Thursday 12th
Another early morning! But I was very excited as I had high hopes for Heidelberg :D I'd asked Ingo a while ago what city was close to his parents that was my definition of a "Fairy Town" ie. a town that looks like it comes straight from a fairy tale, but that was still big enough to not be boring, and he came up with Heidelberg.
And I must say when the bus first pulled into the city I at first felt a little bit let down. But I wasn't going to let that get in the way of my day, so straight to the Tourist Info centre and passing that saw my first impression of a city with a lot of bikes and bikers. A lot. There was a whole bike park full of bikes! everywhere! and Ingo was telling me how all the bikes will be old so that they don't get parts stollen so since then I've been pointing out every new bike I see just to prove him wrong ;)
The weather wasn't that great again but still warm, and we'd seen that there was the possibility of a summer storm which I was excited to see - real lightning! So we started our wanderings...
...and there are Trams and buses ANd the U-bahn (underground trains) in Heidelberg! and then we walked in (what I'm sure was NOT) the direction of the city centre (but Ingo assures me it was) around a couple of corners straight smack bang into the middle of my fairy tale town! :D :D I was sooooo happy! It was/Is perfect! with a market square and a little church and vines big trees and old cottage like houses :D
So, I informed Ingo, I've found my future neighbourhood haha ;)
and then we went into the little church after eating our home packed lunch, and I tried to see if Ingo would ask if I could play tHIs churches organ but he wouldn't :s Just as we were coming outside it started to rain, so we put up the umbrella and started walking down the road, and then the rain got heavier and heavier so we ran to the nearest tree and cowered under that with the umbrella up me in my jandals (it was still warm) and it just didn't stop! It was hilarious! I said, "we're going to have to stay here for aaages!!!!" but then we decided to make a move, and as soon as we started out from under the safety of the tree, the rain started to lessen off :)
When we found the main stretch of the city again I was stoked to find that it too - the main shopping street! - didn't disappoint my fairy tale town. The buildings are all old and beautiful terracotta coloured or sandstone and trees and vines all down the street. It's a pedestrian only street so there were tables out with big umbrellas and heaps of people wandering, a couple of mid street stalls and lots and lots and lots of teeny side streets that lead to either the Rhine on one side (I just caught Ingo out on the whole what river is where thing so I hope I haven't gone and got it wrong now :s) or up into the hills on the other, with little shops and cafes and secret garden type spaces :)
We went to the university to have a look and the building is again years old and awesome, plus I think that added to my ease of the city, having all the students around, kind of felt like a Wellington from another world :)
I also went to buy some stamps and Ingo made me ask the shop assistant myself how much it costs to send a postcard to New Zealand and ask for how many stamps I needed, so after a little bit of rehearsal i went up and asked! :D and she answered me in German! slowly, she definitley knew I was not a natural German speaker but still in German! she didn't resort to English! and so I bought my stamps and posted my post cards (we'll soon find out whether or not I was understood as well as I hoped :s it was such an achievement! :D
Then we walked up the 303 stairs (that's what the sign said, turns out it was more like 330) to get to the Castle and Palace the "Heidelberger Schloss" which was overwhelmingly huge. (I keep trying to come up with new adjectives to describe these places, really the only way is with a WOW. and that just doesn't do them justice!) We wandered around for a good hour or so there, but easily could have been longer... Again they seem to block off all the parts that look really interesting and cool, but we saw one couple walking below us through an arch walkway that looked cool and then spent 20mins trying to find the place! We never did, so I think that we'll have to definitely go back some time soon :) It also had quite a few places that were off limits just because they were trying to stop it falling apart, so hopefully one day it those areas will be safer and explorable. It was essentially a city inside the walls, and they'd built a stairway down into the grounds around (as none of the doorways out from the inside were in accesible areas) and I had to explain to Ingo how "yes, the staircase is new, because otherwise what would have been the point in building all these massive eff-off walls if they were just going to be like to their enemies; 'nope! only joking! you can come in, here we've put in this nice easy to access stairway just so you can get right on into our castle/palace'" :/ I got a look for that one ;) hehe!
After the palace we wandered down one through some random streets as I learnt Ingo's number one rule for traveling: never go back the way you came, then you'll never see anything new. Practical advice. And was amazing some of the houses (houses!) that people live in - more like their own little mini years old castles - awesome! Made our way back to the main city centre to find a place to eat.
Ingo was adamant that I had to try a traditional German dish so I ordered Kaesespaetzle which turns out is very similar to macaroni and cheese! :D so I was happy! it was a bit different though, with noodle-y things instead of the elbows and no bacon or tomato - instead it had dried fried onions with it nom nom noms!
After dinner (and beer naturally) we slowly made our way back to the station to catch our bus back again to home base.
Summary: Love Heidelberg, want to go back. Awesome day :D
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