On the “blogging” road for two months now and I’m already running out of adjectives to describe the incredible beauty of what we’ve experienced. I read that the Heidelberg Castle ruins were worth seeing… what an understatement. We were taken by surprise and completely blown away with the impressive remains of this 13th century gothic castle. It’s picturesque setting is perched above the old town which happens to be the location of Germany’s first University.  We usually try and limit our photo taking but Heidelberg is so impressive we completely lost our shutter control. We had a traditional meal in the village before settling down for the night beside the beautiful  and busy river Neckar. The next day we hooked up with the Rhine river and stopped for the night in a place called Andernach. Again, our travel books didn’t even mention this medieval gem with it’s high stone walls. Kathy, you and Blaine need to drop everything and bring your bicycles here. You can ride this fascinating river valley on designated bike paths and at the end of your day have a great choice of food and lodging. You may want to consider this trip for the Fall when every little Rhine town celebrates with a local wine festival. Driving into Cologne we once again scored a great camping spot right on the Rhine river. This area has roots that date as far back as the Roman occupation. We boarded a small river ferry to the city centre and there visited the famous Cologne Cathedral. We actually managed to climb all 509 steps to the observation deck of the right tower, just as surprising, we paid for the privilege. Personally speaking, I think the rooftop view of the Cathedral itself was more fascinating than the city scape vista.
We’re still having SIM card and campground WiFi issues. Discovering that 1GB of data disappears very quickly when blogging and using FaceTime.  Download speeds are usually terrible and data caps are very common so I’m really missing my high speed cable connection at home.