Heidelberg: Castle and Shopping

October 23, 2015

First, full disclosure. Only one of us biked 20 kilometres today. The other was busy shopping. I am sure you can guess which one shopped and which one biked. We both had a great time.

We started the day with the castle, and it was amazing. I wanted to do it first thing in the morning so that no distractions would prevent us from seeing it. As it turned out this was probably not the best order of business as when we were up there it was all foggy and mysterious, which had its own charm, but by early afternoon it was gloriously sunny, and I suppose the views would have been better then. It didn't matter to us though, as we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Our goal. We walked up. Keith's motto is 'why take a funicular when you can walk??'

Then came one of the funniest encounters of the day. We lined up to buy our tickets behind an Asian tour group guide who was buying about thirty tickets for her group. She turned to me and said "Now I have to round them up." As a former teacher I was very sympathetic. Hers can not be an easy job, and to make it even more challenging, the place was full of Asian tour groups. I expressed my sympathy, and she said "It's OK, my group are Korean. They are the quiet ones. The Taiwanese are loud, and the Chinese are really loud." She has the experience I guess, but we found it pretty funny! We put it down to cultural differences.

Tour groups, and us, headed in. Over a million people visit this castle each year. We can't imagine what it is like in July and August.

Those are all tour groups down there, including Viking River Cruises.

We started to walk up to the next level, when the CN conceded that a funicular ride would save some time. It was fun too! We didn't go right to the top. It would have been spectacular when the fog burned off, but we had things to see in town, so we headed back down. We walked and walked and walked, and then relaxed over lunch. Keith wanted to cycle up the Neckar, and I was keen to do a little gift shopping, so that is exactly what we did. We reconnected at the hotel at about 5 PM, arriving within minutes of each other.

The next pictures are from Keith's bike ride while I slaved away trying to find something unique to bring home to my family. That is not an easy task these days. It was really the only shopping I have done this trip and I enjoyed poking around. Keith enjoyed his bike ride too, and it was infinitely better than having him waiting outside the shops!

The afternoon was beautiful, both for shopping and riding.

Keith met this young couple, Samuel and Fila, who were looking for a plastic bag to collect nuts. Keith had one in his pannier. Perfect!

We went for another walk. It was just beautiful out. Then we headed out for dinner where Keith had a healthy chicken breast, and I ordered a pork knuckle, which was huge. I pretty much demolished it, with very little help from Keith. We think we have a plan for tomorrow, after help from one of the servers at the restaurant. To be continued...

Can you think of a better place to have a beer?

Today's ride: 20 km (12 miles)
Total: 2,625 km (1,630 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	1
Comment on this entry	Comment	0