Heidelberg (05.02.07)

and so after the fateful weekend trip to konstanz, we (including ivina this time) braved the trains again to nearby heidelberg on monday, only 30 min away by s-bahn (which is the local train connection). upon arrival we made our usual pilgrimage to the iPunkt which supplied us with the city map and bus information, and we were on our way to the romantic old town of Heidelberg!

i really have to say that heidelberg is the one of the most beautiful places in germany. the old architecture and ruined castle, the cobbled streets and old town split by the neckar river. just so enchanting.

we made out way up the castle first, taking the steeper route as we couldn't find the gentler one.
we wandered around the ruins of the garden and climbed around, taking pictures of the town and river below us. walking deeper in we found a HUGE brewery and some korean tourists. there was a museum of, i forgot, some chemistry/pharmaceutical stuff inside where we found burettes and pipettes and condensers. haha.

walking on we found the schlossgarten (schloss being the german word for castle and garten, garden). there were empty ponds with these very tiny wooden slopes leading to the edges, which jt helpfully pointed out that "you see! these are to help the turtles to climb into the pond!!" after which there was a stunned silence.


so we went to explore the old town in search of lunch after the castle, and settled on a rather good meal of salmon spaghetti for me, boiled pork knuckle for the guys and fish fingers for ivina (whom i guess was rather thankful we didn't subject her to another meal of DONER, the turkish bread meal so commonly found here). jt was full from bread. haha. walking around the hauptstrasse (main street), we admired the old buildings and assortment of shops like bakeries and toy shops which sold giraffe stuffed toys (about a metre tall) for 1200+ euros and stuffed elephants for1500 euros!!! THREE THOUSAND SGD. you say mad or not?

we crossed the neckar river on the old bridge and had quite a nice view of the ruined castle from the bridge. the best thing about walking around in that cold rainy weather was the piping hot cup of hot chocolate in our hands. too bad it turns cold soon after. walked back to the town after that and shopped for a bit, since us bruchsal bumpkins hardly see any shopping centres, and after dinner, it was back to hall sweet hall!