Blogs from Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, Europe

TUE, 16 AUG 2022 – Day 4: Champagne region - Luxembourg - Heidelberg - This morning we’ll depart Paris and head east to our first stop in the champagne region of Reims, where we’ll taste one of France’s most famous and highly prized exports - champagne! We’ll then continue our journey to Luxembourg, where you’ll have some free time to explore the capital of one of Europe’s smallest countries; Luxembourg City features a charming Unesco-listed centre with plenty of restaurants and cafés. Our final destination of the day is Heidelberg, Germany’s oldest university town which is renowned for its Altstadt (old town). Your tour leader will take you on an orientation tour of the city centre and give you some free time to explore the old town before we meet back up for dinner. Overnight – ... read more

July 24th Heidelberg This town is inland from the river's edge so all had to be bused. We were scheduled for the Castle tour but after yesterday it just seemed like over kill. Boyon mentioned last night that this is where you should shop for fun things like German Christmas ornaments and if you didn't take the tour you'd have more shopping time. The six of us jointly decided to skip the castle tour and just take the quick tour around town, enjoy some shopping, have lunch then go back to the boat at two o'clock. Heidelberg is a University town on the river Nekar. The houses were so colorful and majestic sitting there along the river, so peaceful and serene. We saw the "Old Heidelberg Bridge" with a bronze monkey to mock people as they ... read more

Sadly, the stretch of glorious weather we've enjoyed so far came to an abrupt end, as we awakened yesterday morning to dreary skies, intermittent light rain, and much cooler temperatures (the high today just barely reached 60-degrees). On account of the inclement weather, we decided to rest most of the day, but did venture out amid the sprinkles to partake of a fabulous lunch at a quaint hotel and restaurant, named the Hackteufel ("-teufel" = "devil" in German), located on the Steingasse, the tiny street leading to the Old Bridge. The Altstadt section of Heidelberg was mostly deserted today, compared to the throngs of people we've experienced since our arrival, and the tables, chairs and umbrellas along the popular Steingasse were nowhere to be seen. But a fair number of diners had already filled the Hackteufel ... read more

We walked from the apartment to the nearby Kornmarkt shortly before noon, then decided to have a light lunch of paninis at the Cafe Grano, a tiny place on the square, before heading to the funicular station for a ride up the mountain. While visiting the Heidelberg Castle yesterday, we were intrigued by the funicular railway that delivered us from Heidelberg's Kornmarkt to the castle. We discovered that the Heidelberg Mountain Railway (German: Heidelberger Bergbahn) system is a two-section funicular railway, with the first section running from a lower station at Kornmarkt in Heidelberg's Altstadt, via an intermediate station at Heidelberg Castle, then to an upper station at Molkenkur. Here passengers may change trains to the second section, which runs a considerable way up the Königstuhl, a nearby mountain with good views over the city and ... read more

We ended our short, whirlwind stay in Frankfurt yesterday morning when a pre-arranged car service met us at our hotel at 10:00 AM for the 50-mile-drive to Heidelberg. Although the time in Frankfurt was short, we take with us pleasant memories of this city, with its mixture of old and new. Both of us were impressed by the tidy and well-ordered nature of this vibrant metropolis, and our hotel experience was an unexpected plus (probably the last generation of small, family-owned hotels, where personal service is still a priority). We had a bit of a welcoming committee when we arrived in Heidelberg (pop. 160,000), a city on the banks of the Neckar River that is famous for its university (founded 1386), and for the castle ruins perched upon a hill above the Altstadt (old section of ... read more