Week 2

This weekend we traveled to Heidelberg Germany. It was our first time to travel through Europe and plan everything for ourselves.  By the end we learned a lot about the dos and don'ts of travelling. We left for Heidelberg at 7:15 AM and learned that travelling in the early morning is hard. We arrived in Heidelberg around 9 AM and began our adventure.

We started with a tour of the student prison. There is a university in Heidelberg that back in the day had the ability to imprison its students for up to 6 months for breaking school rules. We were surprised to see how nice the prison really was. It was comparable to a college dorm room. We also learned that many of the students made it a goal to stay in the prison at least once before graduation.

Next we went to the largest attraction in Heidelberg, the castle. We rode a small train up to the top of the hill where the castle was. We accidentally missed the stop for the castle (even though it had a drawing of the castle and was called castle exit...) and ended up at the top of the hill. Luckily at the top we found lots of snow and spent a while playing in it and taking pictures before going back down to the castle. The castle was impressive but it was more ruins and less castle than we were expecting but it had a really good view of the city. We also discovered that the world's largest barrel was in part of the castle. Next to the barrel, which was about three stories tall, was a wine bar. My friend and I asked the woman at the bar if any of the wines were from the barrel and she just laughed at us and said they don't actually use the barrel.

World's largest barrel

Heidelberg Castle

View from the Castle

Our next stop brings me to the most important lesson I learned this weekend; carefully read the reviews on Trip Advisor before going somewhere. We decided to go and explore a hiking trail called Philosopher's Way because it was listed as the third best thing to do while in Heidelberg. Going into this I was under the impression that this was a park and fun nature walk. In reality it was an extremely steep, narrow cobble stone path of never-ending switchbacks up the side of a hill.  I actually thought I might just die on this hike. According to the reviews online the trail is "a little steep" and requires "average fitness." I guess I am below average fitness? Because this hike was pretty miserable. Me and my other friend struggled together up the hill as our more physically fit friends raced ahead. We had to take multiple breaks on our way and questioned many times who the hell said this was one of the best parts of Heidelberg? I mean seriously we needed a better warning about the intensity of this hike than " a little steep" and "average fitness" required. We passed one couple sitting on a bench halfway up and drinking wine while admiring the view. I think this is the only way I would recommend this attraction to anyone else. We are still extremely confused how this torture is considered one of the best things to do in Heidelberg, although I will admit the views at the top ALMOST made it worth is. (although we had basically the same view from the castle which required no hiking to get to)


As our first experience travelling on our own through Europe, I would say it was pretty successful. There was only one minor injury and if we lost anyone we found them after a couple of minutes of searching. In the end we all made it back to Bonn in one piece and had lots of stories to share.