Am Heiligenberg

East of Heidelberg are two mountains, one north of the river and one south. The one on the north is called Heiligenberg. On top of Heiligenberg are three groups of ruins: St. Stephenskloister, the Thingstätte, and Michaelskloister.

St. Stephenskloister

The tower at St. Stephen's cloister

The little tower felt really high, even though it wasn't.--Samuel

Samuel has acrophobia. The tower was really neat. It was a really simple structure.--Noel

The view up there was amazing.--Rebecca

Heidelberg Schloss from the tower. The tower is just so high I can't look.

The tower made me think that Rapunzel's tower would not have needed to be seventy feet tall. Twenty would have worked just as well.--Sydney

Around the tower were a lot of ruins that we climbed around on. I am not sure whether we were supposed to do that but it was fun.--Rebecca

Thingstätte

Getting a good look at the audience

 
I thought the Colosseum was cool. I liked it because it had so many stairs and it could get so high. It would be a cool place to play tag.--Spencer

When I first walked in, it looked like a huge theater, but Mom had called it a Colosseum and Noel and I were arguing about whether it was a theater or a Colosseum. And then Dad starting talking about it was.--Rebecca

This is the view. The theater holds about 8,000 frenzied fans.

At first I thought it was an ancient Colosseum but Dad was trying to have us guess how old it was. Then I said, "Oh, this is the Hitler stadium." And I was right and it was built in 1934 [for Nazi rallies].--Sydney

It looked like a huge theater with a lot of steps. And apparently this is where Nazis gathered to get stirred up in the anger against their brethren.--Noel

From here we can watch a poor player strut and fret his hour upon the stage.

The Thing was an old Germanic institution (perhaps better attested in Iceland) where once a year citizens would gather for a big festival and transact government business. The theater was one of 400 Thingstätten built by the Nazis for their rallies. It actually has seen little use since then. Apparently some Americans used to use it for sunrise services on Easter. It is also the site of occasional summer concerts, and a big festival on Walpurgisnacht.--Dad

Michaelskloister

The Michaelskloister was founded in 970. The buildings were built around 1030. The monastery was abandoned about 1500. It was associated with the monastery at Lorsch, of which a couple of buildings still survive.--Dad

Michaelskloister from the tower. If you look carefully in the center of the church you can see the outlines of the foundations of a Roman period temple.

Into the Labyrinth. I hope a Minotaur isn't waiting in the center.

The St. Michael's cloister would have been really cool to live in, except it would have potentially been easy to get lost in.--Sydney

Are you sure we are not lost?

There were two towers on each side and from the bigger one you could see everything. It was like a big maze. If there weren't so many rules about climbing over things then it would make an awesome playground.--Noel

Wait! What happened to the walls on the second floor? What happened to the floor?

I liked the labyrinth because it would make an awesome playground but would also make an awesome hide-and-seek place.--Spencer.

I loved playing in the ruins.--Jacob.

Jacob playing in the ruins

I did not go up the big tower, I thought the little tower was high enough.--Samuel.

A monastery is a place of contemplation

I think that it would be worth going to again. It was super awesome.--Adam