Heidelberg

June 6, 1996 to June 8, 1996

Sadly, the journal pretty much ends here, except for the day that we depart from Heidelberg. In between now and then, there's this pathetic entry:

Writing break: from Rothenburg to Heidelberg

No explanation is given for why we're taking a 'writing break' at this point, so I an only speculate. It looks like I just ran out of steam. It's a shame, because it means we're left to rely on my memory, and the evidence from photographs and the few captions I gave them in our photo album that's been sitting in the bookshelf for the past 20 years.

Unfortunately, my memory doesn't shed much light on what happened during the two days between Rothenburg and Heidelberg. From the photos, we know that the last part of this ride was along the Neckar River; and prompted by these photos I vaguely remember that it was a nice ride, we had good weather, and it was warm. That's it. Based on distance I'm sure it was a two day ride, but I can't figure out where we overnighted. Adelsheim seems plausible, but it's just a guess.

Ferrying across the Neckar, somewhere east of Zwingenberg. I don't know where this is, or if this ferry still runs - I haven't been able to find it on the map.

Here's a landmark - Zwingenberg Castle. We must have joined the river upstream from here.

Here's another landmark: Hirschhorn. Not labeled in my album, but it matches other photos of the town.

So it was a hot day, apparently. I believe this is just outside of Hirschhorn.

So, after two days we arrived in Heidelberg, a famous historic city. I remember a bit about our stay in Heidelberg - we were excited to be there and fully enjoyed our visit. We stayed there two nights, and took a day off for a strenuous hiking tour of the town - up to the castle, across the river - but no specific memories have come back to flesh this out. My takeaway from all of this is the value of maintaining a journal, for myself anyway - if I don't keep some sort of detailed record of the experience, I can't count on it still being available to me ten years down the road.

Oh, wait. The photos of the Heidelberg Cathedral brought one other memory back. On one of the evenings we went to a choral concert in the evening, in a church or possibly even the Cathedral. It was a solo vocalist, I think accompanied by a pianist. It was very modern, atonal, almost shriekish. We hated it, and left at the intermission.

Today's ride: 200 km (124 miles)
Total: 1,200 km (745 miles)

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