On May Day we headed south for the long weekend. We started out in Heidelberg, which was almost a 4 hour drive from Osna. Most of our (German) friends here thought we were crazy for driving so “far” on a four day weekend, but when you come from the States (rather than one of these relatively small European countries) I guess your perception of distance is a little different. We started out our rainy day in Heidelberg in the Kornmakt where we got our first look at the Heidelberg Castle. We walked down Hauptstrasse, one of the main roads in the altstat, passing Marktplatz where they had a small festival going on for the holiday. We saw the outside of Haus zum Ritter (built in 1592), which is the oldest houses in Heidelberg since it was one of the only to survive the Wars of Succession – thanks to its stone façade. Next we checked out the Heiliggeistkirche – built in 1400 – making it the oldest church in town.
When we left the church the rain had stopped so we headed towards the Neckar River to see the Heidelberg Monkey and the Brückentor (Bridge Gate). As we were walking across the Alte Brücke, looking back we had a beautiful view of the altstat and the castle up on the hill. We kept on walking across to the other side and then took the Schlangenweg (a very steep path with a ton of steps to get up to where the walk starts) up to the Philosophenweg; the walkway on the northern side of the Neckar up on the Heiligenberg (Saints’ Mountain). The beautiful views of the city from up here are said to have inspired the famous German poets Joseph von Eichendorff and Friedrich Hölderlin in their writings. Though we weren’t inspired to write any poetry, the view was pretty impressive despite the rainy weather!
By the time got back down the mountain and across the river we had worked up an appetite so we stopped in at Brauhaus Vetter for a Maibock (a special beer brewed in the spring- it was delicious!), a brezel, and a bread and cheese plate. We headed to the Jesuitenkirche, which turned out to be even more beautiful than the Heiliggeistkirche. I loved the all-white inside with the colorful alter and hints of gold and silver all around.. plus all the beautiful chandeliers! The between the Jesuitenkirche and the Alte Universität was full of colorful buildings with cute shutters – a nice change from up where we live.
We saw the Studentenkarzer; which was the University jail up until the 1914. While Karzer arrest originally would have been a severe punishment, the respect for this punishment diminished with time, particularly in the 19th century, as it became a matter of honor to have been incarcerated at least once during one’s time at university. Students could be “locked up” for 3 days to 4 weeks for Town vs. Gown offenses, such as disturbing the peace, womanizing, unruly drunkenness, and setting the townspeople’s pigs free. – Though you didn’t get out of going to class, there was a passage from the jail to the University! After a quick walk by the oldest of the University buildings and the Universitätsbibliothek we ducked in a coffee shop since at this point it was raining pretty hard. When the downpour slowed down a little we walked around town some more looking in shops and a few smaller churches to get out of the rain. When it stopped we walked back down to the river and walked along it all the way down to the lock bridge, across the river and along the far bank, admiring the pretty houses.
When we crossed back over the Alte Brücke we headed to Zum Güldenen Schaf for a glass of Riesling – the type of wine this area of Germany is famous for, which also happens to be my favorite! Morgan was craving Asian food, so we ended up at a sushi place near the Brückentor. By the time we finished dinner it was starting to get dark so we walked back out on the bridge to see the castle lit up at night. It was nice to enjoy the bridge and the view without the crowds that were there earlier, even though the weather had been pretty bad all day the amount of tourists in town was crazy. This was probably the most tourist filled city we’ve been to in Germany so far!
