The second weekend here in Germany The Captain and I wanted to do something fun! All we had been doing was in-processing, worrying about where to live, our phones, the Internet and so on. I decided our first day trip would be to Heidelberg. It's only about an hour drive from our house and it has a castle!
We got a late start because we decided to sleep in and an even later start due to a gas crisis. It wasn't really a gas crisis but it sure did seem like it! Heaven forbid us Americans have to pay German fuel prices. We went to the AAFES gas station on Ramstein Air Base and the Esso machines were down. Since the machines were down, they were not able to charge American gas prices and they cannot keep track of our fuel rations. We were bummed! There was no way we would be able to make it to Heidelberg and back with no gas. We decided to head out to our new house, drop some stuff off and try at the AAFES gas station at Sembach. A couple hours later when we got to Sembach, the system had just come back online and we were able to pump gas and get on the road.
This was a major learning lesson or us. When you're getting low on fuel and you see the gas station pumping, just get the gas! No need to let the low fuel light turn on. Something like this has happened to us twice now when we needed gas. Yes, in a real emergency, we can pay German prices but it would be about $120 USD to fill up. That's about twice what we pay on base or with our Esso fuel card.
So now we had a really late start to the day, but off to Heidelberg. It doesn't get dark here until 10:00pm so we had plenty of daylight! The street signs in Germany are very easy to follow to parking garages, especially in the Centrum (center of the city). Not only are they easy to find, they all have digital numbers showing you the number of available parking spots! We found our way to a VERY tight little underground parking garage. Rhonda (Honda Accord Coupe) is not very big, she's a little long but we typically have no issues parking her. Not so I'm Germany my friends! Rhonda is a total pain to park in these tiny garages. You basically need to drive a Smart Car. After Austin Powers-ing around to find a spot, we were finally ready to see the city!
First on our list was the Heidelberg Castle. There are two options to get to the top, you can walk up a hill (aka small mountain at steep incline) or take an incline tram. I, of course, wanted to take the incline tram. We walked into the area to buy tickets and the line was outrageous and The Captain refused to wait or pay the €6 per person to ride it. I was like okay, fine, we will walk, how bad can it be? OMG! It was freaking straight uphill! I only had flops on and my feet were sliding backwards out of my flops since we were sweating our asses off in the 100 degree heat and my bag I was carrying was about to break my freaking arm off. I was about to die, we had no water. The whole time The Captain is yelling at me to hurry up, you really need to start hitting the gym, this isn't that bad. Yeah, maybe for him Mr. Army PT daily and ruck sack around on the weekends. My ass hasn't seen a treadmill or stair climber for a year, that pretty much went out the window when I started working. Okay, I'm fooling no one here, my ass has never seen a stair climber. I never knew I needed to get into shape for Europe. I didn't even know Germany had hills. Where was this in the moving manual? Some tips for you people planning a trip to visit, plan for an insane number of hills and stairs. Get your ass in shape, get some hiking shoes and a proper bag to carry before you come or you'll be sorry! My Marc by Marc Jacobs bag is not cutting it. It's too heavy and needs a padded strap!
When we got to the entrance of the castle, guess what? The entrance fee is €6! The freaking incline tram is included in the ticket price!!! I was so pissed. I just hiked up this damn mountain and the tram was included in the ticket price? Are you kidding me? I guess I earned my dinner calories!
The castle is beautiful; I really can’t tell you much about it because we got there too late for a tour and the signage was all in German. I can tell you to steer clear in July because it is high tourist season and that place was packed! They have the largest wine barrel in Germany inside the castle and a little bar where you can purchase some fermented wine from the largest barrel in Germany. Due to the crowds and heat, we did not wait in line for the wine. We found a little stand selling beer and Bifi’s to enjoy along with the view.
Heidelberg also has an awesome shopping district in the Centrum. They had many American stores including TK MAXX (TJ MAXX) and Starbucks. They also had numerous cafes and gelato shops. You could make a trip to Heidelberg for a shopping alone.
I didn't plan anything before our trip, I just entered Heidelberg into our Google Maps app and off we went. This trip was quite the learning lesson for us. You need to do a little research before your day trip, see if there are any tours available in English. If there's not a tour available in English and you don't speak German, you're up the creek without a paddle! Who knows what in the hell is going on or what you're looking at! I don't think we would have been so out of it if I hadn’t accidentally packed our Frommer’s Germany book in our household goods shipment!
We are looking forward to some visitors so we can make a trip back to Heidelberg and actually schedule some tours. Enjoy some photos from Heidelberg!
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| View of a German street in Heidelberg! |
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| Hiking up the mountain to the castle, it looks not that bad from this angle, but trust me it was steep! |
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| View of the bridge from the castle! |
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| Heidelberg from the Castle |
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| Entrance to the wine bar! |
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| Castle door entrance! |
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| Castle |
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| The incline tram we rode down the hill, yes the easy direction. |
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| One of the streets in the Centrum |
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| The castle from the bridge |
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| Entrance to the bridge! So pretty! |
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