Today we went by train to visit Heidelberg. The old town area was scenic and had a long shopping pedestrian way through it. As we walked along the pedestrian walk, we noticed several women busking. They were each sitting alone against the wall of a shop and singing a haunting song in some language other than German.

Heidelberg

They were also dressed in clothing that, along with the song, made us wonder if they were Turkish. It sounded like each one was singing the same song. By afternoon, when we walked back along the shopping street, they were all gone.

We walked up a very long, steep, switchback path to the old castle overlooking the town, recovered our breath, and walked around the grounds. There were several towers of the castle that had fallen and we were curious if it was due to general castle wear or perhaps some bombing during the war.

Heidelberg Castle

There was a great view of the city from the castle, but the entry fee for going inside the main part of the castle looked a bit steep, given that it only included the courtyard and not the interior of the buildings. To go inside the rooms you had to take an additional guided tour, which cost even more, of course.

View of Heidelberg from the castle

After the castle, we went to the most traditional German lunch we could find. The place we ended up at had musical instruments hanging from the ceiling and incorporated into the lighting. Our table had an old trombone over it, so we took a picture for Keenan. When we walked into the restaurant, Tami spotted a plate being delivered to another table that included spaetzle, mushrooms, and some sort of meat– three of her favorite things to eat. When she located it on the menu, she realized it was quite expensive but had to have it anyway. It had roebuck, spaetzle, mushrooms, and cranberries. It was quite the splurge, but oh yum!

Trombone light fixture

Mike also had to buy some new shoes to replace the ones that were starting to fall apart. We are finding great shoe stores all over the place here in Germany. Mike found a great pair of shoes and we loved the brand name, Bugatti.

A Bugatti!

Now we can say we came home from Europe with a pair of Bugattis!
In the evening we made dinner from spaetzle, cheese and sausage. Then we attempted to roast some of the chestnuts we had collected the day before. We boiled them to soften, as directed by the ladies in the tourist office, then put them in the oven to roast. However, right before we were ready to pull them out, they started exploding! Even after Tami quickly pulled them out of the oven, several more exploded in the kitchen. Quite exciting and quite the mess. At least it was not too hard to clean up as the residue was just dry white flakes and powder. Apparently the one step we missed in the directions was scoring the nuts before cooking. Scoring them would allow the steam to escape, and we think also allow a little water inside to help the skin separate from the shell. We did cut a few open and scoop out the insides, which were delicious. The taste is both nutty and sweet. Fortunately we only cooked half of the nuts we had gathered, so we can try roasting again before we leave.

Our chestnuts and spaetzle

Travel hints for the day: score your chestnuts before roasting and save your 50 cent coins for the public toilets!