Heidelberg

For a few months now, I’ve wanted to go somewhere for a day trip, but this idea had until recently been thwarted by 1.) labwork 2.) everything being closed Sundays and 3.) crappy weather. A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to have a Saturday free from labwork and rain (well, mostly free from rain), so I caught the train down to Heidelberg. I had heard that there was a big fireworks show a few times a year in Heidelberg, and that Saturday was one of those occasions. So I organised to meet up with Joel (an American who who works in a town not too far from Mainz, who I met at my hostel in Bratislava) and some of his friends, to make the most of this occasion.

Heidelberg is basically known for its beautiful “old town”, its castle, its historic funicular railway and its university. The first thing I saw in Heidelberg, as I made my way to the tourist information desk, was this bike parking lot:



I have no story to go with that, I just thought it was cool :)

Most towns over here have their own card, which gives you unlimited public transport for the day, and lots of discounts on major attractions. So I bought a Heidelberg Card, but was soon disappointed when I read the book and discovered it no longer included public transport. Determined to make use of my card, I first made my way to the river, where I quickly bought a discounted ticket for a boat that was making ready to leave for a trip down the Neckar River. Little did I know that the boat ride was about 3 hours long... At least I saw plenty of scenery! Here’s a misty view of the castle from our boat:



The Neckar is actually sloped, and originally cargo ships used a 155km long chain in the river to pull themselves upstream. Nowadays, there are 27 locks along the length of the river, which are basically little walled areas that the ships park in, then the gate is closed, then water is either pumped in or drained out so the ship ends up being level with the next section of the river. Good idea, but painfully slow. We had to do this four times is our trip, and each time it took about 10 minutes. You can see the different levels of the river on the right hand side of this photo:



After finally making it off the ship, I headed towards the castle. On the way, I passed “Madonna of the Kornmarkt”:



This statue was erected in the late 1600s, when Heidelberg was taken over by a Catholic sovereign, who used religious propaganda such as pamphlets, processions and madonna statues to try to convert the then primarily Protestant community back to Catholicism.

Once I reached the base of the hill that the castle stood on, I made used of my Heidelberg Card a second time, by gaining free admission to the funicular railway (and yes, I had the old Pizza Singles ad song in my head as I hopped aboard).



This 1.5km long railway was opened in 1890 and has a 43% gradient at its steepest point. It carries tourists to the castle (about 1/3 of the way up), then up to Königstuhl (King’s Chair), which is an area of forests and walking tracks. Here’s the view from the top:



I decided to walk along a little circuit through the forest, which the sign said should take about an hour (which at a normal walking pace usually means about 30mins). Sadly, the map I’d found was not particularly useful as it had no road names on it, so I just followed the signs that said Nature Walk. After walking for about 30 minutes, it occurred to me that I had been going down-hill most of the time, so was probably going a long long way off-track. Then a couple of men drove past in a tractor and I knew I was out of the tourist area. So I trecked back up the hill, which my calves told me was pretty bloody big. Oh well, at least I worked off the Bratwurst I had for lunch on the boat. Here’s the pretty forest:



On my way back to the railway, I found a number of cool pieces of nature-inspired artwork, like this footed bench:



I also found the most colourful slug I have ever seen, clinging to an old tree stump:



I made my way back down to the castle via the railway, then proceeded to join the other tourists in taking hundreds of photos. Here are a few:









Inside the castle (free entry again, thanks Heidelberg Card) they had a giant wine barrel, which was surrounded by swarms of tourists. I’m not sure of the significance of this barrel, but by god it was massive (and you could climb over it!)



One of the best things about the castle was the view you could get from it. This is your stereotypical old German town view:



At the castle, I met up with Joel and his friends (4 Americans and 1 Russian), then we proceeded to act like the biggest tourists possible, playing with all the crappy souvienirs we could get our hands on. Joel and Tiffany demonstrate their talents below:



After wandering for awhile, we made our way to a German restaurant for dinner. I had some kind of south-German pizza (called Flamkuchen), which had a really flaky pastry, sour cream, tomatoes and chillies – very nice! We then got some Haagen-Daaz ice cream, which you can see us eating below (terrible photo of me, but I’m posting it anyway):



From this point on we basically wandered along the river for aaaages, trying to find a good spot from which to view the fireworks. As time ticked away, there were many “discussions” about what was more important for us to have a clear view of – the castle or the bridge – but Tim the Russian guy won out with his bridge argument, since he was the only one who had been there before. With only seconds to spare, we settled on a spot, and the show began with the castle being illuminated in blood red, to symbolise it being burned down (I think). By the time the fireworks started, we had found some good accompanying music on Joel’s phone (possibly to the annoyance of the surrounding spectators), and we proceeded to ooh and aah for the next ten minutes or so. I couldn’t get any decent photos, but you can check out the official website for a couple.

Then came the “Us vs The Crowd” battle, as we migrated en masse back over the bridge, to the city side of the river. Our group then halved in size as the girls bid their farewells (I refrained from yelling out “SOFT!”, because I think they had been out the night before), then our battle continued as we tried to find a bar that we wouldn’t be crushed to death in. We eventually found an okay one, then Joel introduced me to the magic of the Jaeger Bomb (a drink, for those responsible enough not to know). The magic was improved by the fact that the bar tender poured about 4 shots of Jaeger into each glass. And I’m not even exaggerating. Here’s me, Thom and Joel on a Jaeger-fuelled high:



Early in the night, I was disappointed at the lack of dance floor, but fortunately we had such staying power that eventually most of the crowd disappeared and we were able to create our own in front of the bar. Then, to cap it all off, Tim (obviously having encountered many an Aussie backpacker) surprised me by requesting “Land Down Under”, which we hollered at the top of our lungs. Good times.

The next day I was feeling pretty seedy, but luckily it passed by the afternoon, because I had to be at another pretty German town for a Silbermond concert. I went with Dani and her boyfriend, and it was actually a festival called “Hessentag”, and Silbermond was the special guest act. It was a really good show, but no photos, sadly, because we were told no cameras (although 90% of the people there had them anyway), but you can check the band out on Youtube if you’re bored.

In summary, it was a very busy weekend, and to top it off, I had to go to the lab after the concert to change media on some cells (at about 1am, eyes half closed). Just goes to show, you’ve gotta make sacrifices to travel!!