"Weinheim: Small,Two castles and Good... " a Weinheim Travel Page by christine.j

The name Weinheim could mean
home of the crying
or
home of the wine. I know which I would prefer!
But actually it's from one of the founders' name, he was called Vino -
something to do with wine after all.

Today Weinheim is a nice little town close to Mannheim and Heidelberg, situated beneath two castles.
One of them is the real one, built in 1100 and now a ruin.
The other one was built by the fraternities of Germany about 100 years ago, still belongs to them, but can be rented for weddings.

In both castles there is a good restaurant and the view is just great, down to Weinheim and across the Rhine valley.

Update June 2008:
I've added one tip only,in the off the beaten path section a tip about the mausoleum.

Weinheim is situated on a hill, on the top you see the castles and on the bottom of the hill is where the workers used to live. The main line of work in Weinheim in the 16th and 17th century was tanning, making leather from the skins of the deer living in the woods around.
Of course, for this line of work you needed lots of water, so the workers' quarter was built along a little creek, the Gerberbach - tanners' creek.
Even though, it must have been quite smelly.

Summer is the best time to stroll through the gardens, when the flowers are in full bloom . In the back you can see the old ruin, Windeck Castle, the "modern" castle Wachenburg and inside the gardens at the playground there is the old watch-and prison tower the Blue Hat.