Lori and Troy do Europe 2025

Today we visited a town called Heidelberg. We found out about this town from Lori’s research. By the way we are still at Le Meridian in Frankfurt, Germany.

As a side note. My personal take on Rosetta Stone (Hogans Hero’s) is really making a difference here in Germany!

Frankfurt is the key financial district for Germany. it operates Mon-Fri and then empties out for the weekend. Apparently not very many people live here. They all commute. It ought to be interesting tonight (Friday) and tomorrow. Frankfurt was 80% destroyed in WWll. So all of the buildings are pretty new. We are still adapting to the time change and plan on taking a rest day tomorrow. We plan to leave for Munich on Sunday.

Heidelberg is supposed to be a “really cute town”. Not my wording. Lori loves to visit “really cute towns” so as soon as I heard Lori mention cute I knew we were going there. We decided to take a guided tour because it just seemed easier and it was going to hit the things that were recommended. We wanted to see the Castle and old town and go with limited people, for reasons already known.

We were picked up in a van with 6 other people including Willy the tour guide. 2 Canadians, 2 people from Queens, NY and 1 single guy from Texas. I was on high alert because it was a smaller space than yesterday and we are still adapting to the 6hr time difference. Everyone was normal and pleasant, no obnoxious Americans.

The town is about 1hr south, down the Autobahn. The Autobahn was ordered built by Hitler. There are posted speed limits in areas but it is mostly a no speed limit road. You might see a sign that shows 100 on top and 60 on the bottom. This max of 100 and min of 60. Then a few miles later you will see that same sign except it is greyed out. This is where you can let loose. It is 4 lanes and the far left lane is where all the action is! Trucks and buses are not allowed to drive at unlimited speeds. This highway has the fastest speeds and the least amount of accidents.

Heidelberg is 180k population and is on the Neckar River. It has a very large castle that was partially destroyed by the French in the 1800’s due to war. What is with this country? They seem to have produced some very hard headed people who like to fight. Seems familiar but I don’t know why? The trip included a tour of the castle and a 2 hr hangout in the old town where the “cute” part was supposed to be. The tour ended up being a little disappointing. We visited the castle and looked at the view which was impressive. We saw the largest wine barrel in the world, 55k gallons, we walked through the court yard and visited an Apothecary museum. Not what we were expecting but ok. Then we went to the town for a 2hr tour. We arrived and I figure Willy’s voice was tired because he gave us an hour and pointed in the direction of the toilet, the university, and a bridge. He promised a surprise addition to the tour which I must have missed because we spent the next 3hrs riding around in a van with no air flow. He did offer some funny comments and lots of information while driving but the tour was a little lacking, we decided. Lori thinks the “surprise” addition is to get a better tip.

FUN FACTS (that I remember)

1. There are around 12,000 castles in Germany. They used to fight each other all the time. Go figure
2. A German Chancellor known as the Iron Chancellor (because he had a thick skull and did not listen to anyone’s opinions) was the one to unite Germany from all of the individual territories. His name was Bismarck
3. I may add more to this list later as I recall.
4. The gases prices are really high here, $1.73 per Liter. Multiply that x4 to get gallons and you get $6.92/gallon