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Small Map of Heidelberg
Parts of the City of Heidelberg
Coat of Arms of Heidelberg
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The picture shows our house in walking distance to
Castle and
Old Bridge
located on the steep slope of the
Gaisberg
with its famous
tower
on top (see also the linked information).
The city of Heidelberg hosts the oldest German
University
now rated as "Excellenzuniversitaet" and founded in
1386.
Heidelberg hosts the largest number of PhD's in relation to the
number of people living there in Germany.
The two hills on the right side of the picture are the
"Koenigstuhl"
(with the castle and the historic mountain
railway)
and the
Gaisberg.
The hill on the left river side is the
"Heiligenberg"
with it's famous
"Philosophenweg"
and with the
"Thingstaette"
and the remains of the Carolingian Michaelisbasilika (erected in 870) on top.
The old city on the right side of the river is cut by a few parallel streets.
Except for flooding, the fastest route for passing Heidelberg by car is
close to the right river shore. The street passing through the center of
the old city, Hauptstrasse (Main Street), is reserved for pedestrians
(and law neglecting bikers). The next to the right is Ploeck, which is the
domain of bike riding students.
The last on the right (along the forrest on the steep mountain
range) is Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage, running through two tunnels,
with the longer one piercing the Koenigstuhl underneath the castle,
the shorter piercing the Gaisberg.
The former EMEA office of SAS Institute is the large building at
almost the same height on the other side of the river Neckar.
The SAS Germany
"Haarlass"
office are the red roofed buildings close
to the river slightly below the monastery
Neuburg
in the upper left corner.
There, in 1810 C.M. v. Weber did some work on the opera "Freischuetz".
The "Wolfsschlucht" is located a few miles further up the Neckar valley at
Zwingenberg,
see also the
sketch
by Erwin Bindewald). This is almost halfway upward the beautiful Neckar
valley from Heidelberg to Heilbronn, bordered by about twenty old castles.
Only a few miles downward from Heidelberg the Neckar is entering
the river Rhine at Mannheim.
The river shore on the left lower corner shows lots of sunbathing
topless women. (Sorry, guys, if you miss some pixels.)
In our close neighborhood we have two famous streets, the "Weinstrasse"
and the "Burgenstrasse". The
"Weinstrasse"
goes along the river Rhine
touching many great Wineries. Parts of the
"Burgenstrasse"
run through the Neckar valley touching a string of castles between Mannheim
and Heilbronn as shown on this
map.
A cupper plate on one of the three castles in
Neckarsteinach
refers to a tale that the old
"Nibelungenlied"
was written here.
Maybe you also have the time to stop at the castle of
Hornberg
where the famous
Goetz von Berlichingen,
the "Knight with the Iron Hand" died. In the very early 16th century, time of Columbus,
Luther, Duerer, Rafael, and Michelangelo he was involved more or less against his will
in the uprise of the farmers.
Traveling by car from Heidelberg to
Heilbronn
through the Neckar valley you should definitely
stop at the castle and sleepy town of
Hirschhorn,
the old place of
Mosbach,
and the
"Kaiserpfalz"
in the quiet town of
Bad Wimpfen,
place of the red bearded Hohenstaufen Emperor and crusader Friedrich I.
Barbarossa,
who was probably the most influential German emperor after
Karl den Grossen. He died as a crusader and his empty toomb is at the Dom of
Speyer.
The absolute favourite of our visitors from the USA is Bad Wimpfen.
Bad Wimpfen is also known as the place where the German emperor
Friedrich II.
one grandson of Barbarossa locked up his son, the king Heinrich VII.
of Germany, who was then jailed in Heidelberg and Sicily.
If you find the time you should defintely drive into the valleys of the
Jagst and
Kocher
rivers which both end into the Neckar close to Bad Wimpfen and the towns
in those valleys are full of that 15th to 16th century history of Goetz
von Berlichingen. The famous 340 km long
Kocher-Jagst bikeway
goes first along Kocher and returns along Jagst to the same place where it starts.
Here is a list of links for all
bikeways in Baden-Wuerttemberg
and here one of
all of Germany.
Some etchings of the castle and city of Heidelberg by M. Merian in 1645:
Some etchings of the castle of Heidelberg by Ch. Haldenwang in 1815
At that time there was only one, the old bridge across the Neckar.
Further up- and downward, ferries were used to cross the river.
City map of Heidelberg in 1840.
Later a second Neckar bridge was added as shown here
at the 1911 painting by
Sophie Meyer
a painter living in Duesseldorf (1847-1921).
The last ferry boat river crossing in Heidelberg ended in the 1960's.
Now there are three (or four) bridges across the Neckar and ferries
only much further up the river Neckar.
Here is some more info about
Heidelberg
and some more historic views of Heidelberg at
Polygraphicum
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