Heidelberg

Half term has been really wonderful, I can't believe how fast it's gone!  Last Saturday morning we headed off to Heidelberg, a beautiful city in the south of Germany.  It was a 3 and a half hour train ride (first class!  We had our own little compartment).  The city is very pretty.  It's a university town, and our hotel was on a campus, which was rather odd.  But the hotel itself was lovely.  The weather was perfect; quite cold but lovely and sunny; it only turned on Wednesday, which was the day we came back.  Winter has officially hit Germany and now it's super cold!

On the first full day of the holiday we went to the zoo, which was close to our hotel.  It was a small zoo, but quite nicely done, which lots of space for most of the animals.  I love sea lions, and we watched a show where they were doing all sorts of tricks.  The day we went happened to be a 'behind the scenes' day, so there were special events on, such as us trying bread and fruit to a tree which was then lowered into the monkey area for them to feed.  That was quite fun, but i'm really glad we didn't actually have to be in with the monkeys - i'm not a monkey fan!

Gorillas are always Matt's favourite, and this big boy was no exception.  We watched feeding time, where he was just going around grabbing food from the smaller ones.  They had hidden nuts in this box in the photo below, and he was clever enough to find a stick and poke them out.  

Heidelberg is in a valley with the river Nekar running through it, with high hills on both sides.  There is a very old Funicular railway that runs up one side, with stops at the castle and also at the top of the hill.  The railway is very steep, and to get all the way to the top you have to change from the modern railway to the rickety old one, with an actual driver.  It goes up really slowly, but you get great views.  At the top, we stopped for a beer, and a walk around the nature reserve in the sunshine.

Heidelberg castle is beautiful.  It's made from sandstone, so has a lovely colour.  It was a residential castle for various kings, but unfortunately it is mostly ruins just through ware and tear - it was built in the 16th century.  (on a side note, Heidelberg wasn't particularly bombed during the war, which is why it still holds all of its 16/17th century charm).  We did a tour of the castle, because you can only see the few inside bits that are still there, via tour.  They have a couple of hallways laid out in 16th century style, which were very grand, but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any photos of it because some of the furniture was borrowed from snobby rich people!

Above is a barrel that was used for wine making.  It hasn't been used for many many years, until a few years ago when they made a batch of wine to celebrate the university being open for however many years.

We did a lovely walk on the hill opposite the castle called the Philosophers Walk, and of course found a playground to mess about on.

We went up the church tower in the middle of the city for a good view all around, and then rewarded ourselves with a selection of Lindors at the Lindt shop (one of those flavours is fine herb!)

We ate out every night and because it's a university town there are lots of different types of food, so we had Indian, Thai, Italian and German on the 4 nights we were there.  There were lots of stops for beer, sitting outside enjoying the last of the sunshine too.  It was a wonderful trip, and I would definitely recommend Heidelberg to anyone.

Enough photos for now.  I'll post some of the rest of the half term next week!