Back to Heidelberg

Going back to visit Steffen in Heidelberg was well worth it. I really appreciate him taking me in on such short notice, middle of the week, and being so generous. After driving up from Stuttgart, I pulled into Steffen's apartment at around 7:30pm, and he and his girlfriend, Eva, were there waiting for me. Although they were about ready for dinner, we took some time to unwind and catch up for a bit over a tasty German wheat beer. Steffen told me the last time I was there that his favorite type of beer is the wheat beer, so I brought him up a few from the Allgäuer Brauhaus, the local brewery from our region. So he sampled an Allgäuer and I tried one of his local brews, while we discussed our dinner options. They offered two choices: German food or Thai food. Although I do enjoy it, I was welcoming a change from the heavy German food. I told them I could go either way, but the deciding factor ended up being which train came first.

We walked over to the train station (about a 3 minute walk from their apartment), and it turns out that the first train to come was the one that stopped at the Hauptbahnhof, near the Thai restaurant. We only rode the train one stop, and then the restaurant was a close walk from there. This was also very close to Steffen's office, so he knew the restaurant and the area quite well. We had a really nice dinner. Steffen taught me a couple words when I was looking at the menu, so I was able to successfully order my meal in German. The curry I ordered was very good, and it was nice to catch up with them some more. While I knew Steffen in school, we did not hang out together all that often, so this was a nice chance to get to know one another better. Steffen and Eva dated all through college, mostly long-distance with her going to school in Germany and him at the University of Florida. But his last year in Gainesville, the year that I met him in our graduate program, Eva also came over to the US and got a master's degree at UF. I was also impressed with Steffen's knowledge of Gator football. I never knew a German could be so into American college football. Not only do Steffen and Eva watch all the Gator games (mostly online I think), he also follows the recruiting - something I thought only Americans like myself who are crazy about their school's football program could really get into. I told them they need to let me know the next time they want to travel to Gainesville for a football weekend, because they can definitely stay with us.

Even though I was staying with him, Steffen refused to let me pay anything at dinner. It became a little frustrating to me, but afterward I joked that Laura was going to call next week and ask where I am, and I'd respond that, "I'm still in Heidelberg because Steffen just keeps paying for everything." After dinner, we took the train back to their apartment, and they showed me some maps of Heidelberg. I was planning to do a hike in the city the next morning while they were at work, so they gave me some detailed instructions on how to find my way.

In the morning, I got up and had breakfast with Steffen before he headed off to work. I left shortly after him to catch a train into town, except that I ran into a minor issue. This is a small train station, so there was no office to buy tickets from a person. The ticket machine did not take credit cards, and only accepted bills up to €10. The lowest bill I had was €20. While trying to figure out a plan, I missed the first train and had to wait another 10 minutes - guess it could have been worse. Then I did some pathetic sign language and looked stupid in front of the machine to an old German couple, holding out my €20 bill. They finally got what I was doing, and offered change to me. So after the short delay, I got on the next train and took it one stop to the Hauptbahnhof. From there, I transferred to a tram that dropped me off at the Bismarckplatz, a main square in Heidelberg that leads to the pedestrian-only Hauptstraße. This was the area that Steffen and Eva took Laura and I to a couple weeks ago. I walked along the Hauptstraße for about 15 minutes, until I got to the old historic center, near the famous Karl-Theodore/Alte Brücke (the old bridge). From there, I could get an idea of the hike I would go on. It seemed more like a large hill to me, but as I started walking up the steep "hill," it occurred to me that maybe this was more of a small mountain than a large hill.














To get to the trail, I had to cross over the Neckar River on the Alte Brücke and then look for a small alley that led to the Philosophenweg (Philosopher's Path). The trail is named the Philosophenweg because it was the favorite walk of famed thinkers Goethe, Ludwig Feuerbach, and Ernst Jünger. It's a good thing I wrote out detailed instructions the night before, because finding my way around this hike turned out to be quite a challenge. Some of the trails were marked well, but sometimes I would get to an intersection and just have to guess - I'm sure they all led to the same place in the end, but some went by different ruins along the way. After the first steep walkway, I came to a road that ran parallel above the river, offering great views of the city and the Heidelberg Castle on the other side of the river.










From there, I found another path that took me to the first of many lookout towers and old ruins, the Heidelberg Bismarck Tower. I walked up to the top of the tower to get some more great views of the city beyond.












There was next to nobody out on the trails on this morning, which in a way was nice, but also made things a little challenging since I couldn't follow anyone. After passing the Bismarck Tower, I knew I was looking for signs to the top of Heiligenberg, the 440 meter mountain (about 1,450 feet) I was hiking up. Heiligenberg translates to "Holy Mountain." The holy people must have been smarter than me, because I found their signs tricky. Every couple of intersections I would find a marked rock like the one pictured here, but not every one of those had the word "Heiligenberg" on it, which Steffen told me I should follow. As I felt myself getting close to the top of the mountain, I started seeing signs that read "Keltenweg," which led me to some of the old Celtic ruins. I think I must have taken a few wrong turns, because I didn't see all of the Celtic ruins Steffen told me about, but I did see some pretty interesting things along the way. There are a bunch of old Celtic ruins on the mountain that date back to the 4th and 5th century B.C. I don't think I've ever seen buildings from 2,500 years ago, so any bit that I saw was pretty amazing to me.

