We checked out another beautiful town today near our home base of Darmstadt / Ober-Roden. This time we left Hesse and we went back into Baden-Württemberg to the town of Heidelberg.

Heidelberg was interesting to me, as I've often heard about it within Germany, but had never really heard of it from the Americas. Outside Germany (to me at least) the larger, more tourist-known city names dominate the discussion. Plus, Heidelberg doesn't have a big Bundesliga team so it doesn't get the name recognition other cities like Dortmund and Leverkusen get in the States.

However, Heidelberg is famous for many reasons - one of them being the Heidelberg University. Not only is it one of the most prestigious universities in Germany, it's also the oldest in (modern-day) Germany with a founding date is 1386. An 

 founding date for a guy like me from the Americas. Fun fact though, it's not the oldest 

university: both the Charles University in Prague and the University of Vienna are older - they were established by the Holy Roman Emperor and the Habsburgs or.... whatever was going with the borders and power changes in the German speaking world in the 1300s (sorry, this is not a history blog).

Another notable aspect of the city is that it's a very, very beautiful city. The city lies next to the charming Neckar river, surrounded by green forests, and dominated by the ruins of a 

 Rennaisance castle: the Heidelberg Castle. Joana and I spent a few hours in Heidelberg, mostly in the Altstadt and up and down from the castle.

One of the reasons that Heidelberg is so beautiful is that it was completely spared from Allied bombings during World War II. How it was preserved is fascinating, as it was due to a German-speaking American brigadier general named William A. Beiderlinden who was supposed to shell the city but instead, and against orders, negotiated with the Heidelberg's 

(who was also engaging in these discussions against orders) agreed to terms, leading to the Nazis evacuating the city in order to spare Heidelberg University and the other historic and culturally significant sites in the city.

The main pedestrian street in the city center is the Hauptstraße. We arrived around 11am and the street was still relatively chill - the photo above makes it seem like it was already very buzzing, but instead it was calm and relatively quiet - a perfect late morning walk. Other than day-trip sightseeing, I was also shopping - now that I live in Germany, I need to be able to carry real coins and Euro bills and my current card-oriented wallet is nowhere near large enough.

The Hauptstraße is quite the nice place to shop (and that's coming from someone who doesn't enjoy shopping). There were non-stop lovely small local stores selling everything from leather goods, chocolates, coffee beans & tea, handmade goods, drinks, pastries, new clothes, used clothes, and of course breakfast & coffee places and pubs that hadn't opened yet. 

And they should be doing well - a large proportion of the people we passed were tourists. I was surprised how many Americans I heard, but I also heard a many Spanish and French tourists groups, often older in age. As the day went on I found it funny seeing the difference in groups: it was a mix of mostly older tourists sightseeing versus younger students hanging out in the city - fun combo.

Also dotted here and there along the Hauptstraße were churches and squares. We stopped and ate our shawarma lunch in front of the Jesuitenkirchen a Catholic church with quite the façade. The schwarma was great and we'd happily recommend Mahmoud's Alstadt, which is just a few steps away from the square.

The bridge and getting closer to the castle

Further down the street we turned left to the river to see the Alte Brücke. Now while the name literally means "Old Bridge", this rendition of the bridge itself is quite young compared to the city: only a measly 250 years old. However, there has been a bridge built (and then destroyed) over the Neckar since the Romans built one in the first century CE, and there has been a bridge on the exact spot as today's bridge since 1284 (except when it was destroyed, as most of these old things were destroyed at some point or the other by nature, the French, or the Allies it seems).

While I found it to be a very lovely bridge, I was somewhat disappointed as Joana had been hyping it up quite a lot before: "it's like the Charles Bridge in Prague" she said. Again - it's a nice bridge! But.... I may have to give it to the the Charles Bridge this time around.

However, what cannot be denied is its beautiful views of the city and especially the castle. Since we had started on the West side of the town, the castle had gradually started coming into view, and it was displayed in all its glory from the bridge.

We didn't cross to the other side, as we wanted to go to the castle. So we turned around and made it through the town to climb up the the ruins. I can't emphasize enough how ridiculous the castle ruins are - it honestly looked like something out of Game of Thrones. I found myself looking up at it often, half-expecting to spot a dragon emerging from its nest deep in the ruins of the castle.

Similar to the bridge, Heidelberg Castle is old in the sense that there has been a castle at its location since at least the year 1214. Since then it has been enlarged multiple times (gardens were added, in fact at some point there were two castles) and destroyed multiple times (mostly by lightning, and the French). 

On the way up to the Castle, we first went to its gardens (the 

), which include a commanding brick terrace that juts out the mountain and has a commanding view of the castle itself and the city. All the striking photos on my post are from this amazing vantage point.

Beyond the view, the gardens themselves were beautiful, including 

 sculptures and the vast remains of what used to be baths. 

This side of the garden had a fantastic view of the Krautturm, a tower of the castle that was split in half. Mark Twain actually visited this sight, and had this fantastic description of the tower:

"Nature knows how to garnish a ruin to get the best effect. One of these old towers is split down the middle, and one half has tumbled aside. It tumbled in such a way as to establish itself in a picturesque attitude. Then all it lacked was a fitting drapery, and Nature has furnished that; she has robed the rugged mass in flowers and verdure, and made it a charm to the eye. The standing half exposes its arched and cavernous rooms to you, like open, toothless mouths; there, too, the vines and flowers have done their work of grace." -

We finally made the way around to the castle's entrance, where outside they had a small gift shop, cafe, and tourist center. Interestingly, they had a ton of construction happening in what looked like the main entrance to whats rest of the castle - perhaps they're restoring parts of it? I didn't ask.

In the end, we actually didn't buy the €9 ticket per person to enter the castle area, mostly because we had missed the guided tour that allows you to truly enter the ruins. We decided that we'd save that for our next trip to Heidelberg, as I definitely do want to return to explore the other side of the river, hike up to the Heiligenberg, check out Thingstätte (an amphitheater with quite the interesting story), and stroll along the Philosopher's Walk.

We walked back down to the city, enjoying the views on the way down. Unfortunately, we weren't heading back to Darmstadt, which would only be a 1hr bahn away. Instead, we were heading to Ober-Roden, which made the trip more difficult: a fun 2.5 hour train ride. Thus, we decided to sit down at Café Hörnchen, grab a beer, and unwind until we started our Deutsche Bahn journey back

Day trip to Heidelberg