It's good to see old friends and reconnect. We're staying with the Murphys now and they've taken us in like we're family. I didn't get this blog in last night because we didn't have much down time yesterday, no long train rides to make shorter by typing away.
The first night that we arrived we were greeted with comforts of home... American television (in ENGLISH!), diet coke (the real stuff, not this European Coca-light stuff), and INTERNET (I was twitching just a little). We watched "In Plain Sight" (Patti loves that show) and chatted about our plans for Heidelberg until 1am. It had been a really long day for us the day before, so we were beat and slept in this morning.
Amy and Dana slept in Julia's office with a foldout couch (comfy), and Patti and I stole Joe's room with two twin beds. Our room overlooks the r
iver (neckar) with the green hills in the background and little German 
town below (makes me want to break into song... "The Hills are Aliiiiiiiive... ").... BUT just when you think that's a spectacular view (that the pictures can not do justice, btw) - you go to the other side of the house and look out those windows, and there a a MASSIVE castle looking down at you. We can't decide which view we enjoy more.
iver (neckar) with the green hills in the background and little German 
town below (makes me want to break into song... "The Hills are Aliiiiiiiive... ").... BUT just when you think that's a spectacular view (that the pictures can not do justice, btw) - you go to the other side of the house and look out those windows, and there a a MASSIVE castle looking down at you. We can't decide which view we enjoy more. John made these incredible scrambled eggs with mushrooms and jalopenos and EVERYthing in them - another comfort of home - Patti has missed eggs, the Italians do pastries and fruit, no eggs, nothing like the good English breakfast. But someone Julia knows makes this amazing strawberry perserv We all slept in a little (about 8ish or a little later) and then took our time coming to life. We had to get Amy to the train station by 11:30, and on the walk there and back Julia made sure that we had our pics with the castle and area landmarks. We said goodbye to Amy - and crossed our fingers that she made it Bremen on her own. She's a world traveller, she'll be fine... but we won't see her again until we fly back.
Heidelberg is an amazing little town - it was one of the few towns that was not effected at all by bombings during World War II. Julia says that it's because Hitler made a deal, 
he wouldn't bomb Oxford, if we didn't bomb Heidelberg - she has seen pics of the era, the same buildings that are standing today, covered in huge Nazi flags; and there are memories of the war everywhere (if you know). The building where the SS officers stayed, the theatre where Hitler held ceremonies and gave speeches. There is an outline of a Jewish syangogue that was burned in 1939 and then the members were forced to pay for or do the labor for tearing down the rest of the "eyesore". The outline shows where the walls stood, they found the foundation, and a stone memorial is placed where the Ark stood. We see a lot of guided walking tour groups as we go through the city.
he wouldn't bomb Oxford, if we didn't bomb Heidelberg - she has seen pics of the era, the same buildings that are standing today, covered in huge Nazi flags; and there are memories of the war everywhere (if you know). The building where the SS officers stayed, the theatre where Hitler held ceremonies and gave speeches. There is an outline of a Jewish syangogue that was burned in 1939 and then the members were forced to pay for or do the labor for tearing down the rest of the "eyesore". The outline shows where the walls stood, they found the foundation, and a stone memorial is placed where the Ark stood. We see a lot of guided walking tour groups as we go through the city. So besides the history and the castle (we're going up to that tmw), and the Alte Bruke (old bredge) - the major attraction in Hei
delberg is the Hauptstrasse, a very long stretch of shops and markets. The plan today was to just make our way down the Hauptstrasse (the ss is the big B character, but I don't have it on the keyboard, so I'm using the sound) - and Julia was giving us 
some pointers before sending us on our way. She showed us the Josef Seibel shoe store, aptly called The European Comfort Shoe. Patti has heel spurs, so our trek across Europe has taken a toll - she bought some new shoes that were very comfortable (and still way cute)!
delberg is the Hauptstrasse, a very long stretch of shops and markets. The plan today was to just make our way down the Hauptstrasse (the ss is the big B character, but I don't have it on the keyboard, so I'm using the sound) - and Julia was giving us 
some pointers before sending us on our way. She showed us the Josef Seibel shoe store, aptly called The European Comfort Shoe. Patti has heel spurs, so our trek across Europe has taken a toll - she bought some new shoes that were very comfortable (and still way cute)!We started off at the Church in the center of town, this is at one end of the stretch of markets, and this is where you'll find the most kitchy stuff - if you want something that says Heidelberg, this is your place. You can tell what the cities are known for by their kitchy souvenirs, 
we've seen quite a few and there are some standards (like the shopping bag that just has the name of the city you're in a some different languages all over it) - the shot glasses, thimbles, spoons, magnets... but there is always something a little different. Here, what we see are hedgehogs (and later when we ask Julia, she has no idea why), spinning carousel displays powered by the heat of candles (do they have a name for those?), c
owbells (hmmm), cuckcoo clocks (even cute cuckoo clock magnets that make noise, and we found one with a crucifix as the pendulum... wow), and everything Christmas. Apparently this is like Christmas city - they have little trees with mini-ornaments, and stores filled with every kind of ornament imaginable. This town is crazy for Christmas - and I see why, add a little snow and this looks like the perfect picture postcard of those scenes we see on Christmas cards.
