Heidelberg, Germany! Sehr Gut!!!

Heidelberg, Germany was AMAZING.  It’s what I expected Baden-Baden to be. 

We arrived a little early for our check-in.  We actually stayed in a little town in the mountains outside of Heidelberg called Gaiberg.  Our place was nice.  I saved almost $300 by booking this place outside of Heidelberg.  It was a small apartment underneath the house of the people who owned it.  It had heated tiles.  Have you ever walked barefoot on heated tiles?  It’s amazing.  I loved it.  I can’t wait to tile our house and have the heated tiles put it.  I, of course, put those babies on full blast.  In the winter I love my house all warm and toasty so I can walk around barefoot and minimal clothes.  Chris, on the other hand, prefers everything to be slightly cool.  And he definitely didn’t appreciate coming back after a day of exploring to a extremely warm apartment. 

Our first night in Heidelberg, we walked around the city and took in everything.  Chrissy, being the little ham she is, danced around the town center with an umbrella drawing plenty of attention to herself.  We were able to grab some souviners and a couple of necklaces for the girls.  And the necklaces had nothing to do with Germany.  In fact, I’m about 99.9% sure Matti’s is a boy’s necklace.  I tried talking them into something different but then decided, it’s their choice…who am I to push my wants and opinions on them?  Why make them get something they may not like and not take care of?  I can easily let them get those necklaces and hope they cherish them for a long time and remember that they came from a really cool place in Germany!

We ate “street” food for dinner our first night.  Right outside of the outdoor skating rink was a handful of venders selling anything from alcohol to crepes.  I opted for mushrooms & onions covered in garlic sauce with chocolate covered strawberries for dessert.  Chrissy had a Nutella crepe with a chocolate covered apple for dessert.  Matti & Chris both had brautwursts for dinner.  Matti opted for a cinnamon & sugar crepe for dessert where Chris chose cinnamon & sugar peanuts.   My mushroom thing was amazing.  Have you ever been to Silver Dollar City??  If you haven’t, it’s a old time, country theme park.  I absolutely LOVE SDC.  It’s like walking into the past.  Cowboys and Southern Belles line the sidewalks prepared to take pictures with you.  It’s one of my favorite places to visit around home.  And the food they have there…amazing.  They have these huge cast iron skillets where they cook up scrumpish foods.  The mushrooms & onions I had reminded me of that.  This guy had this humungous skillet/wok thing where he mixed everything up and cooked it.  Then, for 5 euros, he filled a bowl with it and topped it with garlic sauce and gave you a piece of bread.  It was good.  I could eat that every night.  Except Chris said later on that he felt like he was laying next to an onion in bed.  So then I felt bad and self conscious. 

We went ice skating as a family that night.  It was pretty nerve wracking.  Ha!  Matti is either all IN or all OUT.  She has no middle ground.  I call her my black and white kid.  Unlike Chrissy who is BRIGHT PINK.  Matti expected to get out thre and immediately get to the middle and start pro figure skaing.  I tried to explain to her that she’s not only never been iceskating, but she’s only been roller skating twice.  So there’s no way she could get out there and know what she’s doing.  I tried to give her the basics on how to put her feet and what not, but I don’t think she enjoyed it that much.  And we didn’t have those cool little seal things like Chrissy and I had in Baden-Baden.  Whomever invented those are my hero.  I was able to have a good time and not be terrified of falling. 

Chris and I switched off with the girls quite a bit.  I wasn’t about to get away from the wall to skate.  It had rained off and on all day so the rink had big water puddles everywhere.  And it was close to freezing while we were there.  I didn’t want to fall and get soaked and have to walk back to the car.  Chris was strong enough to take the girls away from the wall and keep them from eating it.  I’m sure I proabably could have, but I wasn’t taking chances.

After skating we took pictures of the castle.  It’s one of those things where you could take a million pictures and still not get enough.  And then 80% of them look the same but you can’t find your favorite one. 

The next day, Chris and I discussed taking the kids to the zoo.  I don’t think this trip has been particuarlly exciting for them.  So taking them to the zoo was a great idea.  It was pretty cheap.  I think it was 24 euro for the entire family.  We saw bears, monkey’s, mini horses, pigs, chickens, sheep & goats, watched a seal & walrus show, and this and that and this and that.  I think the coolest, yet slightly terrifying, thing we saw was the tigers.  If I haven’t told you already, people take their dogs with them everywhere they go in Europe.  Including the zoo.  Well, this family was walking with their little black dog past the fence of the tigers while I was looking through the glass for the tiger.  And boy did I get an eye full.  The tiger was in hunting mode and locked in on that dog.  And the scariest thing to me was there was a chain-linked fence and a wooden fence separating us from the tiger.  I’m sure it was safe, but I’m used to not being able to get that close to a large cat.  I’m talking, put your arm through the fence and touching a tiger.  Maybe not that close, but even talking to Chris, he’s saying 3 maybe 4 feet.  That is way too close to comfort for when a very large, ready to hunt, wild animal has found something it wants to eat.  It was exciting to see, but it gave me chills to my core.  That tiger followed that little dog, watching it, ready to pounce on it.  He was crouched down and everything.  So, I snapped a few pictures and high-tailed it outta there with my girls.  I just knew that thing was going to attack the window trying to get anything and I didn’t want me or my family to be lunch. 

We finished up the zoo in the little play ground and headed off for lunch.  We found Mandy’s Railroad Diner.  They had a big restaurant and then a smaller one that was inside an old railroad car.  Of course, we opted for inside the railroad car!  It took us almost an hour to get seated.  But, we were able to look at all the memorabilia they had on the walls and ceilings.  They played 40’s and 50’s music and had Elvis, The Beatles, Marilyn Monroe, and Audrey Hepburn, along with cadallic pictues everywhere.  The girls ordered pancakes with chocolate milk and a rootbeer float.  Chris and I both had burgers and fries with shakes.  It was the most expensive burger & fries I’ll probably ever eat, but it was a good taste of home in a country so far away.  Chrissy had a hard time at first, crying because she just wanted to go back to Oklahoma, but then we started discussing opening a bed & breakfast with a restaurant when we got back home.  How we would run it, what we’d cook…  And by the end,  we had two girls dedicated to waiting tables and cooking meals so mom and dad could rest.

After we had full bellies, we headed towards the castle.  The Heidelberg Castle is just amazing.  We opted for the audiotour and walked around learning about where people stayed and why things happened.  I think my favorite part of the castle was the powder tower.  It was attacked and part of the wall fell off.  It looks like it was just cut off and placed right below where it was supposed to go.  You can see how thick the walls were made!  It was very cool.  That and the worlds largest wine barrel…. People tithed to the king in this wine barrel.  He didn’t want money, he wanted wine.  I mean, yeaaah. 

We left the castle and went back to old town where we ate at Coyote Grill.  It was very very good.  I had mentioned arlier that I was craving Mexican and TADAH! It was Mexican night there!  I had a margarita and chicken nachos!  The girls shared nachos and chris had fajatis.  We found out Matti liked guacamole that night too.  She ate a small bowl by herself and would have kept going if we wouldn’t have ran out!  After that, we played “freeze-out” on the way home.  Super fun day, super fun night.

Heidelberg has been my favorite so far.  All our expectations have been dropped and we just went.  And it was great.  We saw some cool animals, amazing places, strolled along the Neckar river, and made future plans with our girls.  All in all, Heidelberg is a MUST SEE if you’re ever going to Germany.