Heidelberg (Heidelberg)

Member Name: Whizz11

Product:	Heidelberg
Date:	08/09/09 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Old, historic, pretty

Disadvantages: None

Heidelberg in general

I recently came back from a week in Heidelberg in Germany and so thought I would share my experiences with you.

Heidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany and is located in the Southern part of the country, near to Frankfurt. It sits on the Neckar River and so is a really picturesque city with beautiful views up and down the river. It is also a university town, the University of Heidelberg being one of Europe's oldest educational institutions. It was founded in 1386 and I believe is actually Germany's oldest university. This was actually the main reason why we visited Heidelberg. My mother had been a foreign exchange student there 40 years ago and so for her 60th birthday we took her back for a surprise visit to Heidelberg.

We stayed in a hotel in Bismark Platz which is a big square with lots of shops around it. It gave us really access into Heidelberg old town which is where most of the touristy locations are. You walk down a pedestrian-ized street which is lined with shops, restaurants, tourist shops etc. When it came to eating lunch and dinner we mainly stayed close to this street as they offered a nice mix of cake shops and traditional restaurants. Most of the food was what I would describe as typically German, especially in the pub type restaurants. Examples include lots of meat dishes, stodgy food, German noodles, apple strudel etc. I found the food very filling and after a while a bit too rich for me but they did do salads and pasta, pizza too if that is too much for you.

The old town is where you need to head to find the tourist points of interest. We firstly decided to take a scenic walk up in the hills to get a beautiful view over the city, the river, the castle and the historic Heidelberg Bridge. The walk is called Philosophenwe, translated as The Philosophers Walk, so called because Heidelberg's philosophers and university teachers are said to have once walked and talked here. It can be found on the northern side of the Neckar. It's quite a steep walk in places, especially at the beginning so not for the faint hearted but I managed it when I was six months pregnant so I guess it's not too bad. You don't need hiking boots or anything like that, it can be done in trainers or flip flops. You do get some beautiful views. There are some places to stop along the way, including a garden with benches which is nice to just sit in for a while to recover from your initial trek. There are some information signs along the way too to tell you what you are looking at. At the end it leads you to the Heidelberg Bridge.

The bridge is a stone bridge which was erected from 1786 to 1788. There is a medieval bridge gate on the side of the old town which was originally part of its town wall.

From here we visited Heidelberg castle, most of which is in ruins. Even so, it is quite a striking building. It is located on the side of a hill and so has some beautiful views from the top. The castle is a mixture of styles from Gothic to Renaissance. There is a special train you catch which firstly takes you to the castle. You then pay an entrance fee to go in which if I can remember rightly was about 6 Euros per person which in my opinion was not too bad. There was not too much to see. There of course are the views and a few exhibitions inside but as most of it is in ruins this is all you see. There is a beautiful park on the outside of the castle and inside you can buy refreshments, drinks etc.

The train which takes you to the castle also includes a funicular railway which you can take further up to see even more spectacular views. I definitely recommend this, even just for the train ride. The train is on of course on a cable and is pulled up at a very steep angle. The angle is quite incredible to watch and go up and it's very high when you get to the top. The air is actually quite thin at the top so I wouldn't recommend going up there for long although there is not much to see apart from that.

We also visited the various university buildings as my mum showed us around. There is a university museum. It's not very big but you do see some old photographs of the university and also see how it has progressed in recent years. The sciences are very prominent here and The University of Heidelberg was actually attended by Robert Bunsen, creator of the Bunsen Burner. You can actually see an example of his early work in the museum which is quite interesting. We were given a mini tour by one of the museum employees who took us into one of the old lecture halls and he had a great many stories to tell.

Another nice tourist activity is a boat ride down the Neckar. We took a 4 hour boat ride which cost about 12 Euros each. It was a big passenger boat with an open top which is where we sat. I have to say that 4 hours was probably a bit too long but it was nice just to relax and sunbathe for a while without having to walk around looking at things. The boat gave information over the PA system in both German and English pointing out different things to see on the shore. The Neckar has a number of locks and they were quite fun navigating them.

In conclusion I would say that Heidelberg is a nice city to visit, something different from the ordinary. The people were very friendly, they all spoke English and made you feel welcome. A week is definitely enough time to be there as you can see everything very comfortably in that time.

Summary: Heidelberg, Germany