Heidelberg – Germany Trip Blog Post #4

On Friday, May 8 (only our second full day in Germany), we once again climbed on our bus for the two-hour drive to Heidelberg. By the way, our bus driver for the entire trip was Erick, from Poland, and Fred, from Austria, was our tour manager the whole time. Fred’s job was mostly to make sure we got where we were supposed to go and that no one got lost. He also talked about the history of Germany and the surrounding countries, while we were riding on that bus every day, as well as answered our dumb questions.

(Can't see him well, but Fred is the tall guy in the middle of the picture.)

I don’t know if it is because of my strong German roots or if I just paid attention in German class, but I remember so many places throughout Germany, places I’ve wanted to visit for fifty years. Sometimes I forget that most people haven’t heard of these places, so I try to tell you everything. Hope I don’t bore you.

So, Heidelberg Castle is one of those places. I’ve seen so many pictures of the ruins of this massive fortress perched on the hill overlooking the Neckar River. It’s hard to describe it when I finally saw it in person.

It was built in the 1200s, and our tour guide for the day, Roman, told us so much of the history of it and its people that my head kinda started to spin. I wanted to remember it all, the melodramatic stories of what went on at that time, but there is no way. I will look it up for myself online sometime, and you can do the same. 

Anyway, even though parts of the castle are still in decent shape, it has been considered a ruin since the 1700s.

 

We rode a funicular up the hillside to the castle and took it back down.

Once back down in the city, we wandered a few blocks down the Haupt Strasse or pedestrian street. Lots of interesting buildings and shops, but it was too overwhelming to even know what stores to go into.

 

The large church on the Marktplatz, or market square, was the Church of the Holy Spirit. 

I walked part of the way across the Old Heidelberg Bridge, a historic stone walking bridge on Neckar River.

 

Along the river I walked past this swan and her partner, tending to their next of eight eggs. Oh, wouldn’t it have been sweet if they would have just hatched.

We ate lunch at the restaurant Zum Weissen Schwanen, which means “to the white swan". Did they know about the pair of swans a few blocks away?

I had the pork schnitzel with fries. It was good. Your basic meal.