CHAPTER VIII

This school week ended up being a bit busier than usual. Dr. Fajt, the pharmacology professor, put on some special workshops for the entire group. All the activities were interactive, and I enjoyed learning some new things. It was a nice follow-up to last week's visit to Bayer. I learned a bit more about how companies sort through the many, many possible drug options so they are able to run more thorough studies with the ones that have a greater chance of being effective and safe. This method is called high-throughput screenings. Another interesting aspect was comparing the medical device and drug laws between the U.S., Europe, and some other companies. The healthcare system is handled in such different ways. For example in Europe, devices can be approved through specific privately owned companies, whereas the U.S. strictly uses the FDA.

My friends and I planned a last-minute trip to Heidelberg for the weekend. We were looking for something close, reasonably priced, and possibly with a castle -- and Heidelberg was just that! We took two buses and stayed at an Airbnb. It was kind of like a real-life scavenger hunt because we had a code to get our building key from this tiny lockbox attached to the back of a cigarette machine. Then, we had another code to get into the room. 

I really, really enjoyed Heidelberg. There’s quite a bit of history woven through the town; it was all nice and walkable, mostly along the Neckar River which connects with the Rhine. We started off visiting the castle/castle ruins. A lot of it is still intact, but a lightning strike and consequently fire destroyed large parts of it. Oddly enough, there was a pharmacy museum within the castle. It spanned from really the beginning of pharmaceuticals until just a few years ago. It covered a lot of history that we had touched on in our history of medicine course. The castle gardens were also a highlight. There weren’t filled with flowers since it is winter, but it was all nicely kept within the castle walls.

For a nice afternoon snack, we tried Schneeballe. They are from Rothenburg, a different Germany city, but nevertheless it was a new German thing to try! They are some sort of mix between shortbread cookies and waffle cones, but in ball form. One interesting thing I noticed in the city center were the sidewalk cafes that supplied customers with a complementary blanket.

The next day, we wanted to go walk around the Heidelberg University. It wasn’t busy since it was Sunday and I’m pretty sure students were on break anyway. The campus was fairly big for what I’ve seen in Germany. There were these nice botanical gardens and greenhouses we walked through. We also stepped inside the university hospital just to see what it was like! It was such a nice and sunny, but cold day, so we decided to walk down to the Altstadt, cross the bridge, and sit inside a café. We found this really awesome chocolate place too! They had lots of hot chocolates and cakes, and it was all decorated in artwork. It was quite busy too! We tried to see the old university prison museum, but it was closed. The university used to have different rules and punishments than the city, so it had its own small prison to enforce them. It’s kind of strange and I need to read up on it a bit more to figure out exactly what it was all about.

To top off the day, we walked along Philosophen Weg (Philosopher’s Walk). The path got its name from philosophers, professors, and artists that would walk up on the hill, through the vineyards along the water. Naturally, we all thought extra profound thoughts during the walk. It was such a nice finale to the weekend though; the castle was lit up and reflected in the water and we could see the busy town on the other side.

Random Takeaways

Buses may stop at multiple places within one city, so double check to make sure you get off at the correct stop!

Walking is still the best way to explore a city. 

Very important: Spanish Hot Chocolate has nothing to do with the flavor, but the viscosity and richness. It was a delightful, but unexpected bowl of drinkable hot fudge.