A shot looking up at the tower.
Here is the ruins of a large ampitheater built during the reign of the Nazi's. Abandoned after WW2, the ampitheater was used for events grandizing the government of the Nazi's. It lies between the two monastery ruins.
It was pretty big...and pretty sad to think of the evil and waste of those bad times.
Here is a floor plan of the larger set of monastery ruins, St. Michaels. Not much remains but some foundation walls, and parts of the two ruined towers.
A view of the east ruined tower. You can actually walk into the towers and up into the top stone work. It was very cool....in the US, you would never be allowed into and up on these kinds of things.
You can even go down into the crypt areas, where nobles and VIP's were buried. Nothing remains now.....all cleaned out by centuries of abandonement and looting.
The monastery was built on top of the ruins of a Roman Temple, built in 80AD.
Looking down from the East Tower, you an see a half circle of stones at the bottom of the picture. This is part of the ruined floorstones of the Roman Temple. In the center of the picture is a small vault where King FriedrichVon Hirsau is buried.
The grave stone for Friedrich Von Hirasu, died 1070. When I was there, an old woman had just put a candle and fresh pine boughs down on the grave stone.
A self picture of me at the ruins of St. Michaels.
Me by the grave stone of Friedrich Von Hirsau. I beleive that he funded, and thus founded the monastery.
Another day walking in the suburbs, and looking at houses along the Neckar River.
And then into the old Heidelberg Cemetary. Here is a family crypt. The cemetary is also famous, because it is one of the few in Germany where the Jewish graves were undistrubed during the Nazi reign.
A very cool stone statue of a woman or angel or such on top of a family plot.
Some very very old Jewish gravestones dating back to the 18th century. It made me think of the ride at Disney's "Haunted Mansion" as I walked thru this very large (500 acres) graveyard.
A typical business street in central Heidelberg. Shops below, apartments above.
A shot of a residential area in Heidelberg. I am not sure if families were living in these buildings, or they were apartment clusters or what....but it was all residential.
Another dinner with our friends we met. A good portion of the UofM folks were from Europe of the US. Only 4 or 5 people were from the Asia division.
Authentic German Stroganough! Very good...but my mom's is better!
I think it is good luck to touch the monkey....so we all did!
The last two days, Teresa had taken some vacation time, so we explored together! Here we are on the Philosopher's Walk.
Using the timer feature again. We had a great day long walk, saw squirrels, swans and even deer!
Lunch time at the top of the hill at a very cool old German resturant.
Teresa at the old Nazi ampitheater.
She takes a picture of me at St. Michael's ruins. You can see some people in the east tower top behind me.
At the smaller monastery ruins, with me acting like I am in castle prison!
Another private house...very castle looking! My friend Rob would sure like to own this one!
This is someone's house and business....lucky stiff! Some engineering mogul I guess....
 
Everywhere we went, tons of great food, huge bakery stores everywhere....lots and lots of sweets and cakes and pies and so forth...
We indulged every day with a small snack or two or three. I really enjoyed Germany, and look forward to coming back again...preferably when it is a touch warmer!