Heidelberg

Steak and macaroni and cheese never tasted so good. Just enough home to make me feel good. So the day after arriving at my cousin's house, he had a goodbye luncheon from his old job at a really good Chinese buffet/Mongolian barbecue type place. Afterward i headed over to the summer castle of a duke or earl or king of some sort in the next town over and walked around the gardens for about 3 hours. The palace was closed but the grounds were absolutely huge. What I really found pretty interesting was that there was a pretty big and ornate mosque int he back of the grounds. After this point I met up with my cousin and we headed over to the auto craft shop on the arm base in town to change the pads and rotors on his brakes. At this shop army personnel, military contractors and civil servants can go in and have help (as in guidance and checking from the mechanics, though the car owner must do the actual work) and rent tools so long as the owner brings in the parts. When all was said and done after about 2 hours, it was only about $20, so not bad.
The next day my cousin and I went into town in the morning and I walked around and checked out the old town and shopping areas of Heidelberg. My cousin joined me about 11:00 and we walked up to the castle overlooking the city, took a few pictures, saw the worlds largest wine cask (150,000 Liters?), and then walked back to the car, headed over to the train station to grab a quick lunch and then I headed back to Amsterdam to meet up with my friends in Amsterdam.