Heidelberg

As you may have heard, the military is closing several installations over the next few years. This weekend, Patrick took me to some of the closing celebrations for one of the larger Army bases in Germany and the birthplace of my brother-in-law, Heidelberg.

Upon arriving at the city, all I could say is "wow." Perhaps I have become accustomed to the farmland of Bavaria, but when the guidebooks described Heidelberg as a "small town," I was not expecting an expansive city of gorgeous red roofs with the Rhine river running straight through the middle. Add in the largest university in Germany and you have the perfect mix of history, funk, and nightlife that is Heidelberg. 

Depending on if you are the sight-seeing type or the soak-up-the-city type, you will want to spend the majority of your time at either the Schloß or the Hauptstraße. Thankfully we had enough time to do both:

Schloß: Though there are castles in almost every town in Germany, the Heidelberg Schloß ('castle' in German) is well worth the trip. There is a 100+ old cable car that takes you up the mountain to spectacular views from the castle. There were families playing on the well manicured lawns, and for 3 Euros we explored the courtyard which houses a few small treasures. The Apotheken-Museum walks through the history of pharmacies and medicine - who knew they used to dry up lizards and maggots for medicine? Our personal highlight of the Schloß was the Große Fass ('large barrel' in German). We walked in and took a picture next to what we thought was the world's largest wine cask, only to find that it dwarfed the real thing. In A Tramp Abroad, Mark Twain said it was "as big as a cottage" and he was definitely right. My only wish was that we could climb inside. Maybe it will be open for exploring next trip...

What we thought was the Große Fass

Real world's largest wine cask - too big for the picture!

Hauptstraße: I thought the 10-15 block pedestrian-only shopping street in Amberg was a very cool anomaly of our home city. It seemed much less so after walking down Heidelberg's 1.5 km + 'Main Street' complete with fabulous shopping, Parisian-style restaurants, and a market in the center. Patrick and I enjoyed a leisurely dunch (dinner + lunch) at an outside table - the people watching was phenomenal and the food wasn't bad either. At night, jog over just one street to the main bar drag. Whether you are looking for the boom-chika-boom night club or an Irish pub, you will find many options filled with students, tourists, some of our own servicemen and women, and very fairly priced drinks. Later that night, you can even grab some "Mexikan" food from one of the many restaurants that close off the back and make late-night food windows available to those who worked up an appetite on the dance floor, or those looking for hangover prevention. I had to teach the Turkish owners of the "Mexikan" stand we went to that a "Kasse Tortilla" is actually called a quesadilla. I'm sure they will change the menu shortly??