Heidelberg - summer and winter

I was in Heidelberg just after New Year - visiting friends, improving my German - and I realised that I'd never posted the pictures from my time in Heidelberg in summer 2006. So I figured a summer-winter post might be nice.

Both times, I stayed with S., who I'd met with C. and DT. in a hostel in Perugia. I'd hung out with them there, enjoyed their company, and decided to take them up on the offer to come and visit them. We had got to know each other while swapping music tastes and tips (they're DJs), and as a result, I have a small German music collection, and who knows, some Australian bands may be heard soon in a certain Heidelberg club...

My first visit was right at the end of two months of travelling. I was tired. I hadn't been doing touristy things that two months, and didn't want to start. And I only had about 24 hours. S. took me wandering around the town, and that's about it. It was good fun! This time, I had longer. It gave me a chance to explore by myself, as well as visit the Schloss, and an excellent art museum, the Prinzhorn Collection, which consists of art made by patients in mental institutions.

Heidelberg is a very beautiful town.





My first full day was bright, clear - and COLD! After walking along the river for a while, I headed into a cafe, which turned out to have Zotter ginger chocolate. While I was contemplating a second cup of hot chocolate, I got a call from a couchsurfer I'd contacted, D., and we ended up chatting away the afternoon. Then she walked me back to the other end of Hauptstrasse, giving me some excellent advice on German language books on the way, and pointed me in the direction of the central Heidelberg Asian grocery, which inspired me for the dinner I cooked for S., her girlfriend G., and DT. - my take on basil chilli beef with rice noodles and vegies. They told me they liked chilli... (no, I wasn't mean! But you could definitely get a kick from the chillis if you bit into them.) Anyway, it was a lot of fun playing with a wok again. Mum, I hope you're enjoying yours!

The next day, I wandered up to the Schloss. It had snowed a few days before New Year, and some ice was still on the ground up there (in town, the only ice was frozen puddles). I was particularly fascinated with the Deutches Apotheken-Museum:





I ended up spending about an hour and a half in there, in lieu of taking a guided tour of the Schloss. Those guided tours actually sounded pretty good, but I bought a glossy little guidebook instead, and wandered around taking random photos, such as this one of the Exploded Tower:



And a few of icy, wintry gardens:



And the obligatory, touristy photos of das Große Fass (the great barrel), which is truly huge:



The street on which both S. and DT. live boasts a Flohmarkt, which was there in both summer and winter:



Every item in this flea market is free - it's organised by a woman who lives on the street. It's not clear where she gets everything from, or why she does it, but it was fun to have a bit of a gander. We were obviously not the only ones who thought so!

This time around, I also got to play with S. and G.'s very cute kitten: