Heidelberg

Several weeks ago I visited the lovely city of Heidelberg. I went with my friends Jennifer and David and we got up early and spent our day walking around the city.

Our train had a one-hour layover in Stuttgart, and we decided to stroll through the park next to the train station there. It was really interesting because right now the city is trying to build a new, high-tech,entirelyunderground train station, referred to as the Stuttgart 21 project. Basicallyeveryone I have spoken to opposes this plan: it would take away a lot of € from other city organizations and rip up the park. A protest against it several months ago resulted in some police violence and many Germans as well asAustrians are quite upset: photos of protesters who had been injured in the riots were up all around the station. When we went through a group of people had set up a protest camp in the park, and had also filled the trees with stuffed toys, lanterns, Christmas ornaments, and signs.
Here is the protest camp:

Here is an example of one of the trees. This sign quotes the fifth Commandment, "Thou shalt not kill."

After our walk through the park we got onto our second train and

eventually reached Heidelberg. It was a gorgeous day and we decided to

walk through the park along the river, where we found the best playground

ever. Here are David and Jennifer enjoying the amazing see-saw type flying machine:

After a good chunk of time appreciating German playground

construction, we continued walking until we stumbled upon signs pointing to Philosophenweg. David

and I had both read about this road in the hills where many philosophers and university professors had strolled, thought, and made their homes. We took an enormous staircase up and enjoyed the walk along grand houses and flowers - with amazing views of the city below.

Here is the first staircase - but trust me, it just keeps going up via hills for a long long way!

We walked through a beautiful garden as well before beginning our descent. Here is a shot of the city on our way down:

We then crossed one of the many lovely bridges (the one in the above photo) to go into the old city. Here I am with a statue featuring goddesses:

We immediately found a crepe stand and feasted on inexpensive but delicious tomato-and-cheese crepes.

We then wandered through the old city and visited the two biggest churches we could find before catching an evening train back to Tübingen. It was a lovely day!