Heidelberg

Our friend Anett suggested that we should go to the annual Heidelberg Herbst (fall festival) yesterday. Much of Heidelberg turned into a party ground, and perhaps not the greatest day for sightseeing.

After an hour of train journey from Karlsruhe, we arrived at the Heidelberg train station late in the morning. Then we took a bus to the Bismarckplatz end of Altstadt (old town). Hauptstraße (literally the "main street") was lined with stalls (in front of existing shops) and was already packed with people. We grabbed a quick bite and slowly made our way to the other end of Altstadt where we could get up to the world famous Heidelberger Schloss (the Heidelberg Castle). Not only did we cherish the view there, we enjoyed strolling around the Deutsche Apotheken Museum (German Pharmacy Museum...it isn't clear to us why there is a museum on pharmacy in the castle though). Jocelyn was excited afterwards.

There were many food stalls on Hauptstraße. Here you see Glenda learning how to make flammkuchen, a Rhine valley version of thin-crust pizza with sour cream, onion and bacon bits as toppings. The most intriguing food stall sold hot dogs with 50-cm (~2o inches) long bratwursts! The bratwursts were cut four-folds in order to fit in the baguette length-wise.

We crossed the Neckar via Alte Brück (the "old bridge"), and walked along the river bank. Here you see Gabriel on the bridge with the castle in the background.

By 5:30 PM, the kids were already tired, and we tried to make our way back to the train station. But there were even more people on Hauptstraße than earlier in the afternoon. In fact people started streaming in and the party was just beginning. The sea of people really reminded me of Mong Kok in Hong Kong.

There are more pictures from our trip at this link.