Closeup of the ruined palace at Heidelberg Castle.
September 24
After waking up twice during the night thanks to jet lag, I actually got out of bed at about 8:30 a.m. Following a quick shower and a bite to eat, it was time to tackle the main business of the trip: sightseeing. The plan was to break into the sightseeing slowly by visiting some nearby attractions as a warm-up to the longer sightseeing legs of the trip that would be happing later in the trip. However, Kelly had other plans. He asked me to accompany him on an errand that would require us to go off base for a bit. While the errand was legitimate, the main reason Kelly wanted to get me off base was to take me on a ride in his Volvo S60 R. Of course, the only way to show off the car’s features was to drive it at 142 mph (about 230 kph) on the autobahn. I have to admit, Kelly made a great purchase. The car handles very well and accelerates like a dream. Still, it’s a little disconcerting to be going that fast in a car. I’ve been in a car going 100 mph before. But, 142 mph is a whole different level. Things go by so fast that they don’t seem quite real. It was fun to go that fast; but, I think I’d like to keep my driving under 100 mph in the future.
Once we returned to the base, we picked up Dianne, Denise, and Julia for our day trip to Heidelberg. I should mention that Dianne and I didn’t have any children at that time, so traveling with a two year old was a different experience. While Dianne had an understanding of what it takes to operate with small children (thanks to her nephew and niece), I had zero understanding in that area. Consequently, it was a bit of a surprise to me to see the effort that goes into the preparation for taking a two year old on a trip, and how much caring for them dominates a trip. Seeing the whole thing unfold just made me very grateful that Kelly and Denise showed us the level of hospitality that they did while dealing with Julia.
With Julia firmly secure and the rest of us comfortably stowed away, we set off for Heidelberg. I thought it would be a great place to start our German tour. Just about every travel book I’d read said that Heidelberg was the prettiest town in Germany. Kelly had told me that he agreed with that assessment. Plus, Heidelberg was having its Herbst (Harvest) Festival that day. So, I thought it would be a great place opportunity to immerse myself in all things German.
As we made drive to Heidelberg, I paid closer attention to the countryside. The landscape between Kaiserslautern and Heidelberg was made up of rolling hills, wide tracks of forest, quaint towns, quiet farms, occasional historical site, and impressive rivers. It was nothing outstanding, but it was very pleasant to observe. While I found my initial impression to be somewhat justified, I was reminded of a sentence in a Lonely Planet – Canada that I had read during my 1999 Canada trip. The sentence stated that the St. John River in New Brunswick was called “The Rhine of North America” because of the landscape around the St. John. Now, while I was driving through landscape defined by the Rhine River, I could see that the comparison was accurate.
After about an hour, we entered Heidelberg’s industrial suburbs. There wasn’t much of interest in these suburbs. But, things improved dramatically as we got closer to the town’s center. The buildings become older, the streets became narrower, and the entire scene was framed by a massive castle over the town and a river below the town. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why Heidelberg has its reputation.
As is the case with a lot of European town centers, Heidelberg’s old town is primarily a pedestrian walkway. However, there are a couple of roads that lead to underground parking garages beneath the old town. Kelly tried a couple of times to get to these roads. But, the crowds that were trying to attend the Herbst had jammed those entrances. We spent about a half hour driving around before one of those entrances cleared and he was able to park.
We began strolling Heidelberg’s streets, taking in the Herbst’s sights and sounds. There was plenty to see. The streets and squares were packed with people enjoying the food booths, souvenir stands, and bands. Overlooking all of this human activity was various buildings (houses, stores, and churches) that displayed some of the most graceful architecture I’d seen. It was a crowded, yet enjoyable, scene.
