heidelberg

thomas said we should go see heidelberg, and ryan wants to see german castles more than anything, and they have one there, so it was the right choice.

we took the train with thomas and his brother stephan, and did a little hike up a mountain to see the schloss (that means castle, and I will be using it from here on out). 

ryan is checking out the view, but it will get better, just wait. 

see? that's heidelberg.  

brothers! hahaha

checking out the view and chatting with some pretty awesome people...

i think that if thomas' contact lens business gets boring for him, he should set up a zipline between this watchtower and the schloss. i would totally do it. 

that's thomas' keg; he's not sharing. 

but he said the small one is for me, so it's cool. by the way-- there was actually a keg about 2 times the size of the big one here, but i couldn't get a picture. it was just too big. if you'd like to see some pretty terrible shots, call me. 

ryan LOVES it when i do this to him in pictures, hahaha.... (but he's just so kissable!)

a ruin. probably this ruin is older than america. you can google it, if you'd care to...

and again, the castle. 

more heidelberg. pay attention to that bridge; we're going on it later. 

some dude reclining among the fountains. i felt that this pose should be held by a woman, but all the guys outvoted me. he's the king, obviously, and of course he reclines. duh, susanne!

i made them all sit down so the statue would be in the background. haha

then it was time for lunch. germany has local breweries in every town, and even though some of them have been bought out by bigger companies, they still use the local breweries' name on the glasses. awesome. 

white sausage...

a different sausage...

curry wurst...

goat cheese salad. i can't remember which one of the four of us ordered this....

and here are some funny t-shirts: 

i want this on a postcard. 

and that's a store that sells gummi bears (okay, and other gummis, but that's it. no chocolate, no suckers, only gummis)

schloss at sunset. 

and here we are on the heidelberg bridge. click that link; it will tell you all the history, and you might need the info for a contest. besides, it's about 2 paragraphs. learn something, why don'tcha??

You guys should come to Heidelberg, on a gorgeous day in early spring, when all the leaves are different shades of green, and you can go for a lovely walk with your favorite person ever,  a friend you just met, and another you don’t see very often. I recommend it highly!