A hop down to Heidelberg

After a long 11 hour flight from San Francisco, my parents arrived safely in Frankfurt last Tuesday. Needless to say, I am thrilled to have them here visiting. Since the moment they stepped off the plane, we have kept them busy... that afternoon we went downtown and took in the highlights of Frankfurt. Since it only takes a couple of hours to see Frankfurt's main sites, on Wednesday we decided to head an hour south to the quaint university town of Heidelberg, Germany. Daniel and I had already been there before back in 2002 during our European backpacking trip, so we were looking forward to seeing the town again as well as showing my parents around a bit.

First off, we walked along the Neckar River, taking in Heidelberg on the other side of the river bank as well as its famous castle up on the hillside. Of course, we had to stop and pose for a picture :)

Walking across the Old Bridge, we were greeted by a rather dramatic gate at the end of the bridge that leads into town. Shortly we found ourselves staring up at the Church of the Holy Spirit in the main square of the old town. Unfortunately we weren't able to check out its interior... besides, we really wanted to go see the castle so we headed up the hill to do just that.

The view from the terrace in front of the castle was excellent... from that vantage point, we could take in the town and the river below. Plus we could appreciate the architectural details of the intricate castle exterior from there as well.

We wandered around exploring the castle ruins for a while. Sometimes it is hard to believe that where we were walking had been inhabited off and on since the 13th century! After checking out the castle, we did some window shopping along the main drag in the old town district. Then we grabbed some dinner, and soon it was time to head back up to Frankfurt.

Overall, it was a short but sweet trip down to Heidelberg. I think my parents enjoyed this small taste of Germany... it was to be pretty short-lived though, because the very next day we were off to Italy! We had a great trip down to Rome and Naples... and if you check back soon, you can read my post all about it! Until then....