Heidelberg

02/26-02/28/2022

Emily, Tati, and I spent this weekend in Heidelberg. We got an Airbnb right in the center of the Altstadt that was in some family’s attic. We had to walk through their apartment to get to the ladder that led to our room. The couple who owns the apartment explained to us that usually they house exchange students from India, but they went home for holiday, and were able to rent the place to us for the weekend.  We spent the rest of the first day exploring the castle gardens and climbing up to the lookout over the city. To get to the castle gardens, we had to climb up a hill. There were lots of trees with ivy and fallen leaves, which made me think of the album cover of Evermore by Taylor Swift. The view from the lookout was beautiful and made for some very pretty pictures. The castle ruins made it feel like a movie set, and the sunset only added to the effect. That night for diner we decided to go to the German restaurant right next to our Airbnb. They only had one very large table left empty, so they gave it to the three of us. But later on in the night, a large group of international students from the University of Heidelberg were seated there as well, and they pretty much ignored us the entire time, which made for a slightly awkward environment. However, they did speak English, so it was fun to listen in to their conversations about their majors and classes.

The next day, we hiked back up to the castle ruins so we could explore the inside. Upon walking in, there was a giant wine barrel. It holds about 60,000 gallons of wine and has a staircase leading to the top of it, where there is a dance floor. There was also an apothecary museum in the castle that had exhibits pertaining to the history of European medicine. A lot of the information there was familiar to us, because we had covered most of it in our lectures with Dr. Wasser! There were panels with information on the four humors, Paracelsus, and the medical school in Salerno. After we were done at the castle, we crossed the river and hiked for about an hour up a hill to reach the ruins of a Greek-style amphitheater. We also found a biergarten right next to it, so we had dinner there. It was near sunset, so we were planning on taking a bus back down to our Airbnb, but after looking it up, we realized the buses were no longer running. This wouldn’t have been a problem had we not been informed by our waiter that wild boars roam around the area at night. So, our only solution was to eat quickly, and hurry back down the hill in progressively darker surroundings. Luckily, we didn’t run into any wild boars. When we got back to the city, we passed by a small crystal shop. So I stopped in and bought a couple matching opal necklaces for my little sister and me.