Heidelberg #3 - Side trip to Schwetzingen

It is an absolutely beautiful day today. No clouds, sunny, and pleasant temperature. Kim told us about a nice place she and Billy visited yesterday - Schwetzingen - a nearby town and palace. It is just 10 km. from Heidelberg so we take a taxi arriving in front of the palace about 9:45. Schwetzingen is Germany's asparagus center although no asparagus at this time of year. There is a big festival here in the spring and local restaurants feature dishes with asparagus. 

Schwetzingen is famous for its Schlöss, a formal palace constructed as a summer residence by the Palatinate electors. The rose-colored palace is imposing and harmonious and is surrounded by an extensive park that blends formal French and informal English styles. It even has a exotic mosque and a "classical ruin" that were de rigeur for this period. 

It is quiet and peaceful and we are among a small number of people walking around these beautiful grounds. The palace itself is closed for renovation. You could wander for hours and never cover the same territory. There isn't a lot in bloom now but we walk through open grassy areas with fountains and statues and into woods with ponds. The mosque and the "ruins" are interesting. The buildings are particularly pretty in the morning light and it is an ideal time to take pictures. We leave the palace grounds and have lunch at a restaurant just outside the palace gate that makes its own beer. We have sausages, sauerkraut and potato salad for lunch. I think I have had enough of sausages and sauerkraut at this point good as they are here. Kathy, John and Dave return to the palace gardens to walk around some more but I choose to sit on a bench for awhile and then walk on the small pedestrian street scouting out ice cream places. That is what we do when we get back together. Love that gelato! It is quite warm and we have had enough so take a taxi back to our hotel for a rest and packing for tomorrow.

We are tired of German food so walk along the Hauptstrasse until we find an Italian restaurant. It turns out to be an excellent choice. It is tucked away in a pretty courtyard adjacent to a museum. We sit ourside where It is quiet and we enjoy our last meal together sharing memories of the trip. According to my Vivofit, I walked 8.5 miles today.

This will be my last entry for this trip as we fly home tomorrow. We'll get a shuttle here in Heidelberg to the Frankfurt airport for our 5:25 p.m. flight home. It has been a wonderful if challenging and tiring trip at times and I am extremely grateful that I was able to come. I travel in a bubble on these trips shutting out any worries or concerns at home and just live in the present enjoying each moment and the stimulation of all my senses. Who knows what next year will bring but I will always have the memories of this trip to relive no matter where I am or what my circumstances. 

                                        The Palatinate palace at Schwetzingen

                              Sculpture commemorating the asparagus grown in this area

                                        The palace is immense

                                           Inside the mosque grounds

           Linda and Dave at the classical "ruins"

                                       Kathy and John in the window of the mosque

Exploring Heidelberg #2

The day is cloudy but no rain forecast. It is a comfortable temperature for walking. We have learned to stay out of the many bike paths that traverse the city. The bike paths run right alongside the walking path with the only designation being a reddish color for,the bike path. Germans use cycling as a major form of transportation and move fast along the cycle paths. After breakfast, we find our way to the Philosopher's Path, a trail on the other side of the river that climbs up the side of the mountain so that we have spectacular views of the city below. The trail is tree lined and well marked. We climb steeply uphill until we are far above the city. It is a lovely walk. The end of the path comes out by the historic Alta Brücke Bridge. On the other side we find a coffee shop, relax and have a snack. 

We walk around on some of the side streets and check out where to get a boat if we want to do a boat ride tomorrow. As we stroll along the Hauptstrasse, we pick out a place for lunch and sit in an open window where we can people watch and enjoy a good lunch. After lunch, Dave and I go back to the room to rest and do some email.  We meet again at 4:30 to walk to the Heiliggeistkirche for a half hour organ concert. I love hearing the organ in the big church. The program is a combination of Bach and a modern piece orchestrated by the organist who was playing. I am distracted by the man sitting in front of me who has an enormous skin (his skin) pouch hanging from his left cheek. Poor man. Is there nothing they can do? I must concentrate on the organ and not him. It is early for dinner so we walk to the end of the Hauptstrasse where the street narrows and there is student housing. The buildings are very interesting. I buy some beautiful handmade chocolates for a few people at home.

When we are ready for dinner, we decide to return to the same place we had lunch. We enjoy our dinner, stop for gelato on our way home and call it a day. It has been a nice, relaxing day. I have walked 10.47 miles today according to my Vivofit.

                                           The Hauptstrasse

                                   Walking on Philosopher's Way

                                     Four bozos resting on a bench

                              View from Philosopher's Way (note the Alta Brücke Bridge)

Exploring Heidelberg - 9/14/14

We see that it behooves one to get to breakfast early at this hotel. We arrive at 8:00 and do get one of the last tables in the rather large dining room. Shortly after though huge groups of German tourists arrive en masse and it is a mob scene. The breakfast is actually quite nice for a Holiday Inn Express. 

