Day two at Heidelburg

I am absolutely in love with Heidelburg! It is such a gorgeous city! We made the 10 minute drive from Mannheim on the autobahn. It's cool not to have a speed limit, but you should always watch your rear-view mirror. When somebody comes, you move! A porche went flying past us, and we were doing about 160km (85 mph?) When we got to the city, we parked in a public parking garage right next to the Funicular Railway. This is an old railcar system that takes you straight up the mountain. And I mean straight up! The grade on the slope is about 40% (super steep) The first stop on the rail car was the Heidelburg Schloss (Castle)

We got out and started towards the grounds. All the streets in Heidelburg are cobblestone streets. So I am a total idiot for not packing any flat shoes. (Fashion before practicality, right?) I kept getting my heels stuck between the stones. We slowly made our way through the beautiful castle grounds. The Castle is located on top of a hill, so we had a terrific view of the whole city beneath us. Also in the Castle was an Apothecary Museum, dedicated to the ancient medicine used during the time of the Castle. Ben really like the room with all of the old instruments. We made our way through the grounds some more until we got to the "World's Largest Wine Keg." The picture on my slide show is not that keg. We thought is was that one, until we turned the corner and saw one twice it's size! We looked through some shops and got some postcards before returning to the railcar.

The Funicular took us further up the mountain, to it's tallest point. After getting out at the top, we could see the whole valley below, past Heidelburg, as far as the eye could see. It was an amazing sight, but very cold at the top, so we jumped back on the railcar before it began to descend and rode it back to the parking lot.

After exiting the lot, we walked the streets of Heidelburg to the Kornmarkt. This is a big open plaza where merchants set up thier booths. We made it just before closing time to snag some souvenirs for loved ones back home. We also found a booth selling crepes. We couldn't resist getting some hot, fresh crepes wrapped with Nutella spread. Oh yea, it was good! To finish our day in Heidelburg we went to an Italian restaurant in the plaza. I had tortellini aus panna (tortelling in white creme sauce and diced proscutto) and Ben had the veal parmigiana. Good thing we spent all day walking to burn off those calories!

We are planning to come back here on Friday, since Ben will be done with work at noon. It's so beautiful here!!