Once that was all sorted, I headed into the Old Town, and was there early enough to have a quick wander around on my own, and then join the 10:30am walking tour in English. The tour runs daily, and for 7 euros is pretty good value for money, explaining the history of both the town and the castle, and takes in a good loop through the Old Town.
There were only 6 of us on the tour (4 adults and 2 children - made up of a group of 5 and me). Dagmar (our guide) did a good job, and was a lot more patient than I would have been with the others - they seemed to be in a world of their own at times, dawdling between stops, randomly walking off to take photos of something, and waiting until we were leaving a spot and then deciding to take photos; however, it was still an interesting, and informative 90 minutes.
The church was also home to the Bibliotecha Palatina - at the time, the most impressive library in existence, with approximately 5,000 printed books and 3,524 manuscripts.
The Palatinate suffered heavily in the Thirty Years War, and in 1622 Heidelberg was sacked by the Catholic League, whose general Count von Tilly was in the employ of Maximilian of Bavaria. Although many books were torn or "dispersed among private hands" during the sack, Maximilian found it prudent to confiscate the remaining manuscripts and present them to Pope Gregory XV as "a sign of his loyalty and esteem".
So, now this impressive library is held by the Vatican (and they won't give it back).
In 1816, Prince Hardenberg and Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg persuaded Pope Pius VII to make a gift of 852 manuscripts (mostly in the German language) to the University of Heidelberg - interesting idea: gift back something that was stolen in the first place! For the University Jubilee, some other books were brought back from Vatican to be displayed at the Heiliggeistkirche (the Church of the Holy Ghost).
Our next interesting stop was the Jesuit Church, where we learned that most Jesuit churches around the world are built to a very similar design. Inside, this church is quite plain, compared with many of the churches seen so far on this trip. They have a quite nice Pieta, and their holy water font (or stoup), which sits just inside the front door, is quite lovely - a simply large square piece of white marble, with a shallow basin sculpted into the top, which gives a nice reflection down the length of the central nave:
Who was it that said these Germans don't have a good sense of humour?
Now, the keen-eyed amongst you may have noticed that the Church of the Holy Ghost has a tower - and perhaps not surprisingly, for a small fee (only 2 euros) it can be climbed; and perhaps also not surprisingly, I paid the 2 euros and climbed it! The nice gent behind the ticket desk even offered to take my backpack for me while I did - which proved a good decision, as it actually got a bit low right at the top. Given the central position of the church, there are pretty good views of the Old Town centre, the castle, and of the river.
Unfortunately, the sun was in the wrong position for the castle, so it's in a bit of shade, buy you can't have everything, and I guess it had to be somewhere and I don't have all day (or even longer perhaps) to wait for just the right sun. So, here are a couple of the panoramas from the top of the tower:
Once at the castle, you can freely roam the gardens, or pay to see the
inner courtyard, as well as a couple of other things. There is also a guided tour, with the English version leaving at 15 minutes past the hour, every hour from 11:15am. This seemed like a good option to me, so booked for the 1:15pm tour (again in English). For 4 euros (but you also need to have paid the 6 euro general entry fee to get into the courtyard), this was exceptional value, particularly as there were only 2 of us taking the tour, so it was like having our own private tour - with plenty of time for questions. Our guide, Jutta, did a great job, starting with some history, explaining the development and demise of the castle over the last 600 years or so. The inner courtyard is home to some fine examples of Renaissance facades of differing styles - here are two of those:
The castle is home to the aptly named "Big Barrel", which is a wine barrel with a capacity of 200,000 litres - so it's big enough to have a dance floor on top of it, which it does. The barrel dates to the times when each wine producer was taxed 10% of his production, which was added to the barrel, and then used as payment when and as required, or for the courtiers to drink - I can't imagine it was any good though, with a general mixture of whatever turned up at the door.
The extensive gardens were built for King Henry VIII's daughter (Elizabeth Stewart) who married the Prince Elector; they were so extensive and modern, with all sorts of designs and running water features, that it was described by some as "The Eighth Wonder of the World" - a fairly lofty claim one would have thought, particularly as they were never actually finished.
Sacked during the 30 Years War, then further destroyed during the War of Succession by France's King Louis IV (The Sun King) because his brother wasn't handed the title, like he wanted him to. Without funding to rebuild (and being a little bit exiled), the ruling family moved to Mannheim, and pretty much left the castle as it was.
The final straw came when lightning struck the bell-tower in 1764, and the subsequent fire that burnt for 3 nights and 2 days pretty much finished off the remaining buildings.
For many years, due to lack of funds, the building lay dormant, and it then became popular amongst tourists during the early 19th century, as something of a romantic castle, due to the ruins. Eventually, deciding to capitalise further on this idea, it was decided that the castle would not be restored, but that the ruins would be kept - it is now in an almost constant state of works, which cost around 3 million euros every year - to keep the ruins ruined.
The only exception is the English Palace, which has been restored to provide a glimpse of palace life.