Lost my heart?? mmm Maybe (Heidelberg)

Member Name: Katz1

Product:	Heidelberg
Date:	28/08/01 (144 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great place to live, go out in, visit as a tourist

Disadvantages: Just too damn popular with tourists

I’ve been meaning to write this article ever since I started dooyooing but I keep avoiding it as I have a feeling it’s going to be long!! This should be a handy guide if you intend to visit the area, so you might want to print it out.

Why am I qualified to write this article?

I’ve been living in the area for a year now and go out in Heidelberg at least once a week. I have gained a pretty good insight into what there is to do in this very busy town – and also what should be avoided.

Is another article on Heidelberg necessary?

The other articles I have read on this site about Heidelberg are not 100% up-to-date and either provide a history overload or give a decidedly bloke perspective, focussing on the variety of drinking establishments etc available (of which, admittedly, Heidelberg has more than its fair share, and upon which I shall also provide further elaboration). My intention here is to offset the balance and give a girl’s view on the choice of sights, restaurants, cafes, bars and of course shops that Heidelberg has to offer.
But first of all...

What is Heidelberg like for non-German speakers?

I would here and now like to lay to rest any language worries you might have: if you don’t speak German, it won’t be a problem; Heidelberg is probably the most international German town I have ever been to - everybody and his dog seems to speak English (yes, speaking dogs...). In fact, as a German speaker, it is quite annoying for me, because as soon as someone realises that I am English, they immediately insist speaking it! Most of the menus in Restaurants are multilingual too and if you happen to be given a German-only menu, they usually have English versions available if you ask.

What are the sights worth seeing?

Heidelberg, is, without a doubt, gorgeous. It is quite a large town set in a valley in the pretty, hilly Rhein-Neckar triangle region of Bade
n-Württemberg. The fast-flowing river Neckar runs through the centre of the town and is part of the reason Heidelberg is so beautiful. The other reason is the castle, which no self-respecting tourist can leave without visiting. The castle is situated on a hill at the far end of the Hauptstraße (main pedestrian precinct where all the shops are situated). I don’t want to bore you with history, so I won’t, but there are tourist brochures you can buy, which will provide you with all the necessary information.

What is there to do as a tourist?

On a sunny day, taking a boat trip down the Neckar is a good plan. I went on one just last week with a group of people from work. You get to see Heidelberg and the surrounding region from a completely different angle and the view is wonderful. A two hour return boat trip will set you back about 20DM (≈ £6.50). Trips depart every hour or so in high season, so you shouldn’t have to wait around too long.

If you fancy something slightly more active (but only slightly), the canoe club will hire you out a pedalo that you can use on the river for half an hour or more. This is quite popular in nice weather but is great relaxing fun. A half hour trip costs just 10DM for two to three people – bargain!

If you’d like a different kind of challenge, why not take a walk (or hike) up the Philosophenweg – this is a path up into the mountain on the opposite side of the river to the castle. It takes a couple of hours to walk to the top, and is quite steep in parts, so remember to bring comfortable shoes. The view from the top is spectacular and there is also an outdoor amphitheatre there from the times of the 3rd Reich (I don’t think this is advertised in the tourist brochures, due to general German embarrassment about the Nazi history).

As already touched upon, a trip around the castle is a must. The cost to walk around the grounds is 4DM per adult and the t
ape recorded guided tour (where you wander around the grounds listening to an automatic contraption that looks a bit like a telephone with a battery power pack – very amusing sight for those not participating) is about 6DM (two quid approx.). I haven’t been on this guided tour as I feel you can see enough of the castle by yourself (and have no patience with poorly translated history bumph), but if you want to learn more about the history and see more of the building, it might be worth it. There is also an apothecary museum on the castle site (with lots of old-fashioned medicines in it) which is worth seeing if the weather isn’t so good. And don’t forget to visit the “Großer Faß” (big barrel) – this is a gigantic beer barrel and is one of the big tourist attractions of the castle. If you can bear to squeeze past the hordes of Japanese and American tourists, it’s quite impressive (despite having been almost completely covered in graffiti) although I don’t think it is something you’d want to see more than once.