we've seen quite a few and there are some standards (like the shopping bag that just has the name of the city you're in a some different languages all over it) - the shot glasses, thimbles, spoons, magnets... but there is always something a little different. Here, what we see are hedgehogs (and later when we ask Julia, she has no idea why), spinning carousel displays powered by the heat of candles (do they have a name for those?), c
owbells (hmmm), cuckcoo clocks (even cute cuckoo clock magnets that make noise, and we found one with a crucifix as the pendulum... wow), and everything Christmas. Apparently this is like Christmas city - they have little trees with mini-ornaments, and stores filled with every kind of ornament imaginable. This town is crazy for Christmas - and I see why, add a little snow and this looks like the perfect picture postcard of those scenes we see on Christmas cards. We're getting a little peckish after our trip around the church, and we know that we want to get a döner today (the o has the oomlats, but I don't have that, so I copied and pasted from the net.. cool) - they smell incredible. We saw one at the bus station when we went to
Dachau, but we didn't know what it was... after Julia told us, we knew we needed one, and after eating one, we know that we'll need another one tomorrow. They're similar to a gyro - but the German version... with coleslaw and different mystery white sauce, and in an open toasted pita pocket. YUM. We also had our pommes (sounds like hummus, which are fries, and our cokes with no ice)
Dachau, but we didn't know what it was... after Julia told us, we knew we needed one, and after eating one, we know that we'll need another one tomorrow. They're similar to a gyro - but the German version... with coleslaw and different mystery white sauce, and in an open toasted pita pocket. YUM. We also had our pommes (sounds like hummus, which are fries, and our cokes with no ice)
The Haupfstrasse is loooong - and it took us a few hours just to walk it, plus ducking our head in the shops. There is a wide variety of stores, definitely some things that are meant for tourists, but Julia says that we'll also see the locals in many of the shops, because these are just the shops of the town, so grocery stores, clothing, kitchen wares, electronics, cool gadgets, and one HUGE Christmas store ... there was one store that was Japanese owned (we guessed by the labels that in three languages, German, English and Japanese), and it was confirmed when one of the walking tours, full of Japanese tourists was lead through the shop. I guess it's nice to be able to support Japanese owned businesses, even while abroad.
We bought a few things for ourselves and others to take back, but we made sure to pick up some Ritter bars. Ritter bars are like the German hershey bar, except with a lot more variety, and with German chocolate. They have them with everything under the sun in them - even corkflakes. Julia had a sample pack and we tried some over breakfast. We're taking back as many as will fit in our rapidly expanding luggage.
We came back to the apt - and it's a lovely apt, two levels, big rooms... gorgeous! Relayed our day to Julia, and we had Joe and Flower (the two kids still at home) help us with some German translations. I wanted to buy a shirt that had something German on it instead of one of those "I went to Heidelberg" shirts - but of course we don't know what any of them say. Joe and Flower are going to school here and they're picking up the language much quicker than Julia - so they have no problem telling us what the shirts say (we took pics to bring back to put into Babelfish, but there was so much slang that babelfish didn't really get it).
Dinner was an event! We knew we wanted more German food, 
and Julia knew just the place - they take all their out of town guests there, and its just as much for the atmosphere as the food. The tables are long wooden plank tables that seat a minimum of 8 people, so with only 3 of us there was a good chance we were going to be sharing a table, but it didn't happen. First came this incredible salad plate, with a little green salad in the middle, and then vinegar salads of carrots, onions, cucumbers, cabagge, and potato salad.... I ordered the Jagersteak (pork steak with a stroganoff type mushroom sauce) and egg noodes (spatzle). There were a few words on the menus that weren't translated into English - they would have the full German, Yagersteak mit spatzle (it was longer, but I didn't write it down) - and then they have the English below, "Pork steak with mushroom cream sauce and SPATZLE" with no indication what a spatzle was. 