By now, we were getting hungry. However, we found that we were having trouble deciding what to get, because there were too many options from which to choose. We finally settled on a chicken kabob stand. Dianne and I had chicken kabobs for € 4, which were excellent. For desert, we found a cinnamon roll stand and purchased two rolls for € 1.50 each. As was the case with the kabobs, the rolls were excellent. But, we notice the first sign of a trait that we discovered throughout Germany. As has been our practice whenever we travel, Dianne and I learned a few key phrases of the native language of whatever country we were visiting before we arrived (obviously, in this case, we learned some German). We’ve found it to be a great way to break the ice with people in foreign countries. In every other county we’ve visited, we’ve found that people were very appreciative that we were trying to speak their language and were not offended at all by our mispronunciations. But, it was different in Germany. After a successful attempt at German at the kabob stand, we tried again at the cinnamon roll stand. After asking for a cinnamon roll in German, the stand’s operator gave us the price in English. When we said “Thank you” in German, he answered “Thank you” in English. Now, I know I look like an American when I travel. And, I’m sure that my accent gave no illusions about the depth of my (non-existent) German heritage. Still, in all my other travels, people would initially answer in their language, only to switch to English when it was clear I’d reached the end of my skills in that language. But, the Germans were different. The attitude seemed more to be “Look, we both know you don’t really speak German. Stop being condescending to my language, use English, and we’ll be done with this transaction as quickly as possible.” We found this unspoken attitude in other stores we visited in Heidelberg. I hoped that this attitude was simply a Heidelberg phenomenon, and dismissed it as such.
After eating, we continued our walking tour of Heidelberg. We stopped at Heidelberg University, where I bought a sweatshirt to add to my university attire collection. We also stopped in at the Kathe Wohlfahrt store. This store is famous for the amazing collection of Christmas ornaments and other holiday items that it contains. To say I was blown away by the collection would be an understatement. It was simply the best Christmas store I’ve in which I’ve been. And, the Heidelberg store isn’t the flagship store in the chain (that honor goes to the Rothenberg store). After visiting the Heidelberg store, I can’t imagine how much nicer the Rothenberg store is. Even if it isn’t as grand as the Rothenberg store, one should still make an effort to visit Kathe Wohlfahrt’s Heidelberg store.
With our shopping urges satisfied, we began to walk down some of old town Heidelberg’s side streets. These streets were just as crowded as the main streets. But, instead of food vendors, these streets were filled with Heidelberg’s residents. They had set up tables and were selling personal items. The whole scene felt like one big garage sale. It certainly wasn’t what I expected to find at the Herbst; but, it did give me another insight into German culture.
Eventually, our wanderings started taking us in the direction of the castle. As we made our way to this stately structure, we came across the Jesuit Church. I thought I’d poke my head in and see what it looked like. Unfortunately, there was a wedding going on when I arrived, so I wasn’t able to do much exploring. That was too bad, because the church’s interior was magnificent. The interior was painted in a pale green that glowed in the sunlight streaming through the windows. Complementing this interior was a white and gold baroque altar that could only be described as magnificent. I really wanted to do some picture taking. So, I resolved to return to the church after we had finished our castle visit.
We walked the steep path (carrying Julia up part of it) to the castle, eventually reaching the castle’s gates. It was € 3 per adult and € 1.50 per child to enter the castle. But, Julia was let in for free, which tells me that there must be some exemption for very small children. After paying we went to the castle’s terraces to look over Heidelberg’s old town. The perspective from this vantage point just confirmed why Heidelberg is considered so beautiful. We then went into the castle’s interior. Since most of the castle is a ruin, there aren’t many structures in the complex to visit. Still, the red sandstone ruins are magnificent enough to give one a very good impression of how imposing the castle must have been in its heyday.
We toured the castle’s courtyard and some of its ramparts. The only structure we visited was the building holding the massive wine barrels. I first saw the “smaller” barrel, and thought that was the big barrel. Then, I turned a corner and saw the real “big” barrel. “Big” doesn’t begin to describe it. It is so massive that one has to climb a set of stairs to reach the top. It’s definitely one of the best attractions inside the castle.
We could tell from the large number of people (both tourists and residents) that the castle was a very popular place to visit. This point was brought home when we saw the couple that was earlier being married at the Jesuit Church. They were posing for their “after wedding” pictures in the castle’s courtyard. Seeing them reminded me that I wanted to visit the church after their wedding had finished. So, we ventured back into the town. I got to the church, only to find the doors had closed at 5 p.m. I was disappointed, but I was also getting tired. The jet lag was settling in again. Hence, we got back in the car and headed back to Ramstein. I went to bed, feeling very satisfied that this trip had gotten off on the right step.
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