When he emerges from the building, he feels like a new man—or says he does, which is the same thing.
When The Young Man who Knows Everything made that remark, Tibbitts replied promptly that he most earnestly hoped the change would be permanent. “My young friend, if you feel symptoms of getting back to your original self, take more baths.”
Baden merits all the good things said of it. It is a delicious spot, and if one had nothing to do in life but enjoy it, I know of no place where, with money, he could get more out of it. Its people are hospitable, and its physicians will humor you to any disease you choose. If there is nothing the matter with you, they will prescribe just as cheerfully as though you had all the ills that human flesh is heir to, and will pocket their fees with a grace unexcelled. They have had vast experience with hypochondriacs, and know all about it.
CHAPTER XLI.
HEIDELBERG.
THERE is hardly a man, woman or child in the world who has not heard of Heidelberg, and who does not know something of this famous little city of students, wine, beer, castle and casks. It is a place better known, probably, than any in Europe of its size and non-political importance, and it entertains more sight-seers than any other. It is well worth the attention given it.
Heidelberg is beautifully situated on the River Neckar, about twelve miles from its junction with the Rhine, and a more delightful spot for establishing the seat of a palatial residence does not exist in all Germany.
On the one side is a high range of hills, on the other the beautiful Neckar, the opposite bank of which is covered to the tops of the lovely hills with terraced vineyards.
The very first thing the tourist has to see is the old Schloss, founded by the Count Palatine Rudolph I., about the beginning of the fourteenth century. It has passed through remarkable events. Various princes and electors improved and fortified the original structure of Rudolph, until, in 1720, when Elector Carl Theador rebuilt it, it covered a vast extent of territory.
THE OLD SCHLOSS.
Situated on a spur of the Königestuhl, it is surrounded on three sides by beautiful woods, while on the fourth the River Neckar flows past the town down a wondrously beautiful valley, and loses itself in the Rhine, twelve miles below. The outside walls are plain and unpretending, being designed entirely for defense. But inside, the façades are embellished with fine carvings, allegorical figures, the window arches having medallions of eminent men of ancient times. In niches around the front, facing the entrance, are statues of the sixteen Counts Palatine. This front is thought to be the most magnificent, architecturally, of any of the four, combining, as it does, four different styles: Doric, Tuscan, Ionic and Corinthian. It certainly is very imposing, and before it was battered and disfigured by cannon balls, during the war of 1693, it must have been a wonderfully fine piece of work.