There were a few words like that - its like, I could almost figure out everything else, and the one word in which I really need a translation for, doesn't have one. Easily solved, we asked the waitress. Anyway, Patti got the ham and cheese snitzeil (another word that isn't translated, and we didn't ask because we thought that it meant like a hot pocket type thing)... well sort of, we learned later that it's like a hot pocket, but a pork steak is the pocket instead of bread. So she had a 
pocket of fried pork with ham and 
cheese inside. Like a pork cordein blue. And Dana was still craving kraut and sausages - they also came with yummy mashed potatoes - and one sausage was like a brat, but the other came as like a big hamburger sized sausage patty that looked like a slice off of a big loaf of meat. All were quite tasty - and with our beer (no liter this time) - we left very full.
and Julia knew just the place - they take all their out of town guests there, and its just as much for the atmosphere as the food. The tables are long wooden plank tables that seat a minimum of 8 people, so with only 3 of us there was a good chance we were going to be sharing a table, but it didn't happen. First came this incredible salad plate, with a little green salad in the middle, and then vinegar salads of carrots, onions, cucumbers, cabagge, and potato salad.... I ordered the Jagersteak (pork steak with a stroganoff type mushroom sauce) and egg noodes (spatzle). There were a few words on the menus that weren't translated into English - they would have the full German, Yagersteak mit spatzle (it was longer, but I didn't write it down) - and then they have the English below, "Pork steak with mushroom cream sauce and SPATZLE" with no indication what a spatzle was. 
There were a few words like that - its like, I could almost figure out everything else, and the one word in which I really need a translation for, doesn't have one. Easily solved, we asked the waitress. Anyway, Patti got the ham and cheese snitzeil (another word that isn't translated, and we didn't ask because we thought that it meant like a hot pocket type thing)... well sort of, we learned later that it's like a hot pocket, but a pork steak is the pocket instead of bread. So she had a 
pocket of fried pork with ham and 
cheese inside. Like a pork cordein blue. And Dana was still craving kraut and sausages - they also came with yummy mashed potatoes - and one sausage was like a brat, but the other came as like a big hamburger sized sausage patty that looked like a slice off of a big loaf of meat. All were quite tasty - and with our beer (no liter this time) - we left very full. Ok so, the atmosphere! WOW! There is this little guy that plays the piano, and he sat right by our table. He starts playing and we think, oh great, lovely background music, this is what Julia was talking about. THEN as if rehearsed, the whole place erupts into song, singing along to whatever tune he plays... they all know them, and they're REALLY into it. You know those movies with everyone sings together and swinging their beer steins with arms flung over each other's shoulders?? We were in the middle of one, and couldn't join in. We did recognize one song, "Roll out the Barrell" - and we sang along in English. :) One lady was really getting into it, pointing at everyone to the beat of the music, swaying and singing in full voice.. Songs just went from one, straight into another and they all joined in without missing a beat - and if they wanted a particular song played, they didn't send a request up like we might - no, you just start singing it very loudly and the piano player will join in! After we heard Roll out the Barrel, we figured it was old folk like standards that everyone knows - like if we were to play Oh Suzannah or Row, Row, Row your boat, everyone could join in. We were going to trying to start our own song of Oh Suzannah, or even "Take me out to the Ballgame"... ok, not really. ;)
We got back to the apartment and showed Julia the video of everyone joining in song and she was delighted that we got to have that experience. She also had more plans for us - a trip to the old bridge and our Heidelberg photo shoot. 
We walk
ed up to the bridge, got great views of the castle and the river (neckar), and we saw the monkey. There is a bronze statue of a babboon - and its bottom faces the entrance to the bridge, so if you were 
coming across the bridge into Heidelberg, you would first see the babboon's backside. She said that this was a message to enemies to try and scare them... ooohhh... but the front of the monkey also has a story. The face is formed kind of like a mask, and if you stick you
r head up there and touch the unidentifiable round thing in his hand, you'll get pregnant. Patti and Dana did it, so be looking for those shower invitations in the mail. The bridge isn't called the Old Bridge for nothing... it's OLD! On the side of the bridge is markings carved into the brick from past floods, year and where they were on the bridge - one is from 1784!
We walk
ed up to the bridge, got great views of the castle and the river (neckar), and we saw the monkey. There is a bronze statue of a babboon - and its bottom faces the entrance to the bridge, so if you were 
coming across the bridge into Heidelberg, you would first see the babboon's backside. She said that this was a message to enemies to try and scare them... ooohhh... but the front of the monkey also has a story. The face is formed kind of like a mask, and if you stick you
r head up there and touch the unidentifiable round thing in his hand, you'll get pregnant. Patti and Dana did it, so be looking for those shower invitations in the mail. The bridge isn't called the Old Bridge for nothing... it's OLD! On the side of the bridge is markings carved into the brick from past floods, year and where they were on the bridge - one is from 1784!
Long night... exhausted... we ended it by relaxing with the fam and watching NCIS. Good times.
I love Momma's shoes! Way cute! Looks like a beautiful city!
ReplyDelete