Thankful Thursday #5...

Recently...
conversations with friends have turned to discussions about health issues and it became apparent that my health is definitely something I take for granted.

So, for the final Thankful Thursday this last week of November, I declare my thankfulness for a healthy body in which to move about, 
exploring...
 without aches and pains.

That being said...
as Ren Man and I ascended the first 471 meters up the mountain in a comfy cable car, we could see others below walking up, up, up,
 to the castle.
So much for putting this healthy body to good use as often as I should.

The castle, contructed around 1300, was the first stop and yielded amazing views of the city below.


Mark Twains description of the castle in "A Tramp Abroad" paints a picture unlike I could even begin to capture with my camera.

"A ruin must be rightly situated, to be effective. This one could not have been better placed. It stands upon a commanding elevation, it is buried in green woods, there is no level ground about it, but, on the contrary, there are wooded terraces upon terraces, and one looks down through shining leaves into profound chasms and abysses where twilight reigns and the sun cannot intrude. Nature knows how to garnish a ruin to get the best effect. One of these old towers is split down the middle, and one half has tumbled aside. It tumbled in such a way as to establish itself in a picturesque attitude. Then all it lacked was a fitting drapery, and Nature has furnished that; she has robed the rugged mass in flowers and verdure, and made it a charm to the eye. The standing half exposes its arched and cavernous rooms to you, like open, toothless mouths; there, too, the vines and flowers have done their work of grace. The rear portion of the tower has not been neglected, either, but is clothed with a clinging garment of polished ivy which hides the wounds and stains of time. Even the top is not left bare, but is crowned with a flourishing group of trees & shrubs. Misfortune has done for this old tower what it has done for the human character sometimes – improved it."

"One could even say that the very heavens had intervened. On 23 June 1764, the day before Karl Theodor was to move into the castle and make it his seat (which, by the bye, would have been a great disaster, for if Karl Theodor had spent his thirty years there, these austere ruins which we today so admire would certainly have been decorated in the pompadour style); on this day, then, with the prince's furnishings already arrived and waiting in the Church of the Holy Spirit, fire from heaven hit the octagonal tower, set light to the roof, and destroyed this five hundred year old castle in very few hours."

—Victor Hugo, Heidelberg

What is there today is quite impressive and a huge tourist attraction for Heidelberg.

Ren Man was quite intrigued by the sundial...


and the many possibilities of The Grotto...


well, maybe not.

Our journey continued on the funicular railway which proved to be quite educational.
The two cars attached by a cable...
one ascending and one descending...
counterbalance each other...
and are quite a team as they travel up and down a total of almost
five thousand feet at a 43% grade.

We may not have given our bodies the healthiest route up the mountain but we definitely took the FUNicularest way.

Happy Thursday.




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