Schloss Castle

today consisted of waking up at the ungodly early hour of 8am., having a shower and reading email and the news for 2 hours. caught the bus to "downtown" Heidelberg and walked from there along the Neckar river to the Schloss Castle. i spent 5 hours at the castle, including eating lunch there. took over 180 pictures which are slowly uploading to a server back in Kanuckistan over Scott's over-saturated DSL line. i've been keeping a file that tells what's in each picture so that even i can't forget.

the castle was interesting on various levels. the obvious is that it's a landmark and it's cool to be know you've been at a landmark. yadda yadda yadda. but it's amazing how large it is on the one hand with its massive walls and art and yet how small it is in the actual space it seems to contain indoors. the scale of the walls, the art the gardens awed me. and then the feeling of great history, old lives and ancient stories right beneath my feet, my fingers.... when you come from a place where the old buildings are post 1900 and being torn down as fast as possible to make way for condos, stepping into a set of buildings that were ruins in the 19th century is a unique and wonderful experience.

the art that was inspired by the castle was also quite interesting. i enjoyed wandering through the little gallery they have.

i haven't felt this whole in a long, long time. this morning i found myself wondering if i should be relaxing or exploring. as if those are things to be achieved. i didn't used to be like that. so fuck it, said i, and i went out and just lived a day. it was beautiful. it even rained just a wee sprinkle for me. though i understand that's not unusual for this neck of the woods.

speaking of "neck of the woods", i find i have to be very careful when i speak English to the people here. apparently my language is laced with all sorts of colloquialisms and odd words, which makes it difficult for people to understand. or maybe it's my thick Canadian accent ;-)

in any case, i've been listening and reading and picking up words here and there. i find the 'r's to be remarkably difficult to say correctly, but i think this is a language one might be basically conversant in rather quickly if immersed in it.

i'm looking forward to dinner tonight. probably with Scott. who knows who else will show up. who knows where the conversation will go. and that's a good thing.