The Epic Eurotrip--Chapter 7: Mein Kampf II (Germany--Heidelberg, Titi See)

The journey continued south. We went to Heidelberg first to visit the old castle (or the remaining of it.) This castle is called Heidelberg Schloss, or Heidelberg Castle. This castle went through natural disasters and human destruction in the old time. Lightning struck it twice, and wars happened which damaged the castle as well. People in the old time tried to repair it, but more shit happened and the repair was never completed. Poor castle. Therefore, whatever we saw was only part of it. They only tried to keep the main building (King's room?) in tact so that they at least have something to show. It was raining when we went there, so a lot of pictures don't have good quality. However, walking in the rain gave us another type of experience, especially in an old town like this. Still, it was a little annoying when you had to worry about rain getting into your camera or destroying your lenses.

A view of the castle. See all those reparation sites?

The footprint. There's only one of them. This soldier must be
really strong to land with one foot.

For old places like this one, there are of course many stories to be told. One of the famous one was when the castle was on fire, a soldier jumped down from the watch tower with his armor. He didn't die, surprisingly, but his footprint (only one, for some reason) was left on the floor. True, this story makes no sense, but it's fun to know legends like this. Although the outside of the castle is old, they actually converted some of the structures into offices and restaurants. In the castle, the ceiling still has the feeling from 16th century or something, but the functionality is completely modern. We saw bars that serve beer and fresh coffee. Air conditioning also exists in the castle.

One of the coffee shops in the castle.

Giant keg in the castle. The king who made
this must love drinking. Then again, who doesn't?

Okay, time to rant again. I promise this will be short. Same topic: tourist causing damage. Remember all the graffiti and signatures on the walls of Cologne Cathedral? This happens here as well. Check out this picture:

I saw this on one of the kegs and couldn't help to snap a picture just so I can complain here. This keg was apparently made in 1751, and now you fucking destroyed it. Fuck you, Andy Shack from US. Fuck you, Jason Vaughan from Michigan. Fuck you!

Heidelberg was also known for its university here. Many famous/powerful people are alumni of this school. The town also gives out an old feeling. Its use of color and style really make you feel "this is how old Europe looked like."

View of the city from the castle 

In the afternoon, we moved to Titi See, or Titi Lake. This place is deep into the black forest in the mountains. Black forest used to have dense woods and leaves, so dense that you could barely see sunlight. Today, of course, it's not like that due to human development and logging too much. This town is very small. Population is only a little over 3000. Most of the business here is for tourists. Like the town near Loreley, this place only operates for half a year every year due to the cold weather in winters.

Plaza at the middle of the town.

The name Titi came from the emperor named Titus. It's said that Titus found this place when he was on the way to conquer Israel. He saw the lake and was like "damn this is beautiful!" So, to kiss his ass, people named this place after him. This guy is best known for completing the Colosseum. His family has overthrown Emperor Nero, and, to cover Nero's legacy, they brought down Nero's golden statue and covered the blood lake created from killing thousands of people (Nero's order) by building Colosseum at the spot (covering blood through with more blood. Don't know if that's smart or not.) I'll probably go into more detail when we get to Italy. European countries are in general not big, so there are many stories in different countries that share the same names.

The largest(?) cuckoo clock in the world.

Probably because of the low population, the town seems very peaceful. Not dead, just peaceful. You would think: "well, since this town is so far away from rest of the world, that means there shouldn't be many Chinese here, right?" WRONG! Titi See is known for its cuckoo clocks (because of the wood they use,) and the biggest cuckoo clock store is FULL OF CHINESE WORKERS!! They also have Chinese signs and words all over the store. 3,000 population......yet there's a Chinese store......Chinese really know how to make money.

I talked to one of the workers in a shop about tourism here (she was cute. That's the main reason. German girls are really cute. I'm having white girl crush because of them.) She said that tourists normally started showing up around April time frame. More will come during summer time, and the crowd dies down in late September. Stores close around early October (less crowd, and the lake is freezing up.) During summer vacation, many students would come from other towns to work here for some extra money to finish school. School tuition in Germany is getting highly every year. Well, I guess not only US has this problem.

This place is a nice getaway place if you live around this area. You can bike, boat, or just lie on the beach here. Life can be really chill if there weren't so many tourists, me being one of them.

One of the local shops selling meat product and pastry.
I was so full so I didn't try any.

Black Forest ham.

Titi Lake

Feel free to check out the history of these places. I didn't write a lot because it'll be boring. If you're interested, though, you should learn more. Next stop: Rhine Fall, Zurich, and Lucerne, Switzerland.

*derp