I wanted to take you on a trip to downtown Heidelberg, or as they call it Heidelberger Zentrum. The city center is at the corner of Haupstrasse (Main Street) and Bismarck Platz.
Busy Haupstrasse; about 10:00 a.m.
Because Heidelberg is a tourism town, the Haupstrasse and the gassen (ways or side streets) are usually crowded with locals and tourists, alike, seeking out the quaint town's huge selection of restaurants (fancy dining), gasthausen (casual dining), bakerei (bakeries), and, of course, pubs and brauhausen (brew houses).
Hotel courtyard and cafe
The Dubliner Irish Pub on Hauptstrasse
One of our favorite places to hang out is The Dubliner. It's a traditional Irish Pub and gasthaus. Joe recently lost a meterboard challenge to one of the waitresses. Now, that's funny. In addition to the expected soccer games on the big screen (bundeslige), the owners are also obvious Pittsburg Steelers fans.
Heidelberg was one of the few German towns passed over by American bombers, for no other reason than there was no point in destroying a town that was no military threat. However, the town does have a history of destruction and rebirth. In the 17th century, the French destroyed nearly every building in the town except for Hotel Zum Ritter because the French owner was putting up the General (according to our Headstart German teacher, Frau Keiser).
Hotel Zum Ritter (The Knight Hotel)
The French ripped out hundreds of tombs of royalty from the Church of the Holy Ghost except for one containing a king and queen.
We visited the church and paid .50 Euro each to walk up the more than 200 very narrow and spiraling stairs to the tower. The church's 2nd level is about 3 stories up then there is another level followed by a hidden level of old offices and storage, then finally, impossibly high for the ancient times in which it was built, we made it to the bell tower observation level but were not allowed to go the one more level to the actual bell (which is now electric and no longer rung by monks).
From the Altebrücke (old bridge), your welcomed to the entrance by Der Heidelberger Brückenaffe (the bridge monkey).
The plaque next to the statue reads:
"Why are you looking at me? Haven't you seen the monkey in Heidelberg? Look around and you will probably see more monkeys like me."
This one is actually the second monkey to grace the bridge entrance. The first was lost (under mysterious circumstances) in the 17th century. The mirror he holds may be for showing you the other monkey on the bridge. This monkey is joined by two little mice and is somewhat anatomically well-endowed! Talk about brass b*lls!
The bridge entry itself was once part of the town wall. Between the French destroying the city and Heidelberger's destroying the original bridge to prevent invasion in WWII, all that is left is the Renaissance gateway.
We have a ton more pictures but that's all the time I have for today. We visited a town called Speyer (like Shpy-uh) which boasts Europe's tallest church steeple. We went there for the steeple, and discovered a lot more! It's not particularly touristy which makes it cleaner and somewhat prettier. We had the most god-awful coffee called Greek Mocha. It was nothing like Starbuck's, I assure you. Stupid Greeks! What do they know about coffee? It was small, strong, and, um, it had a texture. Anyway, we're going back with the camera and we'll post it up soon.
Tschüss!
