Kathleen
Heidelburg, Germany, August 10, 2013
We had just one night in Heidelburg, but what a fine night it was. We arrived on a Saturday in the midst of celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of the marriage between the German prince Frederick and Mary Stuart of England. They actually were married on February 14th, but this celebration apparently is lasting for the entire year. Our hotel was nice enough to tell us about the festivities when we arrived, which included a bit of a medieval festival up by the castle as well as down in town and fireworks were promised at the castle after dark. We walked all the way down the pedestrian street in town (apparently, this is one of the longest pedestrian streets in the world (I tried to confirm this, but didn’t have much luck, it IS very long though)) and passed many shops, cafes and ice cream parlors before making the brief but steep climb to the palace. It is a beautiful palace, some in tact and some in ruins but we enjoyed running around very much. We actually found a sushi restaurant close to our hotel and since we hadn’t had sushi since beginning our adventure in May, it seemed like time. We had an enjoyable dinner and then headed back out for an ice cream cone and to take in the fireworks. We thought it was a fine display (if starting a bit on the late side) and it was fun to be on the banks of the river with tourists and locals alike enjoying the summer festivities. We left the next day feeling as if it had been a very worthy stop-over.
