I’m afraid that due to a virus I have not as much to report as I should! What I thought was an allergy turned into either a really severe cold or a mild case of the flu, and consequently I have spent the past few days in bed and feeling downright sorry for myself. Add to that the lack of Sudafed-type medicine in Germany and it has been somewhat of an ordeal for me. Thank God for my Snuffy and his little first aid kit.
Anyway, because of this I didn’t get to see Frankfurt at all. Okay, that’s a lie – I saw a tiny bit, but nothing worth reporting on. I caught up with my Snuffy and his fam again and walked around a little, feeling altogether crappy. We had dinner with a friend of Gerard’s and I had a great steak, but unfortunately this was not enough to lift me out of my illness. They took me home and I went straight to sleep! The next day I made it outside for about an hour before retiring to bed, with a quick reprieve for dinner.
Thankfully sleeping 12 hours each night seems to have helped, and consequently I didn’t spend all day today in bed! Getting here to Heidelberg was a little exhausting – the train ride was only an hour, and on the map I could see that it was only 1km from the station to my hostel. I thought that I could do it. Well, I could, but what I wasn’t banking on was that my hostel was down the other freaking end of the street, and consequently it took me a very long time to get there and upon getting to my room I immediately fell asleep (waking up for dinner, of course).
Today I finally got to go out and explore Heidelberg, and it really is a beautiful little town. The castle overlooks the old town and it is just lovely to stroll down the streets with all the distinctly European buildings and see the autumn-touched hillsides stretching out beyond them; hues of reds, yellows, oranges and the faintly-lingering vestiges of green. Unfortunately I only managed a couple of hours before having to come home. The castle had some beautiful gardens attached to which I would have loved to spend more time in, but the overcast and cold weather really only allows you to spare a fleeting moment before heading inside.
Inside the castle was interesting – it had an apothecary (pharmacy) museum, which was fascinating. I was even stunned to find that the Bunsen Burner was invented here in Heidelberg. Crazy! It essentially gave the history of pharmacies throughout the ages and how they were ran. Also within the castle walls was a huge mofoing wine barrel. When you enter in the first door you see a big wine barrel and whilst not ‘whistle-worthy’, you still think wow, that’s a big damn wine barrel. So then you turn the corner and see the mother-of-all-wine-barrels….I could almost see the glee in my mother’s eyes, if only you had been here ma! It was massive – you could climb up stairs to walk around the top; just crazy.
And that’s about all folks – I may be getting better but I still tire easily so I had to head straight back. Despite the beauty of Heidelberg, I’m leaving and heading to Berlin tomorrow, where I will finally get some time alone with my Snuffy Pig and not stay in a freaking hostel dorm bed! *sings* At last…..
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Heidelberg photos
