Day 9 – Sssssssschloss

Glorious day, blue sky, 13 degrees, beaucoup time to pack and go – nice. Di did some KK work with Jordy in the morning and, it should be said, Jordy’s doing a stella job pumping out Christmas orders to clients – many thanks!

Wandered through the old town and passed porta nigra then down Christophstrasser to the station where, ahead of time, we grabbed a caffeine at cafe Lecca across the road from ‘The Chicken Lounge’ and the ‘Mega Fun Casino’.

A relaxed train trip to Heidelberg, through steep river valleys, hills covered in fir trees, swapping river sides with the narrow road, ducking in and out of tunnels, industrial towns, suburbs then into Mannheim and across the great Rhine and, finally, into a fog enshrouded Heidelberg (six degrees).

First hotel on the trip and kind of nice not to have to stitch up a contact time with a bnb host. We check in, chill for half an hour then head out for a walk and early dinner.

Mum (Jeff’s mum), you were right, Heidelberg is awesome. In addition to the beautiful old town, it’s just teaming with people hanging out enjoying Christmas. There are six Christmas markets in all but, a little like Trier, all the shops are open and have jumped in, boots and all, with the Christmas spirit (and sales ) and the whole main street, some kilometers long is just throbbing with people out enjoying the frosty evening.

We find Vetters, recommended by the hotel receptionist, and strip layers of clothing off in their warm, timber tabled, beer hall atmosphere – the walls are maybe two foot thick stone.

It’s quite possible that, by the end of this trip, I’ve turned into a German sausage, or sprouted various additional sausage like appendages, but it’s all worth it. I suspect that Di’s more likely to turn into a pastry (or a chocolate), but such differences are the spice of life, no?

And so, the bratwurst and the pan-o-chocolate, (the sweet and the sour?), chowed down on masses of potato dumplings, German sausage and sauerkraut till they were full as googs.

It’s one of the few times I’ve regretted dietary restrictions as Di washed her meal down with a half litre of the house brewed ‘dark yeast wheat beer’ (full-bodied yeast wheat with a light malt flavor and slightly fruity – or so says the web sight). The red wine, nice enough, just didn’t have the same ‘and wash it all down with a hearty ale’ feel…………

We staggered out of the restaurant and up the lane way to the main street and the cheerful swarms. We were somewhat encumbered by our ceramic ‘mugs of good cheer’ from an earlier gluhwein encounter, (good for six euro on return), until we discovered that all the gluhwein places use the same mugs. It’s like a street full of petrol stations – you can swap-and-go anywhere. I took our two empty mugs back and got a full one – for free!

We wandered over the old bridge and discovered, looking back, the schloss. Schloss I think, is just the right word to describe the heidelberg palace when you’ve had a litre of beer and 7 gluhweins. Schloss, yep, that does it.

Making our way back down the main street (do i need to mention it was cobbled?), we stopped to check out the handmade christmas decoration shops, the chocolate and pastry shops, the leather goods stores, the handbag stores (pan-o-chocolate checking them out, not bratwurst – just to be clear), the very robust and manly ‘tabac’ and hunting stores (roo-ha), and countless other Christmassy and not-so-christmassy-but-on-sale-to-cash-in-on-the-christmas-crowds-nonetheless stores as we made our way home.

We have four nights here and are looking forward to exploring the towns delights come day break.