Our room in Maulbronn was an apartment for the three of us. There were two twin beds (side by side) in a bedroom (I thought it was going to be two bedrooms) plus a single bed in the kitchen-living area. This was the top floor so there was a sloping ceiling at the ends and exposed beams (strangely, at waist height).
Niece promptly claimed the bed in the living area. Before conceding to sharing a room with Brother I asked if he snored. He said, well, maybe a bit.
We sat around the living area, companionably together but each typing on our own computer. Then to bed around 10:30.
At 12:45 I was awake. Brother was snoring. It was just a little bit of noise at the end of each breath. But that was enough. I don't sleep when someone in the room is snoring. I found that out many years ago. I tried jostling Brother, he didn't waken. I decided since he was already snoring by 12:45 it meant the rest of the night would get no better.
I had to do something. I pulled my matress, similar to a futon, off the bedframe and took it into the living area outside the bedroom. I slept pretty well there.
Niece later reported that I snored for a brief period. I had said that even when I snore the noise wakes me up. Since I live alone I can't tell whether that is really true. She agreed that I probably woke up from my own noise.
So I got up a lot later than I had on other days. I didn't hear Brother step around me to get to the bathroom and take a shower.
Our first stop was the palace in the town of Bruchsal. It is in the Baroque style, which many today would consider over decorated. This is the palace of the Bishop Prince – yeah, he was the head of both church and state.
The palace had significant damage two months before the end of WWII. Many of the wonderful ceiling paintings were recreated in the 1960s. Many of the rooms on the second floor were not redecorated until about 10 years ago and even now they still don't have their plaster curlicues.
We got the audio tour and wandered through perhaps 20 rooms. A big part of the palace collection are tapestries, which were packed away and relocated about a month before the city was bombed.
We had lunch in Bruchsal at outdoor seating. The weather was delightfully in the mid 70s F. Afterward we wandered the palace grounds for a bit.
Then off to Heidelberg. The hotel we stayed at – above an Irish pub – is on the Hauptstrasse, which through the afternoon and evening is a pedestrian zone. So no parking at the hotel. I had arranged with the hotel to use their parking spot for the night. That was in a parking garage on the other side of a large block. It required I go to the hotel and get the garage key, then go back and park the car (and because of the way the streets are laid out it wasn't easy), then schlep bags back to the hotel. We saved a few Euros by not using a public garage that was closer but the savings wasn't worth the hassle.
We walked over to the funicular that took us up to the hill to Heidelberg Castle. We had missed the last English tour of the interior by more than an hour. However, we were able to walk the grounds and see both the ornate exteriors of some of the buildings and the view across the city below.
Satisfied with that we took the funiclar up higher to what is called the King's Seat with an impressive view of the area.
Once back down the hill Niece said she wanted to try a Turkish restaurant nearby. Once supper was over we walked to one of the bridges over the river for a view up to the castle, both in the fading light of day and with the castle illuminated for night.
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