After breakfast, we walk to the old town and get the train to the Schlöss which is the huge castle on top of the hill you can see from all over town. It is Sunday morning and everything is very quiet. Hardly anyone is in the Hauptstrasse, unlike yesterday afternoon and evening. We ride the modern train up the mountain to the Schlöss and buy tickets for the 10:15 English tour of the castle. We go,inside with our guide and see areas one can't see on one's own. This castle has had a tortured history being eprepeatedly destroyed, rebuilt, destroyed, etc. It is mostly ruins now with just a small part restored that can be used. There are no plans to restore more of it. Money is being put into stabilizing and preserving the structure that is left. It is a big tourist attraction after all. 

After we are finished at the Schlöss, we take a much smaller cogwheel train up to the very top of the mountain. Glad we aren't riding our bikes up this sometimes 40% grade although we do see bikers at the top. We suppose that there is a more level path to ride up albeit level being a relative term. There are probably many switchbacks. It is a little cloudy and overcast today which affects our views some but we can still see far below and I am very happy with the overcast for comfortable walking around. 

We go back to the bottom of the mountain to have lunch. We eat outside in the Markplatz right next to the Heiliggeistkirche, the big church that dominates the Hauptstrasse. After lunch, we go into this church and are surprised that it is so light and airy inside in contrast to the rather dark exterior. 

We start looking for,the Student Prison Museum which we are intrigued with after reading about it. It takes some walking around but we finally locate it. It turned out to be really interesting! Who knew that students were put into this special prison for misbehavior in town. You can see the small cells where the errant student had to spend 2 days to 4 weeks. He was given bread and water for the first two days. Then, others could bring food in, he could attend his classes and socialize with the other student prisoners but was not allowed to leave. The walls are covered with graffitti made by the students. There is also a small museum to visit about the history if the Unicpversity of Heidelberg and one can visit a very attractive lecture hall with paintings and sculptures.

Back to the room for a nap before meeting Kim and Billy for dinner. They have arrived in town today. We go to the Schnitzelbank Restaurant recommended by our hotel. It is an old style German restaurant housed in a former wood carver's workshop. It has a lot of atmosphere. We are seated on benches at a long, wooden table that is covered with initials and carvings. A young couple sits at the end. Turns out he is Canadian and she German and they are traveling in Germany. It is fun to visit with them for awhile. The wait staff are friendly and welcoming and we have a fun evening together. We order traditional German food - schnitzels and sausages and such - and think it delicious.

                                    Reading together

                                                         The Schlöss

                                          John at the gate

                                Part of the Schlöss. Most is in ruins.

                                            At the very top of the mountain

                                        View of Heidelberg old town from the top

                                   The funicular that took us to the top of the mountain

Baden-Baden to Heidelberg

It is still drizzling and overcast when we wake up this morning, but it starts to clear up. We enjoy a delicious breakfast at the beautiful buffet breakfast at our hotel. Jeannie and Frank will be leaving this morning and they join us join Kathy and John and I. After breakfast we get packed up and sit in the lobby of the hotel to catch up on email and such because it is the only place we can get a decent wireless signal  It is getting brighter outside so we go out to walk and take the pictures we couldn't take yesterday. Baden-Baden has a six foot wide red carpet throughout the old town to show where to walk. It is easier to walk on the red carpet than on the cobble stones but it also enhances the luxurious, expensive image of Baden-Baden. There is much shopping here but all seems very expensive.

We get a taxi to the train station for our 12:45 train to Heidelberg. We buy sandwiches to eat on the one hour train ride. Google says it is a .1 mike walk to our Holiday Inn Express hotel which seems simple enough. However, the tangle of streets outside the station is confusing. We stop and ask at the tourist office and go the way the man has pointed. However, it is the wrong way and we have to backtrack with all our luggage. Finally, Kathy and I wait with the luggage while John and Dave go to find the hotel. We finally make it to the hotel which is much farther than .1 miles. It is a new Holiday Inn Express and everything is quite nice. Yes, I know. Not quite old world charm, but, hey, the woman at reception is very friendly and efficient, wireless is free, and it works in our rooms, breakfast comes with the room, bathrooms are beautiful, beds comfortable, price is right. We are glad to take advantage of the amenities. There is some construction around the hotel and it's on a big street with the tram line so not a particularly scenic location but our rooms face a courtyard and are perfectly quiet. Goos air conditioning keeps the room comfortable. It is about a mile walk to the Haupenstrasse, the main shopping street that runs into the old town.

