So, today we discovered the little heard about Heiligenberg across the river from us in Heidelberg. It is above the Philosophenweg, high up on the mountain. There is the Stephankloster, which is visible from the castle balcony, the Thingstatte that the Nazi's forced labor constructed, the Celtic Ring, and the St. Michaelkloster ruins built originally by the Romans.The Stephankloster is in ruins, but you can still climb the tower for a nice view over the Heidelberg area and the mountains beyond it. Go in the afternoon for photo opportunities, as the sun washes out everything in the morning.
A short walk through the woods will take you to the Thingstatte. When we arrived today, it was completely littered with trash and broken glass everywhere. We're guessing that would be from the May Day celebrations earlier this week. It was a little strange being there and thinking of the things that were promoted here. But, we didn't have time to dwell on it, as we were concerned with our children falling off of high walls, or cutting themselves on the broken glass everywhere.
We continued to follow the trail, but others walked up the seating area in the arena to get to the top, and we shortly arrived at a round marker of some sort, obvious that it had a purpose at one point, and maybe if we could translate German, we might have had a bit of a clue about it. But, a little fu
rther up the path was the Roman ruins, its' grounds fenced off, probably due to vandalism prevention. The ruins themselves were marked well with maps and labels. 
On the trail up there were markers for the Celtic Ring, which was built 400 BC. We're not sure why it was built, as we have yet to translate the signs posted. But, we do know that this mountaintop has been important to the German peoples for centuries, at least from a religious standpoint.
There are loads of trails to hike and bike up here, and also a little biergarten. I'm happy we found this little piece of history hidden in the mountains.
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