Down is optional; up is mandatory

 Our last full day of vacation was and open itinerary for adventure with no firm plan in place. We woke up and decided to head for Heidelberg instead of Frankfurt. As our hotel was in a major light and heavy rail station, many destinations were open to us easily, but the cuteness of Hiedelberg lured us in.

We headed down to the train station to buy our tickets. The ticket machine warned us of delays to Heidelberg and refused our credit card without a pin (it doesn’t have a pin).  We shrugged and gave up, instead deciding to go to Heidelberg by taxi. Jane was beyond shocked at how fast people can drive on the autobahn. Only 45 minutes later, we arrived in Heidelberg. 

Heidelberg has an expansive old town which was perfect for a stroll.  We abandoned any plans to return to Frankfurt that day and fully committed to a day in Heidelberg.  There wa aa Saturday festive air, with local Germans, college students, and visitors enjoying the beautiful day.  We especially appreciated the number of dogs, in stores, in restaurants, on trains, in grocery stores… just everywhere.  A talented family of glockenspiel players enhanced the German festival feel and drew a sizable crowd of appreciators.  

Dog in a department store.

A busy shopping day. 

This meat store tempted us greatly, but it’s legal to bring home and they don’t ship. (We checked)

Nana gave us this and we use it every year!  Jane was surprised to see it. 

This meet didn’t look appealing to Jane at all. 

Jane said this fossil shop was like a museum but you could touch and buy everything. The shop owner was thrilled with that description. We spent a long time in here. 

German humor just feels different. 

Bakeries everywhere made the smell of bread fill old town. 

We enjoyed their jumbo Christmas store. 

This was Jane’s first opportunity to taste Spaghetti Eis (ice cream that looks like spaghetti). 

She ordered carbonara with meatballs. 

We had a delightful German dinner, one of the best dinners of the trip.

They had Joel’s favorite, alcohol free beer!

The salads were outstanding. Under that layer of lettuce were several types of pickled vegetables. Jane was most impressed with this salad. 

The town had several crafts stores. German crafts are significantly different than American crafts, and we enjoyed looking at them all. 

We finally figured out how to buy the train tickets online.  We had to walk very briskly to the station but after that it was smooth sailing.  Our taxi ride made getting there easy, but we had to work to get home. Several times we encountered escalators down with stairs up, so “down is optional but up is mandatory” because our travel motto today.  

Joel clocked the train at about 100 miles per hour and there was only 1 stop to our destination.  The heavy rail ride was so smooth and silent that we could barely tell we were moving.

The connector light rail ride was an adventure.  We encountered our first drunk and disorderly Germans.  The Ted face just left to Jane’s head was one of them.  The other was just behind Joel.

Today we are flying home and we are on the plane now bound to Houston. The Frankfurt airport was simple to move through. Here we are at security, the only folks in a line staffed by a dozen security agents and 2 soldiers with automatic weapons. 

Immigration was the same. There was nobody in front of us in line, there were 5 lines open, and our check took about 30 seconds. We are all set to come home now, waiting for the plane to take off.  Ciao and Auf Wiedersehen.