We walk to the old town and pedestrian street, Hauptstrasse with all it's many stores, restaurants and shops. Being Sarurday afternoon, it is crowded and filled with people. We walk along the river and onto the famous Alta Brücke Bridge over the Neckar River. It is this bridge that Dave and I remember from our 1981 trip here with Anne and Steve. We eat dinner at the Kulturbroerie Restaurant recommended by our hotel. Typical German style restaurant and they make their own beer so Kathy and John are happy. We sit outside in a beer garden type area and have a delicious meal. We are just a little chilly. We stop for a gelato on the way home.

I have walked 8.47 mikes today! Our legs feel strong after all our biking.

                                  Walking the red carpet in Baden-Baden

                                                     Dave and Friend

                                              Fountain in Baden-Baden

                                               Our hotel in Baden-Baden

                                  Walking along the Lichtentaler Avenue in Baden-Baden

Exploring Baden-Baden and Post Trip Rest and Relaxation - (written on 9/14/14)

We wake to rain this morning. What good timing for the end of the bike trip! We had beautiful weather on this trip. Not more than a few drops of rain. Breakfast today is the end of the bike trip, always an emotional time for me. We will be saying goodbye to our fellow travelers with whom we've shared the past twelve days almost as a family. Good part is that most of these people are good friends now and with whom we will travel in the future. Saying good bye to our intrepid guides is particularly hard. They make the trip so smooth and pleasant for us. Joan has already left so we said goodbye to,him last night. Philipp and Gwendal will be driving the van with the bikes back to Italy, a ten hour drive.

After our good byes, we go to the casino, the Kurhaus, for a tour. We arrive at 9:30 for the first tour and are the only ones so the woman does the tour for us in English. When we finish, a large group of Japanese tourists are crowded into the lobby for a tour. We are so glad we arrived early! What an interesting place! So elegant and with such a rich history. I can just imagine all the intrigue and dramas, both small and large, that take place there now and in the past. Our guide tells us about the meeting there of Obama, Merkel, Sarkozi, Brown and Berlisconi. 

Next, we go to the Frieder Barda Museum. What an interesting and beautiful building in which to display the collection of modern art that belonged to Frieder Barda, a magazine publisher. Works by Gerhard Richter, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and others, and a room of late Picassos are exhibited in a building designed by Richard Meier specifically for this collection.

 Baden-Baden is known for its thermal waters and the rich and famous have come here for years to "take the waters." The traditional spa, Friedrichsbad, has 20 some specific steps to follow all sans clothes while the "modern" spa, the Caracalla, offers a variety of pools and saunas with bathing suits. After a much needed nap, Kathy, Dave and I choose the latter and head to the Caracalla Spa. On our way out of the hotel, we run into a rosy cheeked, smiling Don returning from his visit to the spa looking healthy and relaxed. We spend a most enjoyable couple of hours relaxing and soaking in the various pools. What a beautiful place. The pools are large and spacious with plenty of room to move around. Our favorite spot is sitting in the pool outside in the rain. A unique experience. The rain kept us from getting too hot. One pool has a current running through it so you are swept along in a circular direction. At one point, I am almost overrun by a large German man floating on his back!  I'm nt a big fan of saunas but we at least look at the three or four different ones available. We go into the Aromatique sauna where we take out bumpy mats to sit on on benches and then use little,hoses that squirt out cool water (to off set the heat of the sauna) that have an aroma. Kathy and I think it quite funny squirting Dave simultaneously with the aromatic hoses. 

When we get back, we sit in front of the fireplace in the sitting room of the hotel, the room where we had our wine and snacks last evening. Such old world charm with rain coming down outside, us cozy together here by the fire having cappuccinos and glasses of wine. How good is that? It has rained steadily all day. Us Californians have kind of enjoyed the rainy day since it's been a long time since we've had rain at our homes. The only downside is that our picture taking of this lovely city has been limited. 

The final activity of the day is dinner in the hotel dining room with Frank and Jeannie and the four of us. We did not want to venture out in the rain again today so had a delicious meal at a table near the windows where we could enjoy the view of the green trees and pretty flowers and watch the people go by with their umbrellas from inside instead of outside. 

All in all, it has been a very relaxing, satisfying post trip day, a day to rest up, reflect on the trip and spend time with good friends, and contemplate the next part of our travels.

                    The Frieder Burda Museum - building designed by Richard Meier

                                            Sitting by the fireplace on a rainy afternoon

                                     A final cozy dinner at our hotel with good friends 

                                    The Caracalla Spa in Baden-Baden 

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Day 12: Ride to Baden-Baden and End Of Bike Trip - (written on 9/13/14)

Will write more later...

