Tell me you’re in Germany without telling me you’re in Germany?
Just did!
The day started out in Montenegro, with a lovely breakfast with Anya and Ljosha in the back yard….so serene. By 8am I was at the bus station saying so many goodbyes and thank you’s and Ljosha was off to Kindergarten.
My bus was running 1/2 an hour late, but either way, we should have been in Dubrovnik by 11:15am, giving me close to 4.5hrs to explore the town again and have lunch…… that was until the traffic and the border crossing snarled the entire way to Croatia. Landing by the Port at 2:30pm, the Montenegrin/Croatian border crossing stands as my longest border crossing thus far. With just enough time for a lunch by the harbour, I am super happy that I got up at silly o’clock a few weeks ago to explore the Old City of Dubrovnik.
Checking in at the airport, all was well, security was simple and customs would have to happen at high pace in Frankfurt with a quick transfer to the Singapore flight. I glanced at the airbridge 5-10 mins before the time we were due to board and thought “hmmm this will be hard to make the connection, if the receiving plane isn’t in yet”…..
Famous last words as the board flashed up with “DELAYED”…. 2 hours…. Whoops, there goes my connection to Singapore! So, I was due for an impromptu visit to Frankfurt, Germany….. damn it.
The airline set us up with accommodation and rebooked us on the next flight out in 24 hours time. So today I’ve woken up in Frankfurt, with a day to kill…. So I’ve definitely killed it!
I jumped on a train to Heidelberg to get some “traditional old town” Germany in my life.
It’s always the way, I walk up a rather steep hill to a castle/palace and when I pay the entry fee I find out that there was a cable car or a car park at the top! It happened again…. I walked up to Schloss Heidelberg to discover there was no need to be sweating…. There was a cable car and I missed it!
The earliest part of the castle was built in the 1200’s and it has been added to and destroyed ever since! In 1537 a lightening bolt destroyed parts of the upper castle, rebuilt by 1650, every one in history has seemed to take a (successful) potshot at the castle, as well as another lightening bolt in 1764! (Who says lightening doesn’t strike twice!). The Roman’s attacked it in 1622, the Swedes attacked it in 1633. In 1688 the French attacked in and as they withdrew in 1689, set it on fire. In 1693, the French successfully had another go at the castle and in 1764, lightning took its second go at the castle.
Ironically, it was a Frenchman who came to the rescue to Schloss Heidelberg, the French count Charles de Graimberg. He fought the government of Baden, which viewed the castle as an “old ruin with a multitude of tasteless, crumbling ornaments”, for the preservation of the building. Until 1822, he served as a voluntary castle warden, and lived for a while in the Glass Wing (Gläserner Saalbau), where he could keep an eye on the courtyard. Long before the origin of historic preservation in Germany, he was the first person to take an interest in the conservation and documentation of the castle, which may never have occurred to any of the Romantics.
There was of course an amazing wine cellar!
It was a fast whistle stop tour of Heidelberg and Frankfurt, but it was great to get out and see some different culture!
So! It’s with much hope that my plane leaves on time, with no delays and lands early in Singapore tomorrow afternoon…. Mum will be all energised, having had 24hrs there on her own… oooohhh my jet lag and overnight flight are looking forward to that! See you all on the other side!
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