DAY 114 - Ladenburg & Lots of LOVE

July 11 -Anniversary Dinner & Strolling

Heidelberg lies on the River Neckar in a steep valley in the Odenwald.  Heidelberg is a popular tourist destination due to its romantic and picturesque cityscape, including Heidelberg Castle and the baroque style Old Town.  Rich & I both found this city one of our favorites.

Heidelberg, with the Castle on the hill and the Old Bridge over river Neckar.

When we arrived to our host's home by train, we let them know that it was our 10th anniversary and we wanted to go to somewhere special for dinner.  They suggested we go to the nearby town of Ladenburg - our train ticket would be good to go there and back that evening.  So we hopped on and headed off 10 km. northeast of Heidelberg.

An artist's impression of Ladenburg back in 1900

 Ladenburg's history dates back to Celtic and Roman ages. The first time this village was populated was between 3000 and 200 BC. It then consisted of a Celtic settlement Lopodunum ("Seatower"). In the year 40 the Romans populated the town as a farmer/military outpost and kept its Celtic name.

                                                                                 

           

"Welcome to Ladenburg" at the small RR stop

This is the first landmark we came to after we got off the train

                                                    

This was the first well in town

LOVE the cute houses and architecture

Walking down the cobblestone streets

Fun little antique shoppe

1600 - that's a LONG time ago

This is where we had our 10th anniversary dinner -Italian.

July 11, 2003 was the date

Mediterranean Salad with shrimp and salmon AND Tettrazini

We never got to try this fabulous dessert while in Austria, so we took the chance and ordered it

Chocolate Sachertorte - FABULOUS!

Gorgeous flowers everywhere - such a CLEAN little town

Part of the old city wall

We wandered by a quaint little old church

Don't you love the colors and all the trim?

The town square where many people were "hanging" out

"The Old Men and the Sea"

The man who is regarded as the inventor of the automobile, Karl Benz, spent the last days of his life in Ladenburg between 1906 and his death in 1929.

We didn't go inside, but it was cool to know that this town was where he chose to live the rest of his life in and that there was such a nice museum about him.

 This was where the Benz properties were:  a lovely house that was a museum, another large house and these out building/garages  along with a huge garden area.

Rich likes Mercedes-Benz cars - he owns two of them....1987 models

Cool old tree, except Rich said, "Shhh.....hear that?"  I then heard all this quiet 'buzzing' all around me, looked up, and saw a million bees in this tree that was covered with little yellow flowers.  Auughh...bees!

Wonderful time in Ladenburg.  I'm so glad we discovered it.  Back we went to Heidelberg where we stayed for two nights.  You'll meet our hosts and learn about that city tomorrow.