In July, Zack and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary! It’s been quite the eventful year, what with moving to Berlin five days after the wedding and, you know, the global pandemic, but it went FAST.
Since we weren’t comfortable with planes yet (thanks, COVID), we decided to go to Heidelberg for a long weekend. My parents visited for their 25th anniversary when I was in high school, and the castle is still a highlight for them. So we wanted to see what it was all about!
Where we stayed
We compared Airbnbs and hotels and booked a room at the Crowne Plaza in Heidelberg (which somehow closed in the two months since we were there – what?!). It ended up being a great location – a short walk from the tourist core around the castle and kittycorner from the cutest café.
Day 1 – Friday
Zack worked Friday, but we headed to the train station in the late afternoon. We trained to Mannheim (about 5 hours), then transferred to the S-Bahn for the 20-minute trip to Heidelberg. From there, we took advantage of the nice weather and walked to the hotel.
We had eaten dinner on the train and arrived in town around 9pm. Not wanting to go to bed that early, we grabbed drinks at Ginsburg, a nearby bar. I had a Rosemary + Rye, which was delicious.
Day 2 – Saturday
We were up pretty early on Saturday and went to the café across the street – Coffee Nerd – and grabbed pastries and a drink. The chocolate croissant was INCREDIBLE and we proceeded to get one almost every day of our trip!
From there, we wandered to the other side of the river and walked up to the Old Bridge. We stopped to take a couple pictures with the castle on the hill, then walked through the tourist area. We ducked into the Heidelberg University library (wandering libraries is one of our favorite activities), but it was mostly closed off due to COVID.
A brass ensemble was playing outside a church across the street, so we stopped to listen while we planned the rest of our day. While we stood there, what looked like a group for a baptism came out, the pastor went over to his car, pulled out a trumpet, and joined the brass ensemble!
For lunch we went to River Café and had a phenomenal meal, complete with wine spritzers!
After lunch, we wandered the park by the river, then over to the botanical gardens at the university.
For dinner, we went to a German restaurant and had wurst while fighting enterprising wasps.
Day 3 – Sunday
Hike day! Heidelberg straddles the Neckar River, with two big hills on both sides of the river. The castle sits halfway up one of the hills, and on the other sit the ruins of a monastery and an abandoned amphitheater built for Nazi propaganda plays. Sunday was all about exploring the second hill.
Our day started with a stop for chocolate croissants, then we set out up the hill.
….aaaaand about a third of the way up, it started pouring. We’re talking torrential downpour. We waited for about 15 minutes, but it didn’t let up, so we squelched back to the hotel to dry off.
After drying off and taking a quick nap, we grabbed chicken döner for fuel and tried again. This time, we made it to the top without incident.
And it was WORTH it. The Thingstätte (Nazi amphitheater) was fine – a little Sound of Music-esque. But the monastery was awesome – they have little plaques on the walls explaining what each room did. It didn’t hurt that the weather had cleared up beautifully and the hike through the woods on the way up felt like being back in Washington.
There’s also a beer garden up there, so we grabbed a drink before walking back down the hill.
For dinner, we went to Rossi Café, which has the most adorable patio. We needed to eat (we walked 11 miles and climbed the equivalent of 126 flights of stairs), so I ordered a gigantic burger and Zack was distracted enough that he got….a cheese platter. It was huge, but definitely a funny surprise.
Day 4 – Monday
Monday was our anniversary, so I wanted to tour the castle before we went out for dinner. What I didn’t count on was how tired we would be from our hiking day the day before.
Nevertheless, we got ourselves up and out the door. Stopping by Coffee Nerd (again), we were too late to get pastries, but we got a drink there, grabbed second-rate pastries at a nearby stand, and walked through the tourist area toward the castle.
We registered for a tour and wandered the grounds until tour time.
Unfortunately, they were only offering tours in German, so we only caught about a third of what she shared. But that didn’t stop us ogling the rooms we got to see! Oh, and we definitely took a peek at the gigantic wine cask. This sucker was built in 1751 and has a capacity of about 292,000 bottles of wine! It’s also been referenced in a bunch of literature, including Les Miserables.
After the tour, we went back to the hotel for a much-needed nap. Then, off to our anniversary dinner at Das Boothaus.
Day 5 – Tuesday
Last day in Heidelberg. There’s a funicular railway up the side of Königstuhl – the hill with the castle on it. In fact, you can take it up to the castle, but on Monday, we walked up the hill. At the top, there’s a children’s theme park and a few trail loops. We wanted to maximize our time in the woods, so we set off on one of the loops.
Along the way, we lost the loop we intended. Luckily, the whole hill is criss-crossed with trails, so we pointed ourselves in the direction of our hill and followed trails downhill.
When we reached the bottom, it was lunchtime, so we grabbed lunch at a cute little café/bar called Deer.
I was one of those kids that always had a calendar (even if I had nothing to put in it), and they ALWAYS had the list of anniversary number gifts. Do you know what I mean?
Well, the first anniversary is the paper anniversary, and I wanted to get some art from our trip as a souvenir! Unfortunately, the art store was closed when we walked by in the morning, and when we got there after lunch, they were closed for lunch…
So instead we got a book! It’s a book of maps of Germany with funny facts, like how many eggs are produced in a particular region.
With our shopping completed, there was nothing left for us to do in Heidelberg but pick up our bags and head to the train back to Berlin.
