddox in the West choir section. This is still very much Romanesque as you can tell by the Rose Windows.





I don't know what this was, I'm thinking a dedication of some kind, but the date said 1025A.D. so I took a picture.




From the west end looking down to the east end.


This is a baroque style pulpit in the middle of the nave right across from the organ.



The organ high above the congregation. The oldest recorded organ was installed here in 1259A.D.


A tomb with a giant crest over it.



This is a sculpture in the building from 200 A.D - almost 2,000 years old.


The plaque says "Small alter displaying Neptune, Roman god of the sea, from the ancient temple district in today's cathedral area (200 A.D.)

We weren't allowed to go in the room, but I snuck a picture of the St. Nicholas Chapel, Niklauskapelle. The original was small and Roman, but it was rebuilt between 1280 and 1315 in the Gothic style. It is used for baptisms and holds relics of St Nicholas, who died in 351A.D., which empress Theophano of Byzantium donated to the Cathedral in 972 when she got married to emperor Otto II.




Here are some more pictures from the outside on the west side.




There is a garden on the gronds, called the Heylsof Garden. Maddox tripped and fell on the way in and an old German lady stopped to talk to us. We tried to tell her we couldn't speak German, but she kept going on and on. She was saying something about Maddox and Ben, so we just smiled and nodded.



In this garden is where Martin Luther appeared before emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms (April 1521), in the bishop's palace, and had to answer for his new teachings. He refused to recall his writings, and this led to the Reformation. There is a plaque to mark this spot, but the palace was burned down by the french in 1689. There is an Art House here too, but we didn't go in.





An old wall that runs along part of the garden.


A statue, I tried to find information on this but couldn't.


And in this garden we see the promising signs that spring is here!!