Heidelberg

Continuing our vacation/business trip, we went to tour Heidelberg a few days ago. Heidelberg is home to Germany's answer to Harvard and Oxford - it has the oldest university in Germany (founded in 1386). It is also incredibly scenic, sitting along the Neckar River. We basically took a walking tour of the town. This is a picture down one of the main shopping streets with a couple of the churches in the background. In place of shopping in suburban malls, European cities put all the shops together in a pedestrian zone, close it off to cars, and people go there to shop, walking from one store, out into the street, and back in to another store. Kind of interesting and fun (although I imagine that there will be less people walking now that it is getting cold).


We were making our way to the Schloss (fortress/castle) up on the hill overlooking the city. Tanja was having the worst day of a head cold that day. She went into a German Apothecary (pharmacy) along the walk and asked for a decongestant. Then she asked if she could take it since she is pregnant. Germany seems to be very protective of pregnant women and the pharmacist insisted that she shouldn't take anything and that the best thing was to push the cold and the germs out of her body naturally (leaving her with a very runny nose). I am kind of curious to take a look at the decongestants we have back at home to see if the US FDA puts any similar warnings on that particular product for pregnant women. Even with the cold, I still think she looks great in these pictures from the Schloss gardens and terrace (and I really love the Fall colors in the background).



The Schloss was pretty cool - a lot of it was in ruins, which kind of added to the charm for me. We decided against taking the tour inside (mostly because we didn't know what to do with Snoopy since the car was a long walk back), but we got some great pictures and views from around the exterior.


One of the highlights of the day was visiting the university area. Funny story: Snoopy is still somewhat anxious navigating crowded sidewalks (and he increasingly spends a lot of time searching for food that people have dropped along the way). To keep him on task, we have to continually give him encouragement, call him, etc. Of course, I often end up whistling to get his attention and to get him to come. As we were walking through the university, he was not keeping up, so I whistled at him to get him to come on. Well, there were a couple co-eds ahead of us, and they figured I was whistling at them. When they saw Snoopy and me together (with Tanja, no less), they got the picture (they are attending one of Germany's most prestigious institutions of higher learning after all) and started laughing hysterically. I don't remember much German from high school, but it was easy enough for me to get the gist of what they were saying to each other (e.g. "I thought that old guy was whistling at me, didn't you?" "Yeah, what a weirdo...he has a cute dog, though.") Since then, I have noticed more people reacting to me whistling at Snoopy. All I have to say to that guy coming away from the train a couple days ago is this: If I wasn't whistling at the college girls in Heidelberg as we were walking behind them, I certainly wasn't whistling at you! ;-)

Anyway, we took a tour of the Studentenkarzer on the campus. This was a jail that the university threw misbehaving students in when they broke the laws or codes of conduct (before it was taken out of service in the early 20th century). Among the offenses that could land a student in the slammer - public drunkenness, womanizing, or freeing the local pigs and running them through the town. Apparently, in some circles, a stint here was a rite of passage. Inmates were allowed out to take tests, but they entertained themselves while there with graffiti. Now the jail is a tourist attraction. I wish I knew more German so I could have read some of the poems and other things on the wall, but it seems these students made the most of their time there!


Finally, we took a scenic walk back to the car along the so-called Philosopher's Way. Here's Tanja overlooking the city at dusk. Another successful end to another successful day.