LISA

Heidelberg was our second couchsurfing experience and it was wonderful. We surfed with Leah, a young American girl who has been working and living there for 7 months after years of on and off travel. We got on really well and had some great chats about the city, travel, surfing, life, church and embarrassing Americans. Arriving in the late afternoon we went for a wander along the main street which may be the longest pedestrian street in the world and climbed the 315 steps (after walking up the ramp and finding the gate locked, and then walking back down again) to the balcony/courtyard of the huge pink (sandstone) castle for a lovely view of the town.

The next day we tried our very first German pretzel which tasted uncannily like our mini pretzels while being much bigger and not crunchy. We headed across the OldBridge and walked up the philosopher's path ("so called because it's views inspire philosophical reflection"). Funnily enough its steps inspired a reflection of some kind, more like "oh my goodness, I let him talk me into taking the steps again!!" though. There were nice views however.

Then it was back up the castle steps for a visit of the inside of the castle. In here they had an interesting pharmacy museum and the world's biggest wine barrel. The barrel was about two storeys high on its side. Funnily enough though, being that big, it began to leak soon after it was created, so it only stored wine for 10 years and has been a tourist attraction since the 18thC.

Sometime that day we stopped at the old bridge again for lunch and some entertainment in the shape of the Bridge Fest. Yes, that's right, they were celebrating the old bridge for being so old. Any excuse for bratwurst and beer here!