After eating our complimentary breakfast and checking out of the hotel in Luxembourg on Sunday, we piled into Angel and Randy’s Mini and set off for Germany. As we drove, we were treated to beautiful, lush rolling hills and farmland as we crossed the border and made our way to Heidelberg, directed by Randy’s mostly-infallible dashboard GPS.
Once we crossed into Heidelberg, the GPS began to direct us to the preprogrammed end-point of Parking Lot 9 (affectionately known to the locals as “P9”), near the Heidelberg castle - which was our ultimate destination (though P9 would’ve been nice to visit too, I’m sure). Unfortunately, the settings seemed to be off a bit at this point, and we ended up at P7. No worries, though – we weren’t particularly partial to any one parking lot, so P7 seemed as good a choice as any. However, P7 – though it was clearly a parking structure – had no obvious way of getting the area in which one might actually park a car. Instead, it basically consisted of an entry ramp, sign pointing to parking and then an immediate exit ramp dumping us back on the road on which we’d started (in the opposite direction) - so, basically a very elaborate U-turn.
Unfazed by our bad parking karma up to this point, we headed onto the parking lot of the next descending odd number – the Germans are known for being very structured and orderly, after all – and we finally found parking nirvana in the form of P5.
With all the hard work that we’d put into parking the car, we decided that we best be eatin’ lunch before storming the castle, so we found ourselves an authentic Heidelbergian Italian restaurant and had our fill of lasagna, pesto and spaghetti. We’re working our way up the sausages and beer. You can’t just jump into these things, my friends.
Having just consumed massive amounts of carb-o-licious goodness, we then put those carbs to good use as we hiked up a very steep grade to the rocky hilltop on which the castle stood. And when we got the top, we were well-rewarded with an amazing view of the valley below and beautiful old stone castle to explore. We stopped at the entrance to the castle grounds to rent four English audio guides and headed up to the first terrace, which sits just outside the castle-proper and offers a stunning panorama of the surrounding landscape. From there we meandered over to ticket booth and bought the tickets that would allow us to cross the dry moat via a big medieval drawbridge into the heart of the castle.
Once inside the castle, we walked around and saw the usual castle stuff – large, fortified stone walls, deep wells, a big central square – and the not-so-usual GIGANTIC wine barrel (the size of our entire living room) that was, according to the tour, kept full via a constant supply from the local townspeople. There was also a cool old castle tower that has split diagonally in half at one point, with the outside half falling artistically into the adjacent moat. To accompany this portion of the tour, they had a quote describing the beauty of scene from…who else: Mark Twain, of course! Yup good ol’ Marky-Mark-of-the-Days-of-Yore apparently crossed the Atlantic at one point to see the glory that was the Heidelberg Castle. Who knew?!?! (Answer: apparently the people who put together the audio tour knew. Try to keep up, people.)
Beyond the photo-fantabulous tower, we then entered the terrace garden on the outside of the castle, took a gander at a nice naked-man fountain (in Europe, it scandalous when the statues have clothes ON) and then headed out to another terrace with yet another breathtaking view of the surrounding land.
At this point, we’d seen what there was to see of the castle, so we headed down to the town of Heidelberg, where Angel added to her Starbuck-mugs-of-the-world collection with the official Heidelberg issue and then we grabbed some coffee and Coke across the street because Starbucks was too crowded for us all to sit there. (You’d think that, as Seattleites, we’d get some sort of trump card that would allow us to bump someone out of a filled seat at any Starbucks anywhere in the world. But, it turns out that’s just a ‘Get Into Jail Free’ card. Now we know…).
Once we’d finished our drinks, Randy and Angel were kind enough to drop us at the train station as they started on their way back home to Stuttgart. It was great to see them we hope that we will have the opportunity to meet up with them again soon somewhere in the world. Thanks for a great couple days, Angel and Randy!
Next stop: Munich!
Once we crossed into Heidelberg, the GPS began to direct us to the preprogrammed end-point of Parking Lot 9 (affectionately known to the locals as “P9”), near the Heidelberg castle - which was our ultimate destination (though P9 would’ve been nice to visit too, I’m sure). Unfortunately, the settings seemed to be off a bit at this point, and we ended up at P7. No worries, though – we weren’t particularly partial to any one parking lot, so P7 seemed as good a choice as any. However, P7 – though it was clearly a parking structure – had no obvious way of getting the area in which one might actually park a car. Instead, it basically consisted of an entry ramp, sign pointing to parking and then an immediate exit ramp dumping us back on the road on which we’d started (in the opposite direction) - so, basically a very elaborate U-turn.
Unfazed by our bad parking karma up to this point, we headed onto the parking lot of the next descending odd number – the Germans are known for being very structured and orderly, after all – and we finally found parking nirvana in the form of P5.
With all the hard work that we’d put into parking the car, we decided that we best be eatin’ lunch before storming the castle, so we found ourselves an authentic Heidelbergian Italian restaurant and had our fill of lasagna, pesto and spaghetti. We’re working our way up the sausages and beer. You can’t just jump into these things, my friends.
Having just consumed massive amounts of carb-o-licious goodness, we then put those carbs to good use as we hiked up a very steep grade to the rocky hilltop on which the castle stood. And when we got the top, we were well-rewarded with an amazing view of the valley below and beautiful old stone castle to explore. We stopped at the entrance to the castle grounds to rent four English audio guides and headed up to the first terrace, which sits just outside the castle-proper and offers a stunning panorama of the surrounding landscape. From there we meandered over to ticket booth and bought the tickets that would allow us to cross the dry moat via a big medieval drawbridge into the heart of the castle.
Once inside the castle, we walked around and saw the usual castle stuff – large, fortified stone walls, deep wells, a big central square – and the not-so-usual GIGANTIC wine barrel (the size of our entire living room) that was, according to the tour, kept full via a constant supply from the local townspeople. There was also a cool old castle tower that has split diagonally in half at one point, with the outside half falling artistically into the adjacent moat. To accompany this portion of the tour, they had a quote describing the beauty of scene from…who else: Mark Twain, of course! Yup good ol’ Marky-Mark-of-the-Days-of-Yore apparently crossed the Atlantic at one point to see the glory that was the Heidelberg Castle. Who knew?!?! (Answer: apparently the people who put together the audio tour knew. Try to keep up, people.)
Beyond the photo-fantabulous tower, we then entered the terrace garden on the outside of the castle, took a gander at a nice naked-man fountain (in Europe, it scandalous when the statues have clothes ON) and then headed out to another terrace with yet another breathtaking view of the surrounding land.
At this point, we’d seen what there was to see of the castle, so we headed down to the town of Heidelberg, where Angel added to her Starbuck-mugs-of-the-world collection with the official Heidelberg issue and then we grabbed some coffee and Coke across the street because Starbucks was too crowded for us all to sit there. (You’d think that, as Seattleites, we’d get some sort of trump card that would allow us to bump someone out of a filled seat at any Starbucks anywhere in the world. But, it turns out that’s just a ‘Get Into Jail Free’ card. Now we know…).
Once we’d finished our drinks, Randy and Angel were kind enough to drop us at the train station as they started on their way back home to Stuttgart. It was great to see them we hope that we will have the opportunity to meet up with them again soon somewhere in the world. Thanks for a great couple days, Angel and Randy!
Next stop: Munich!
Glad to hear you were able to hook up with Angel and Randy and that you all had a great visit. Can't wait to hear how Munich is. Hopefully you will try some GERMAN food! LOL
ReplyDelete