Heidelberg

         After a few hours of train rides including one delay, we arrived in our first German city! On one of those trains, a guy we met told us about a restaurant called Bier Brezel and told us we should eat there.

poker on the train

 More on that later, we didn’t get into the town until it was already dusk and so we walked around and mum did some tourist shopping down the main street and as we hadn’t had the time in all our train rushing to eat lunch, we were all quite hungry. My papa had his TripAdvisor app open searching for this restaurant that ended up being literally right under our noses! Right smack dab in the middle of the shops was the acclaimed restaurant. Prices were quite good even for the area, so we decided to eat here. I got spaetzel (type of eggy pasta) with mixed veg and everyone else ordered a different flammacuchen (similar to a flat pizza).  The atmosphere was warm, welcoming and very authentic and the food was incredible. No crumbs were left by the time my brothers were finished! 

     While perusing the Christmas markets down the streets, up on the hill you can see a castle all glowing and luminous, my mum had read about it online so after buying more chocolate and a schneeballen (interesting dessert tasting like a crunchy doughnut), we followed the signs up up up to the top of the steep hill to the castle. This building was originally built in the 12^th century but had been bombed and some of the outside looks a bit crumbled. It’s free to enter the grounds and the center of the castle is beautiful and doesn’t look like it was ever harmed. If you walk through to the other side you come to a view point offering panoramic views of all of Heidelberg, the river, and beyond.    

      One neat thing about these Christmas markets and the others around Germany is that each stand selling hot wine serves it in a different ceramic mug saying the name of the city you are in

and coming in different shapes and colors. Jesse began collecting them in different cities.

                We wandered towards the bridge, home of an infamous statue my mum told us about. It’s a monkey. And apparently touching different pieces of him will bring different things like wealth, a return trip to Heidelberg, or if you touch the little mice on the side (which my little sister accidentally did) you will be blessed or cursed with many children.

                Whether that will happen or not I don’t know, but I would be happy with the return trip to Heidelberg as it was an enjoyable little town.