Back in the day. (To Heidelberg)

My dad was stationed in Heidelberg the year it was founded!  (Just kidding, Dad, but seriously a long time ago.)  When my parents came to visit two weeks after we arrived in Germany, that was the first place he was itching to go.  So, we went. (Monday, February 20th)

Heidelberg was the political center of the Lower Palatinate (defined as: the territory of the German Empire ruled by the count palatine of the Rhine).  France sacked the town twice in the late 1690s.  It's the site of Germany's oldest and most famous university.  It's a pretty great tourist town, too.  The Haupstrasse has a ton of shopping (including an Apple store).

We visited the Schloss, which means castle but that is its name (weird).  We did not go through the tour.  We would have had to wait a long time for the next one to run and Dad was antsy to get moving. :) So we walked around the entire Schloss campus, which was quite amazing.  We visited the Deutsches Apotheken-Museum (German Apothecary Museum), which I really had no interest in but it was free.  We took some great pics and moved onto the Haupstrasse were we looked for Dad's old haunts.  There have been a lot changes in 40 years though.  We went in February in the middle of the week, so not much was open (in the way of attractions).  We were able to walk into the churches, but they were closed.  We walked the Alte Brucke (Old Bridge), and took more pictures.  We did a lot of walking and reminiscing.  Oh, I need to add the parking experience we had.  Parking and driving in Heidelberg was not easy at all.  We pretty much saw the entire town and the all the neighborhoods trying to find a place to park.  Jeremy was unbelivably patient though the whole process.  Dad and I are not good back seat drivers.  Jeremy finally spotted a parking deck that our car barely fit in.  Driving that big old Taurus X though the skinny driveways and parking spots is not fun, but Jeremy did it like a champ.

Ok, so previously in on of our posts I mentioned that we went back to Heidelberg with our favorite Karl (because he was driving = free gas).  We went Saturday, March 10th when the weather was showing signs of Spring.  There is a huge difference going site-seeing on the weekends.  It was packed, and it wasn't even warm out.  Craziness!  But we got to see different things than when we went with my parents.  We went back to the Schloss and again opted out of the tour.  I'll get into the castle one day before we leave.  We ate at some restaurant on the Haupstrasse and loved it!  They put a slice of orange in my ginger ale.  Yum!  We took our time walking up and down the Haupstrasse going in the shops we wanted to and hitting all of the churches on the way.  We ventured into the Heiliggeistkirche (Church of the Holy Ghost).  This church dates back to 1398, and of course this church was also ravished by ruffians and thieves.  I think that's the normal story for all important buildings in Germany.  Ok, but what was different about this church was that they let you climb to the bell tower.  Jeremy volunteered to stay with the baby, which was good because I guarantee you that there was not enough room in that stairwell for her to be carried up to the top.  Walking people only allowed.  It was the skinniest spiral staircase I've been in.  I hear Cologne is worse with their churches and whatnots, but wow!  If you are seriously claustrophobic, you will NOT want to do this one.  There isn't enough room in there for a handrail, so they give you a rope to hold on to, and trust me you will hold on to it.  I'm 5'5" and I had to duck through some of the areas.  Once you get to the top though, the view is great.  You can walk around the entire bell tower.  The view is great; you can see the Marktplatz and the Schloss perfectly from the top.  I didn't bring my camera, though I have to say I needed both hands to get up and down the staircase.  Going down was worse than up.  I was a bit green for about an hour and a half after my decent from the top.  I sat for a while to get my bearings.  Thought I was going to blow some chunks towards the end.  Great experience though; sorry Jeremy missed out on that.  After that, we were pretty much done with our day.  I think we'd seen about three churches along the Haupstrasse and done a little shopping and it was probably 1600.  We got in the car and drove the one hour home.  It's such a pretty drive too.

~Tara