Really, though. Heidelberg has been our favorite city yet. We first arrived and (after going the wrong way for 20 minutes) found our hostel then went exploring. We headed toward Philosopher's Walk (a trail up the mountain alongside the river with great views of the city all the way up) and saw many locals along the way just hanging out by the river - laying out, playing in the park, canoeing, biking... There was even a big sand volleyball tournament happening. It was really neat to see. We even played in the coooolest playground. I don't even know how to describe some of the climbing/playing structures they had but they were fun.
We made it to Philosopher's Walk and hiked up (sooo steep! We were all wishing we were in better shape for this activity). The view was incredible. Heidelberg is a gorgeous city with a unique and very quaint atmosphere about it. After, we had to treat ourselves with ice cream, naturally, then headed to the old part of the city. Picture for yourselves what you think an old cute German town looks like... That's Heidelberg. We had some dinner there and hoped to go up to the castle buuuut it started to rain. So, we ran back to our hostel on the other side of town, absolutely soaking wet"... but Smiller says "what a memory."
The next day, we got a cheap breakfast from the market by our hostel and headed out to the dock for a boat tour of the city. Unfortunately, Heather has a stress fracture in her foot and decided it best not to join us. We were pretty sad but were glad she had the option to rest.
The boat was awesome, though. Definitely the best way to see the city. We enjoyed some incredible scenery and cool castle/old building views. We stopped at a little town outside of Heidelberg that had 4 old castles (2 still inhabited, 2 not). We went up to one of them and climbed around on the old walls then headed back to the dock where we thought the boat would be to pick us up..... But we missed the memo that it would come an hour later. So, we got some gelato and found a park. Sarah and I played around on the swings and bars while the boys.. Well, I have no idea what they did. Probably just sit. Then we headed back and got on the boat to return to Heidelberg.
After the boat, we tried to go see the castle in Heidelberg, but since it wasn't free we just walked around and went back to the hostel to get Heather for dinner.
We ate at a little restaurant that had kebabs and pizza while we did laundry in a store close by. We were accompanied by one of the guys from our hostel who is a doppelgänger for our friend Chris Sarsgard... So weird, but he was cool and we enjoyed the company. After, we found a spot to stand and watch the Germany vs. Greece game... Which was not an easy task seeing how the entire country was watching the game either at a restaurant or in the streets or wherever they could find a spot.
We even had the pleasure of chatting it up with a local man named Hanz, who we are convinced is Robin Williams' German twin.
After the game, that Germany won, the town went nuts. Horns were going off and people were rejoicing into the wee hours of the morning. Thankfully we were pretty worn out from our day of hiking and walking that we didn't have trouble falling asleep.
Now, after an early morning train ride and flight, we made it to Austria! More to come later.
Pictures are mostly of our boat tour and a few from Philosopher's Walk/around town. Enjoy.
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