Viking Today... 6/18

The boys head to Heidelberg for a tour, just a short jog this time
Hoffenheim to Heidelberg

A far bigger city than the ones they've been at, it has a population of about 144,000 people, about two and a half times that of St. Cloud but it's only 10 square miles bigger!

Yesterday I mentioned that Hoffenheim pre-dates Princeton, Mn by quite a bit... well, near Heidelberg, archaeologists found Homo heidelbergensis which is also known as "Heidelberg Man" and is estimated to have lived in the area up to 600,000 years ago!

Maybe more interesting to the boys, there's a stunning castle in Heidelberg that they'll be visiting.
Castle
Castle
Castle Ruins

If you like wine, you might think Heidelberg Castle is a special place to visit. It's home to a giant wine cask than can hold 58,100 gallons of wine!
Wine Cask
That's a big cask!

Mark Twain even commented on the cask (which has mostly been empty since it was created):
"I do not see any wisdom in building a monster cask to hoard up emptiness in, when you can get a better quality, outside, any day, free of expense."

There's too much in Heidelberg to comment on in a single email. I'm sure the boys are getting an eyeful today. Here's some links where you can read up as much as you want about the city and the castle:
Heidelberg wiki
Heidelberg Castle wiki

Next, they switch countries and head to Sarreguemines France. About two hours or so:
Heidelberg to Sarreguemines

A former choirboy I know always raved about Sarreguemines, it was his favorite place of all his tours. I can see why!
Senic Sarreguemines
Sarreguemines Scene

They'll be singing in the Protestant Church, as seen from outer space below:
Church... FROM SPACE!
(this *might* be the church)
Protestant Church?

The itinerary says they'll be recorded by a TV station. It looks like the station has part of their broadcast online, maybe if we're lucky, we'll catch them!
TV Station Site

Phew... big update just finding the links today... I can only imagine how busy the boys are going to be!