Heidelberg Adventure

Okay, here's the Heidelberg Adventure story. Sorry about the delay. Had a mild depressive fit and listened to three hours of Metallica while cleaning (and not eating). Eventually the not eatting got to me, so I ate, watched mindless TV for three hours and now I'm better. :)

Anyway, I was supposed to meet a new friend in Heidelberg yesterday. Bill and I met her and her fiance a couple of weeks ago and had dinner a couple of times. Both of us were at loose ends, so we decided to meet in Heidelberg. I got her handy number beforehand so I could call when I got to the Hauptbahnhof there and make sure we could find each other. Only, when I called it while enroute, her fiance answered. Hmm....this is going to be interesting. I waited around the train station for an hour, watching three trains from her town pull in and leave with out her. So, I called her fiance back and told him that I was going to wander around on my own. He was worried and told me if I saw her to have her call home. A couple of hours later she called, sounding distraught - she had decided to drive instead of taking the train and the car broke down after twenty min. on the road. Not fun. But at least she was okay. :)

To back up a little, I have to tell a small story about the train ride to Heidelberg. I took a slow Regional train so it took just over an hour to get there. I sat down across from two guys and it was pretty obvious they were American. They weren't speaking yet, but I could tell. Then immediately after I sat down, this African lady sat down with her two small boys. One was two and the other was five or six. And such BRATS. The two year old was in a stroller and didn't want to get out, so she wedged it in between the seats. Then he started pushing at the seatbelt bar like he wanted to get out, so she unlatched it. Waaahh!! No! He wants to stay in! Okay, re-attach it. Repeat. Finally she gets him out and starts singing to him. He doesn't like that. So he slaps her. She does NOTHING. Doesn't say anything to him. The other boy starts playing with him, he crys and slaps his brother. The mom tells the two year old to ignore the older boy, he's just jealous of her son. Huh? This goes on for 10-15, then they decide to visit the bathroom. Ah, silence for 10 min or so. Talk to the American guys across the way about how bratty they are and they compliment me on my patience. Then they come back for 10 min. and then disappear off to the bathroom again. The older boy comes back after 5 min., rifles through his mom's purse, and then goes to play on the seat behind me. The mom and the other boy never return. I figured out that they were in the next car over after awhile. I guess she decided not to inflict the little one on me anymore. Whatever. A stop before Heidelberg, the two American guys got off with some other ladies. I was pretty sure they didn't mean to get off there, but they were really confident, so I didn't say anything.

Okay, back to Heidelberg. I wandered around the downtown area all afternoon just shopping. The variety of stores and the general atmosphere is soo much nicer in Heidelberg. I've seriously thought about living there and commuting to Frankfurt, but I'd only ever see the city on the weekend. My working hours wouldn't allow much enjoyment of the city outside of that, so I stay put here. Anyway, after wandering around the stores, I wandered up to the main church and started playing shutterbug. I've been to Heidelberg so many times, but never taken photos there. I took some photos in the square around the church and then backtracked to the bridge so I could take photos of the castle from there. I'm sure I was on that bridge and walked the alleyway up to it from the square when I lived here as a child, but I forgot it. It's really lovely and very fairytale Germanish going that way. I took a lot of photos up to the bridge and from the bridge - I'll post some later.

About this time it was around 5 or 6. I thought I'd check out the movie theater, see what was playing, and if it was anything interesting, catching a movie. If not, I'd just head back. However, on my way there, I heard somebody say "Hey there!". I turned around and there are the two guys from the train! They invited me to sit and enjoy a beer with them, so I did. Turned out to be the best decision all day. We sat there talking for a couple of hours, people watching and drinking a couple of beers. One of the guys is in town for a conference and his buddy flew over to sightsee while he's working. Turns out I was right about them getting off at the wrong stop - they had to wait thirty minutes before the next train came by so they could get to Heidelberg. They asked me for some suggestions of things to do in Frankfurt and what would be a good day trip for the one guy. Later in the week they're heading off to Rome.

We asked the waiter if we could buy the mugs our beer was in - they were nice German Hefeweisen beer glasses with Heidelberg written on the side. He said that they used to sell them, but they ran out of the glasses too fast doing that, so they stopped. One of the guys asked if we could just take them and the waiter said he hadn't heard that. So naturally, when we paid the bill, we just slipped the mugs into our bags. :)

Really not much else to the story. We went back up to the bridge to get photos of the castle in the light of the setting sun and then we wandered back to the train station for our return ride. They had bought a Schoenes Wochenende Ticket - on Saturday and Sunday, for 30Euro, up to 5 people can travel on the ticket anywhere in Germany on the slow Regional trains - so I asked if I could travel with them on their ticket back. They were totally okay with that.

So, from a crummy start to the day, it really turned out for the best. :) And that's the way traveling ALWAYS works with me. If I just go with the flow, everything works out in the end and I end up having a better time because of it.

I'll post some of the photos of the day tomorrow or Tuesday.

Posted by Jinglelady at May 23, 2004 11:33 PM | Traveling