heidelberg

Heidelberg was really pretty and ties with Leuven as my Favorite City So Far. As soon as we got off the train and taxied over to our hotel, it seemed to be more alive than the other places. Lots of young, interesting people walking everywhere. It seemed more artsy, although we didn't really leave the more touristy areas.

We walked around Hauptstraße, which I could compare with Carytown, except the street is 99% pedestrian traffic. This seems to be consistent through most of the cities we've been through – a lot of the main streets/squares are wide and cobblestoned, but there are no cars. Very different from American cities, which are designed around traffic instead of around people.




Heidelberg Universität is the oldest university in Europe, or something, according to my mom. We did a brief tour of the former student jail. It was looked down on if you didn't get thrown in here at least once. Every wall and ceiling was covered in graffiti:




A three legged cat saw us out (this one is for you, June):



For dinner, we ate our first meal of German specialties, which I thought was pretty delicious. I'm still not used to water not being free. The Mineralwasser does taste more pure, though, but I want more free things. We have only seen one water fountain so far.

We walked around a little bit more, and previewed the castle we'd be going to the next day: