Good morning,
I planned to sleep in and then do nothing, but that obviously didn’t work very well. So I will visit one of my favourite places in the area. As I really like the idea of showing others a bit of our surroundings, I will take you with me. I don’t really have a plan, we’ll see where exactly and how far I’ll go.
So here is, inspired by Stephen and Sillsallad:
Weatherby walks - From monkeys, philosophers and a kings chair.
Looking forward to it! 
We’ll see how many pictures I’ll take. First I needed to take a train.
Taking pictures while facing the sun is … not so good. This traffic sign is in front of the station. Bit it’s not just a traffic sign, it’s a memorial. One of the stories one can find very often: In 1940, more than 6500 yews were deported from Mannheim to a camp in southern France. Most were murdered later.
Some art inside. I have to admit that I don’t understand it. Oh well.
Time for breakfast while on the train running next to “one of europeans largest marshalling yards”, according to wikipedia. Not the largest, that would be Maschen, Hamburg.
A few minutes later I caught a glimpse of where I’m headed to. Kinda.
Might be a bit better. Bye, train!
And now, I’m in the centre. That’s the main changing point for trams and busses. Up to this point, it has been trams and trains. Now I’ll really start the walk.
Haha my boyfriend and I always get a pretzel and a drink when we’re taking the train when we are back “home” in Germany. It’s tradition! 
What is and isn’t a good pretzel is up for discussion. 
“Where do you see yourself in a few hours?”
Well, not exactly at that bench, but sitting somewhere reading a book sounds good.
A checks notes “packaging museum”. Nice, nice.
These public bookcases are surprisingly common. This one even has a bench next to it.
A chocolate and ice cream store. It’s good that it’s closed at the moment. I have to keep walking.
“Kornmarkt”. At this point, I’d normally turn right. Today, I’ll go to the left. Just listening to the bells first.
Edit: You can see the castle in the background here.
Haha no, the pretzels aren’t good, but we still get them
Der Kornmarkt ist schön
Just tuned in, and I can see that I’m going to be hitting refresh a lot!
Enjoying this stroll, and can’t wait for the next entry
Thanks. I had no reception for a while.
Approaching the old bridge.
The pretty famous (or so I think) Bridge Monkey. A statue originally from the 15th century. Its behind is turned towards Mainz mocking the bishops there. In his hand is a mirror. Or it’s supposed to be one. A poem by Martin Zeiller:
“Why are you staring at me?
Haven’t you seen the old monkey in Heidelberg?
Look around and you probably will see –
more monkeys like me!”
This is called the “Schlangenweg”, roughly translated as snake path. You can see on the screenshot from Openstreetmap how it got its name. What that doesn’t show: It goes up. A long way, sometimes pretty steep, until it reaches the Philosopher’s Walk. But I turned in the other direction towards the forest.
You have a really nice view from up there. The old town, the castle…
What lives inside a forest? Squirrels. Or in that case the statue of a squirrel.
This pond is called “Der mystische Schlund des Talos” (“The mystical maw of Talos”) on Google Maps. I have no idea why. One guy in the reviews writes that the depth was only measured in 1973 and that it’s connected to the river. But I couldn’t verify that. I like the place. Not many tourists and very quiet.
Back at the river. A look back at the Old Bridge.
Ship approaching.
Ship leaving.
Just a railway tunnel. One of the longer ones I drive through.
We have the monkey and the philosopher, one thing is still missing. So back to the centre it is.
So, back to Kornmarkt because that’s where the funicular starts. Two parts: The lower one is pretty modern, the upper funicular the historic one. If you take both all the way to the top, you are one the Königstuhl. One shouldn’t translate these names I think, but if you’d do it, it would be something like “Kings chair”. A mountain. The funicular operates with reduced capacity and was lucky to get on early, so I couldn’t take pictures. Here are some from previous visits:
The view from the top is amazing. I normally stay there for a while. But I was late and wanted to be back down at the castle before the sun sets. So I took a few pictures and started to go back down. Fun fact: I never took the funicular on the way down. Most of the times, I took the “Himmelsleiter” (Sky Ladder"). Just some stairs. Only a few.
Okay, a bit more than 1300 steps down.
Just some more and I’m there.
The castle (or what’s left of it) is most of the way down. The rest should be easy. I’ll rest for a moment and eat something.
I love the the autumn atmosphere 
I love the autumn colours. Especially when the sun is shining.
Moore!
A look back at the castle.
And at the end something for train lovers: The DB Class 463 “Mireo”. My own train is delayed and I can hear that one of the two engines isn’t working, but it will take me home.
P.S.
A screenshot from the Relive App that shows where I was today:
Thank you for sharing! It’s seems to be a very picturesque place! Could see myself visiting there 
Absolutely fascinating; thanks for taking us with you!
I was curious as to what the King’s chair was. I was expecting a statue of a chair, not a mountain lol! Still, who would leave a chair lying around, unless it was throne away?
yes, that is very contrived. But I had a pun prepared, and I was going to use it, dammit!
Never let facts get in the way of a good pun. 
Wise words indeed. I wonder who said that?
