I want to apologize in advance for three things: 1) how long it's taken me to get this day posted along with the length of the post; 2) the quality of the photos - my phone camera didn't have a full charge, so the color isn't as good as it has been in my other posts; 3) my ineptness in trying to describe the beauty and history of the Castle. We are talking centuries of history! From the 1300's until the 1800's and then on to today. I don't think I can do it justice. Nor is there enough space on this blog to show you every photo I took. Many are very poor quality and I've had to delete them. It means we have to come back for another visit, which is terrific since we didn't see enough of old Heidelberg on this visit.
It appears we're going to have wonderful weather for our outing except our timing was bad. I stayed up late the night before working on some company work that needed to be completed before I could enjoy the weekend. It was almost 1am before I got to bed. This resulted in us getting up later than we would have liked. By the time we got ready, it was about 9:30.
Of course, my husband was hungry and since we hadn't gone to the base for U.S. grocery staples like I had asked him to do earlier in the week, we didn't have any cereal for a quick breakfast. He wanted to go out to breakfast and check out the Cafe Del Sol. Men and their stomachs! I reminded him that Germany was not the U.S. and they didn't have breakfast places like we were used to.
Of course, I was not a happy camper because I knew it would take over an hour to eat and another hour plus to get there. UGH! The day was not going well at all. It turned out that the Cafe had a brunch on Saturday (go figure) so we could eat quickly. They had traditional American fare: Bacon, eggs, sausage plus salmon, mozzarella, salads and lunch meats, not to mention butter "Bretzel" (Pretzel - like the ones you get at the mall), breads and croissants plus diverse kinds of yogurts. My favorite was the fresh mozzarella and the fabulous...and I mean fabulous Strawberry yogurt. I've never had yogurt that good!
Now that his tummy was filled, he was able to drive us the one hour plus drive to get to Heidelberg. Most of it was on the freeways and Autobahn. I didn't have an address for the castle so he kept driving through Heidelberg to the next town, just meandering along. Finally, I decided to use "Ms. Andrews - the GPS lady" to find the nearest Tourist Information Center. I would not have minded the side trip because the views were so gorgeous but darn it, I wanted to see the Castle.
So we find the Tourist Information Center and wonders of wonders, we were able to land a plum parking space not far from the Tourist office. As I look around, there are hundreds, if not thousands of bicycles parked next to the Tourist office. I think these are bikes that can be rented hourly or daily. I look across the street and there's this curious sculpture in front of a building that looks like its some sort of printing or media firm...perhaps a "Zeitung" (Newspaper) Publishing Company? I don't know...but the sculpture is cool. That circle in the middle moves round and round.
The Tourist office clerk speaks English and informs us of our options to go see the Castle. I wanted the "Heidelberg Card" because everything is pre-paid and you don't have to worry about it!
She proceeds to tell us about the things we can do with the card and that there's a bus (#33) that will take us to the Castle. It should only take about 15 minutes to get there. I thought this was perfect because then Ted could enjoy the view without having to worry about parking and be able to see something of the city from the bus.
So we leave the tourist office and I thought we had to take the bus on the left side of the building but there was my husband saying, no, we get the bus over here, in front of the Tourist Office. OK, so I follow along because a bus just pulled up and it's #33. He didn't want to miss it. So we run across the street in front of the tourist center and catch the bus.
On the way, we have a great view of different streets and buildings. I was SO surprised to see a Woolworth's store! I thought that company was long gone. It made me feel like I was back in the States!
Well, 15 minutes turns into half an hour and I don't see the name of stop that was typed on the tiny piece of paper the tourist lady gave us. Finally, we were the last ones on the bus and the bus came to a stop. The bus driver, who speaks English, asked us where we were going...and we replied, to the Castle! He informs us we are on the wrong bus. Apparently, there are two #33 buses! We took the one going in the opposite direction. (Thank you, Ted!) By now it's after 2pm and I wonder if we will make the guided tour. The last one is at 4:15!
He told us that there's another #33 bus coming in 15 minutes that will take us back the way we came and then on to the Castle. Keep in mind that these buses stop every so often and pick up people and drop off people so it takes a bit of time to get from one place to another. But no matter, this too, is interesting because we are totally with the locals. We see all kinds of people and all kinds of nationalities. What I found totally amazing is that there were little old ladies and old men who needed help. Complete strangers (and these were young people from aged 12 to about 22) to help them with their walkers and wheelchairs. I thought that was SO nice and that these young people had been raised right. Even the children that got on, were orderly and didn't make a lot of noise.
And it was a pleasant experience even though it took two hours for a 15 minute bus ride to the Castle. Once again, my dear husband, didn't listen to me! If we had gone to the SIDE of the tourist center instead of to the FRONT, we would have been at the Castle hours ago.
Oh well, chalk it up to experience! So we finally reach the stop for the Castle and it turns out that you have to take a tram up the side of the hill (through a tunnel) to get to the Castle. What I didn't know was that even though we had a Heidelberg Card, we still had to show it to get tickets for everything! We would have been better off to just buy the tickets we needed when we needed them. We had to stand in line anyways! I sure hope we can make the 4:15 guided tour.
Thankfully, while standing in line, we each were able to hit the restroom before going any further (and now I'm thankful that we had that big breakfast because we won't be having dinner anytime soon!). So we amble onto the tram. It goes through a tunnel and up the hill. When we disembark, we are in the street and I can see the Castle!
Lessons learned:
1. Get an address before leaving the house!
2. Keep the camera fully charged
Part 2 coming soon!
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