Our last day of riding. The end has come so suddenly! We have just 31 km to ride today. Today was shortened because we rode further two days ago. This has been such a nice place to stay but Experience Plus! probably won't come here again because the ride here is too long. I'm glad we got to be here though. The breakfasts at this hotel are fabuluous!! As is everything else. I wouldn't mind coming back here some day. We have a late start at 10:00 because of our short ride which we all appreciate.

We ride downhill on the Tour de Murg bike path out of Baiersbronn until Forbach. It is an absolutely gorgeous ride through forests along the Murg River. At Forsbach, we become confused by Philipp's arrows at one point. We all gather for extended discussion and someone goes ahead to find the next arrow. It is an up,and down ride through the streets of this town mostly on cobblestones. At one point, we ride down a very steep, uneven cobblestone street which intersects a busy road which we have to cross on a blind curve. Hopefully, they can find a better way next time. From here, we start the climb to the Roe Lache, a beautiful but long climb of 390 meters. The road is rather bumpy and the climb gets tiresome after awhile. Glad to be at the top where there are beautiful views. From there, it is a downhill ride on a bumpy road into Baden-Baden the last kilometers of which are along the famous tree-lined Lichtenthaler Avenue. It is a beautiful day and we pass lovely gardens and hotels. We reach our hotel, the Park-Atlantic, about 1:30. Sadly, we turn in our bikes for the last time. Joan removes our pedals and seats and starts getting the bikes loaded up on the van. He and Philipp will drive them back to the "farm" in Italy, Experience Plus! European headquarters after breakfast tomorrow morning. 

We are really hungry so gather on the outdoor patio of the hotel restaurant for lunch. This is a beautiful hotel!! Our rooms are lovely and the staff are gracious and helpful to this rather ragtag looking bunch of cyclists completing their 500 km ride. 

We start repacking our bike gear and get cleaned up. We meet at 6:00 in the sitting room of the hotel which has old world charm to it. We have a wine tasting with delicious snacks served by elegantly dressed wait persons. Philipp has made arrangements for us to taste some German Rieslings and Gewurtztraminers that he has had his father-in-law ship from his favorite winery. Joan gives an overview of the new Portugal trip Experience Plus! Will be doing next year. We walk to a restaurant nearby for our last dinner together. Food is good but way too much!! I have the pleasure of sitting next to Philipp for a nice last visit.

                                Lichtenthaler Avenue in Baden-Baden

                                        Frank and Jeannie, Linda and Dave

                                                  Philipp, Dave and me

Day 11: A Hike, Culinary Tour and Rest Day -(written on 9/12/14)

Today is a rest day and I am glad not to have to get back on the bike after the long day yesterday. We have an absolutely beautiful breakfast at our hotel! Wish I had brought my camera to take a picture. After breakfast, we meet in the hotel lobby for our culinary hike. Our guide is Hilda and since she doesn't speak English, Philipp is our translater. We start walking uphill with frequent stops for Hilda to tell us about the Black Forest. The Black Forest was deforested in the 1800s and then replanted with mostly fast growing fir and pine. They now are trying to diversify the plantings with deciduous trees. We keep walking uphill and eventually come to a culinary snack stop. A white coated server serves us slices of bread with different kinds of meats and toppings. As we continue on, we see piles of neatly stacked wood. People from the town can come and take what they need for the winter. It gets cold here in the winter though there has been less snow in recent years. The dense forest opens to wide open vistas where we can see the homes below. The hike ends with lunch at a restaurant on top.of the hill. We have hiked about six miles, a lot of it uphill. My legs are tired what with biking so far yesterday. "Rest" day may be a misnomer.

Some are going to the nice pool and spa at the hotel but I return to the room for a nap and some down time. Also, since we are up the hill from the hotel, it isn't as convenient to use the pool. 

Dinner is on our own tonight and we go with Sarah and Thomas, Linda and Chas, Kathy and John to a restaurant right across the street from our hotel. Other than the 2 star Michelin restaurant, this is the only choice. It is a typical German style restaurant and we have a table in the bar area. Thomas manages to translate the ten page menu in German the best he can. A gargantuan effort for sure! This performance will go down in the annals of our trip memories. The waitress tips over a glass of red wine all over Sarah with some on Kathy and me as well! Sarah runs across the street to change her clothes and try to get the wine out. Our food arrives just as she comes back and turns out to be quite delicious. Our conversation is lively and fun and we have a most enjoyable evening together.

                                          Philipp and our guide

                                       Hiking in the Black Forest

                                  A mid hike snack. How about that?

                                    A new building hand carved by a local wood carver

                                            Beautiful vistas

                   We had lunch at this restaurant at the top of the hill as part of the hike