Made my last visit to Loustic cafe in Paris this morning. Also visited the boulangerie on our street and bought a plain and a chocolate croissant. The chocolate croissant was the best. We checked out of our apartment at 11am and took at taxi to the train station. We arrived early but managed to kill some time with shopping, eating and playing games.
Our train left Paris for Mannheim just after 1pm. We were on a nice new looking ICE train. Nicholas fell asleep for quite a while and I had a bit of a nap too. It was showery and dreary once we were in Germany. Changed trains at Mannheim and switched to a suburban train.
Germans seem more friendly. A mum with her 2 kids offered fairly floss (or cotton candy in American) to Catherine and Nicholas. Catherine took some and was very grateful. Once on our train to Heidelberg, a woman tried to help us check if the train stopped at our destination. When she got off before us, she wished us a nice time in Heidelberg.
Arrived at our apartment after 5pm – not too late. It was rainy in Heidelberg. We were able to call the owner who then gave us instructions on how to obtain the keys. The apartment was spacious, newly updated and nicely set up with some board games too. Nicholas taught Catherine how to play chess. This kept them busy while Phil walked into town and bought groceries and dinner. He did good and came back with pizza, schnitzel and spaghetti which we all happily ate up.
Notes
The Journey
• Paris - Mannheim: ICE, 2 hours
• Mannheim - Heidelberg Alstadt: S-Bahn, 22 minutes
The Sights and Transport
• Taxi from apartment to Gare de l’Est
• Neckar River
• Marktplatz
Friday, 06 October
 |
| From Heidelberg |
Played more board games, including German Snakes and Ladders, drew pictures and read while we listened to the rain. Went out again briefly in the afternoon. It was quite cold, but we saw a couple of wedding photos happening around Marktplatz.
Checked out a busy bakery, Cafe Gundel, where we later returned to and bought some baked goods and treats. For dinner we went to Cafe Villa where we had more schnitzel, spaghetti and sausages. Ended the evening playing checkers with Nicholas.
Notes
The Sights and Transport
• Alte Brücke Heidelberg
• Bus from Alte Brücke to Bismarkplatz
• Heidelberg University
Saturday, 07 October
Cold (13˚C|55˚F) and overcast but we managed to be out for most of the day. After breakfast we went up the funicular to the very top of town, Königstuhl. We got to the top of the modern lower railway at Molkenkur and had to change to the historic upper railway to get to the top. After 20 minutes of waiting, the older funicular was out of action. A door on one of the cars would not close properly so the entire system could not function. We were told it may take an hour to fix. So we had a snack at the cafe next to the station – sausage, pretzels and hot chocolate. By the time we finished, the funicular was working again.
It was freezing at the top! We found the fairytale theme park which mostly distracted us from the cold. It was just the right amount of stimulation for all of us. We had fun spending a few hours in this quirky and quite pretty park. The kids’ favourite was driving the small vehicles and crashing to each other. Each ride required tokens which cost 50 Euro cents each.
After dragging the kids away from the park, we stopped at the castle station on the way back down the funicular. Being in the castle grounds was kind of neat and the views of Heidelberg were spectacular. This was definitely a photogenic place as we ran into a few wedding parties.
We had a long but splendid last day in Heidelberg. Our evening ended with take away dinner of pizza and kebabs and playing card games before bedtime.
Notes
The Sights and Transport
• Heidelberger Bergbahnen from Kornmarkt to Königstuhl
• Märchenparadies
• Heidelberger Bergbahnen from Königstuhl to Schloss (Castle)
• Heidelberg Castle
• Heidelberger Bergbahnen from Schloss to Kornmarkt
No comments:
Post a Comment