Heidelberg

Today was pretty hectic. Last night I had a bit of difficulty getting a full night's sleep. I woke up around 3:30 AM and couldn't get back to sleep for another 30 minutes. So when the alarm clock went off at 8:30am, I hit snooze, not knowing that on this particular alarm clock, if you hit snooze- the alarm does NOT go off again later. So at 9:15am when we were supposed to meet Uncle Roland and Wally downstairs for breakfast, I heard Uncle Roland calling from down the stairs and immediately jumped out of bed to get dressed.



Luckily it didn't take long to jump out of bed and layer on my clothes for the day, but nonetheless Levi and I were a little late getting to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof to catch the train to Heidelberg. Luckily there is a train about every hour or so and we caught the 11am train. The regional train we took was a bit slower than some of the newer trains, but it was also less than half the price of the 90 euro super-fast ICE train to Heidelberg.



Once in Heidelberg we made our way to the city center where there was of course a Christmas Market set up. Once again, goodies, gifts and treats lined stall after stall and shop after shop as hundreds of tourists wandered through the streets. The main attraction in Heidelberg however is their famed castle.



We took a short train up the side of the mountain to the castle and made it just in time for an English tour around the grounds. The views were spectacular! Even though much of the castle was reconstructed and not the original structure, the castle and the views from it were beautiful. The castle has been sieged, burned, and destroyed multiple times by the French during medieval times.







After a nice and warm lunch of drinks and frankfurters, Levi and I browsed through the Christmas Market, picked up some University of Heidelberg gear, and then made our way back to the train station to return to Frankfurt.

The train took about 1.5 hrs and by the time we made it back to Frankfurt we were hungry for dinner. For dinner we went to the Frankfurt Christmas Market and had roasted bratwurst with fries and more gluhwein. When you buy a mug of gluhwein you pay a few euro extra for the mug which serves as a deposit, if you return the mug, you recieve your euro back again. However in Heidelberg Levi and I kept our mugs instead of receiving the refund and we did the same in the Frankfurt Christmas Market that night. Let the Christmas Market gluhwein mug collecting begin.



Each time we pass through the Christmas Markets I am so tempted to try some of the delectable sweet treats behind the glass of the market stalls. Finally we had a chance to try a few. I picked out four different desserts for Levi and I to share. Each one was covered in chocolate and had some sort of combination of wafer, cookie, chocolate, and was filled with a creamy marshmallow-like fluff! So sweet and so yummy!



Tomorrow Levi and I are taking another train to Bamberg to visit Levi's friend Danny and Danny's wife, Dana. I heard on CNN (the only English channel Uncle Roland has) that Heathrow Airport in London has been closed indefinitely because of the snow, so I'm sure it will be another cold, but exciting day here in Germany!

love
-stine