Neroberg and more Wiesbaden

On Thursday, July 16, Taber and I went to Neroberg, a hill/mountain/area north of Wiesbaden proper. You can either hike up it, or take the Nerobergbahn, a funicular that takes you to the top of the mountain. I thought it would be fin to take the funicular, but the numerous babies and people in general in the car made it seem a little underwhelming. So we ended up walking down. but it was nice.

Temple

Monument for the soldiers that died in WWI

Overlook with view of Wiesbaden

View of Wiesbaden

Tower and restaurant

Russian Church

Then we walked around downtown Wiesbaden a bit and had dinner down there and stuff.

State Theater

Kurhaus (casino)

The biggest Cuckoo clock in the world

The next day (Friday) it was too hot to do anything (plus we were pretty tired from all our other adventures) so we just ate near the apartment (sushi because they had air conditioning) and stayed in that night. Then Saturday morning Taber flew home. It seemed too short, but we packed a lot in to his two week trip.

Day trip to Karlsruhe and Heidelberg

On Wednesday July 15, I took the day off work and Taber and I went south to Karlsruhe. It was 2 or 3 hours on train. It was a cool city. Very bike friendly and lots of green spaces. And most of the interesting sites to see are in kind of a column running from the train station to the palace. Right after the train station is a large park with a zoo in it, but we did that on our way back to the train station so I will get to it later.

Vieordtbad baths

Convention Center

St. Stephan's Church

Museum of Natural History

Karlsruhe Palace

streetcar

Then we had lunch at a restaurant in the Rathaus that had "craft beers" from somewhere in Bavaria. Pretty good, though nothing compared to Michigan craft beers.

City Church, designed after the Pantheon in Rome, but with a belltower.

Unfortunately there was a lot of construction going on while we were there. It reminded me of Michigan.

Park behind the Palace

Concert Hall

The big City Garden I mentioned before

Then we stopped in Heidelberg on our way back. It was cool. Of course we saw Heidelberg Castle. It was pretty cool. Here is the view from the city.

We also went up the hill and went inside the castle. Not quite what I was expecting, but still pretty cool.

There was a pharmacy museum in the castle.

There were also giant wine kegs.

The people are there for size comparison

Then of course there was a great view of the city below. 

The Altstadt (old city) was also really nice.

Palais Graimberg

Heiliggeistkirche (Church of the Holy Spirit)

Old University

 Then we went to see the Alte Brucke, the old bridge.

Don't ask me why there are statues of mice and a baboon o the bridge, there just are.

A fun-filled Wednesday.