After I scared a deer while walking up the side of the path, I came across an old Celtic ruin, named the Heide Hole, which is now covered by a protective hut. It is a 55 meter (180 feet) deep hole, but the exact date of origin or function is still unknown. It looked to me like a large well, but who knows.

Next, I came up to the 11th century ruins of the St. Stephen's Monastery, and the Heiligenberg Tower right next to the ruins. The tower, built in the 19th century, was still in great shape. It was a very cool tower, and walking up the spiral steps to the top, there are fantastic views of Heidelberg.

After I walked up the Heiligenberg Tower, I found a sign that showed different walking paths near the top of the mountain, leading to other ruins. Up here, the paths were actually very well-marked, and I followed a loop that would lead me to an amphitheater and some more monastery ruins.

First, I came to the amphitheater, called the Thingstätte. I thought it was a pretty neat amphitheater, and I was amazed at how great of shape it was in until I learned that it was not quite as old as all the other stuff around. It was actually built by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime between 1934 and 1935, to hold SS events. Steffen later told me that, like most Nazi-related sites in Germany, the Germans are embarrassed by it, and therefore it is rarely used. It looks like it would be a great venue for outdoor concerts and other events, and I've read that it is occasionally used, but because of it's relation to the Nazis, Steffen tells me he's never heard of an event taking place there since he's been living in Heidelberg.

Continuing further up the mountain, I came to the highest point of Heiligenberg, where lay the ruins of St. Michael's Monastery, built in 1023. I came across the remains of a huge basilica, and was able to walk around the ruins and up a couple of the towers to get a good look at everything. Although I didn't find all the 2,500 year old Celtic ruins, such as the ring wall that protected Celts, I was able to see some pretty cool stuff that was still nearly 1,000 years old. Steffen told me it would take about 90 minutes to hike to the top of Heiligenberg. It probably took me more like about 60 minutes, since I was by myself and moving pretty quickly, but I was able to kill the extra half hour walking around all the ruins up at the top. I couldn't explore too long, though, because I had to get back to Steffen's apartment so I could get some work done. So after walking around the ruins for a bit, I made the descent back down to Heidelberg.

When I got back down to the city, I took a short walk along the river to get a different look at the bridge (which was still under scaffolding) and the castle. From there, I walked around the old center of Heidelberg for a bit, and peeked into the Church of the Holy Spirit, which actually had a service going on. This is the most famous cathedral in Heidelberg, right in the main square of the old town district. Then I started walking back on the main pedestrian street toward the Bismarckplatz, passing by a couple other impressive cathedrals. Since I was starving, I stopped for some lunch at a pizza place, and then caught the tram/train combo back to Steffen's apartment so I could work for the afternoon.





















Steffen got home from work at around 7:00pm. Excited about the big quarterfinal soccer game between Germany and Portugal that began at 8:45, we had a quick beer and then hit the road so we could catch the train into town and find a place to watch the game. Eva was actually on the same train as us, coming from work in Stuttgart. Once we got downtown, we got a Döner Kebap to go, and walked to the main outdoor public viewing center at the Uniplatz (University Plaza), where we had planned to watch the game. Unfortunately, though, the plaza was already full and blocked off by the time we got there at around 8:00pm. Steffen, who I could tell was getting nervous about the big game and a where we would find a place to watch it, gave us a couple of options: go back to the apartment to watch it; or find a bar. Finding a bar with seats in front of a TV turned out to be a tough task.

Just as we were about to give up and head back to the apartment, we caught some luck and found a bar with a big projection TV, and a table for three sitting in front of it. This is where we watched Germany beat Portugal, 3-2, in what turned out to be dramatic fashion. The Germans were controlling the game and ahead 3-1, but a late goal by Portugal made the last few minutes a bit tense. It was more interesting to watch the game with a local, as Steffen was able to share some info with me about what the commentators were saying. I also wondered about the significance of the three gold stars on the German uniform, and Steffen was able to tell me that they represent the three World Cup championships the Germans have (although, he would like to see three more on the other side for the three European championships they also have.....who knows, it could become four within the next couple weeks!).

The Germans were led by Bastian Schweinsteiger, who scored the first goal and then assisted on the next two. The 23 year old midfielder, who was suspended the previous game because of a red card, was very impressive to watch on this night. The German coach was also suspended for the Portugal game, because of a strange situation that got him kicked out of the previous game against Austria. I was actually amazed at how calm the Germans were while watching the game. If this were the Gators, I would be screaming at the TV and going crazy, with it being such an important game. The celebration afterward was pretty neat to see, although I still think the Germans are more calm than some countries would have been. The celebrations actually did pour into the street, making it a little tough to get through on the tram, but shortly after the game was over we headed back to the apartment, since Steffen and Eva had to work the next day.

After working Friday morning from Steffen's apartment, I took a half day and started the 3.5 hour drive down to Zurich around 1:00pm. It was a very nice visit to Heidelberg with Steffen and Eva. I had a great time there, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to visit with them again.