Where to eat

I actually intend writing a separate op on restaurants in Heidelberg as there are far too many to cover in this overview. Suffice to say that there is a vast choice of local and international specialities alike. My favourites are Le Coq, Cafe Journal (although this is, to be fair, one of a chain of cafes found all over Germany), Der Bierkrug, The Indian Palace, and the Dimitrius Greek restaurant (information on locations and prices will shortly be found in the aforementioned review).

Where to drink

There are a plethora of bars here that again suit a variety of tastes. If you like cocktails you should try Havana’s, Ziegler’s, Merlin’s, or Hemmingway’s. Havana’s and Hemmingway’s are both located on the road running alongside the river (the town centre side) and they are both very popular. What they have to offer is a grea
t atmosphere (especially Havana’s with its up-beat Latino vibes) and great drinks, although because of this, service is very slow, especially if you order food – I waited over an hour once for nothing more than a filled tortilla. Merlin’s and Ziegler’s are set slightly away from the others, although still well within walking distance of Bismarckplatz, so you don’t have to wait quite as long.

If you want a more typical German pub atmosphere, you could try Vetters, which is opposite O’Reilly’s Irish pub although it is not really my style, what with no music and not a great selection of drinks. If you manage to find Untere Straße (which runs parallel to the Hauptstr. in the Altstadt area of town), wherever you go, you’ll find somewhere decent to drink.

If you’re missing home, there are a couple of decent Irish pubs that are always filled with a mixture of Americans, British, Irish and Germans – O’Reilly’s and Napper Tandy’s are the ones I usually end up in. If you like pub quizzes, O’Reilly’s does one on a Monday from about half past eight, and Napper’s on Tuesday from nine, and if you like Karaoke, you can sing to your heart’s content every other Saturday at O’Reilly’s. Whatever you do, don’t bother with Sean Og’s on the Hauptstraße. For some reason, it seems to attract a rude, arrogant clientele and the service isn’t so great either.


What about night-clubs?

Unfortunately Heidelberg (like a great many towns in Germany) is not ideal for clubbers. There are only two worth mentioning; Nachtschicht and Schwimmbad, and neither are much to write home about. Nachtschicht is very close to the train station (next to the Lidl supermarket) and is not much more than a large warehouse. Music varies depending on the night between R&B, special event nights and general pop. Schwimmbad has three floors that on a Fr
iday or Saturday night each play varying music types. I went one night and there was a floor playing Trance, a floor playing Reggae and a floor playing more general house.

What shops are there?

Germany is becoming increasingly like the U.K. in that there are a few standard chain stores which pop up in every town. Heidelberg is no exception and has the usual two H&M stores, a C&A, two Kaufhofs (large Germany-wide department stores), two Douglas perfumery stores, a Body Shop, a Benetton etc etc. It does however also have a selection of more unusual individual stores. The street called Plöck, for example, (which is a long narrow street running parallel to the Hauptstraße) has a variety of smaller independent stores, including great bookstores and shoe shops.

Ok, so what are the drawbacks?

Heidelberg, especially in high season, is always chock-a-bloc with tourists – I have never seen the castle without first having to fight my way through hordes of Japanese and American tourists. Because of the tourists, this also puts the prices up in the touristy cafes and bars – another good reason to try places that are a little off the beaten track.

Another thing people may not realise is that Heidelberg is not beautiful everywhere. It is almost a town of two faces, part industrial, part cosmopolitan – the company Heidelber Druckmaschinen (large international printing press firm) is based here which means that some parts of the town are quite industrialised. If you arrive here by train, this is the first impression you will receive, which is a shame because there are parts of the town that really are beautiful.

I would recommend spending about a week in the area, in order to spend a few days in Heidelberg, and then a few days in surrounding towns such as Schwetzingen (for the stately mansion), Weinheim (for the quaint streets, breath-taking park, and courtyard of picturesque restaurants), and Speyer (for the ca
thedral).

Summary: