Weather report from Ventusky suggested a driving day today and for varying reasons we have missed out on Heidelberg previously.
Got her up early and it was only 2 hours on the sat nav, and it was in reality.
We made the decision that 20 euros to be 4 Kms away at a stellplatz was no better than 13 Kms away and a free stellplatz. We came to Schwetzingen.
We needed beer and food so a lidls was high on the agenda as well as a gertranke for beer. Nearly at the stell and we see an Aldi and gertranke not realising the stell was 40 metres away and lidls 30 !
But we picked up 24 bottles of German beer for less than £20 but a little disappointed in the choices in Aldi over Lidl.
Made our way on the alleged 11.8 km ride and signage was appalling. Constant stopping to work out if we should be on road or pavement and when the cycle route just disappeared. We think Schwetzingen is an asparagus town and very neat and smart with its own Schloss and gardens opposite but looks to be paying, even for gardens.
Eventually made it to Heidelberg with no thanks to the signs or other road users in luding cyclists. We have cycled round the arc de triomphe, Louvre and champs Elysees with less stress.
Heidelberg is advertised as a pretty town. It is. But just like you have to do Carcasonne and Mont St Michel, the tourists are a mega pain. Selfie stick wielding multiple bus loads of Japanese tourists really didn't help my mood. Then there were the Instagram fame hungry girls pouring their lips for at least 10 selfies. And they all don't look where they are going and stop in front of you because they want a photo with a clean rubbish bin on a cobbled street.
Put us both right off Heidelberg.
But it is impossible to not call it pretty.
We tend to go into churches as they are quite interesting and old.
Far and away the most disappointing church we have come across. Starts well from the outside with its red granite blocks
But then you notice the row of complete tat being sold at the foot of the church. If you want to buy a VW camper toy this is your place.
Undeterred we went where they ask for a euro. That was ignored. Then the immaculate rows of new IKEA chairs ! With the most boring altar. At least the organ pipes looked good with the pulpit.
Then I spotted the stain glass windows. More like see through posters. Hope it shows up on the photo
As you can probably gather, I ve had enough of Heidelberg by now but we haven't seen the castle. We know it's 9 euros each to go in and it may be worth it but it's just some ruins really. But we went up for the view. There is a funicular railway for 9 euros each, but we have e bikes.
So far today 20 euros on the stell 18 on the castle and 18 on the funicular have made it into the suavecarve beer fund. (56 euros)
The cycle up to the castle for the views was relatively steep but a bit of extra electricity helped but no cycling round the grounds and nowhere we could see to park them so we just walked round pushing the bikes and then saw this
I mean, seriously. 20 foot high impression of a horse with a dustpan brush as a tail. I m sure it has a meaning to someone. Then presumably the water feature for this statue hasn't worked for a while according to the green algae in the "pond"
Thoroughly dejected (apart from our money saving) we followed the path and now we get what everyone is on about
Really not sure our camera does the views justice. Simply stunning.
So we see the funicular goes up further so we do as well
And reach the top with more weird art
But to get here it is steep, and long, and steep. We had to put full electric on and lowest gear for quite a while. Paula had to push for a small bit.
BUT IT WAS WORTH IT
Again not sure the photos do it justice. See for miles.
The route down had some stopping points and fairly certain giant redwoods
I got up to 67kph coming down without pedalling. 75 would easily be achievable even on our bikes.
The way back was better signposted but still not great and had to take this photo pretending to be interested in it rather than just look at the map turning round
You may notice I have altered the thread title. That's because we are no longer in Bavaria but hope to do some volcanoes next 3 or 4 days
Got her up early and it was only 2 hours on the sat nav, and it was in reality.
We made the decision that 20 euros to be 4 Kms away at a stellplatz was no better than 13 Kms away and a free stellplatz. We came to Schwetzingen.
We needed beer and food so a lidls was high on the agenda as well as a gertranke for beer. Nearly at the stell and we see an Aldi and gertranke not realising the stell was 40 metres away and lidls 30 !
But we picked up 24 bottles of German beer for less than £20 but a little disappointed in the choices in Aldi over Lidl.
Made our way on the alleged 11.8 km ride and signage was appalling. Constant stopping to work out if we should be on road or pavement and when the cycle route just disappeared. We think Schwetzingen is an asparagus town and very neat and smart with its own Schloss and gardens opposite but looks to be paying, even for gardens.
Eventually made it to Heidelberg with no thanks to the signs or other road users in luding cyclists. We have cycled round the arc de triomphe, Louvre and champs Elysees with less stress.
Heidelberg is advertised as a pretty town. It is. But just like you have to do Carcasonne and Mont St Michel, the tourists are a mega pain. Selfie stick wielding multiple bus loads of Japanese tourists really didn't help my mood. Then there were the Instagram fame hungry girls pouring their lips for at least 10 selfies. And they all don't look where they are going and stop in front of you because they want a photo with a clean rubbish bin on a cobbled street.
Put us both right off Heidelberg.
But it is impossible to not call it pretty.
We tend to go into churches as they are quite interesting and old.
Far and away the most disappointing church we have come across. Starts well from the outside with its red granite blocks
But then you notice the row of complete tat being sold at the foot of the church. If you want to buy a VW camper toy this is your place.
Undeterred we went where they ask for a euro. That was ignored. Then the immaculate rows of new IKEA chairs ! With the most boring altar. At least the organ pipes looked good with the pulpit.
Then I spotted the stain glass windows. More like see through posters. Hope it shows up on the photo
As you can probably gather, I ve had enough of Heidelberg by now but we haven't seen the castle. We know it's 9 euros each to go in and it may be worth it but it's just some ruins really. But we went up for the view. There is a funicular railway for 9 euros each, but we have e bikes.
So far today 20 euros on the stell 18 on the castle and 18 on the funicular have made it into the suavecarve beer fund. (56 euros)
The cycle up to the castle for the views was relatively steep but a bit of extra electricity helped but no cycling round the grounds and nowhere we could see to park them so we just walked round pushing the bikes and then saw this
I mean, seriously. 20 foot high impression of a horse with a dustpan brush as a tail. I m sure it has a meaning to someone. Then presumably the water feature for this statue hasn't worked for a while according to the green algae in the "pond"
Thoroughly dejected (apart from our money saving) we followed the path and now we get what everyone is on about
Really not sure our camera does the views justice. Simply stunning.
So we see the funicular goes up further so we do as well
And reach the top with more weird art
But to get here it is steep, and long, and steep. We had to put full electric on and lowest gear for quite a while. Paula had to push for a small bit.
BUT IT WAS WORTH IT
Again not sure the photos do it justice. See for miles.
The route down had some stopping points and fairly certain giant redwoods
I got up to 67kph coming down without pedalling. 75 would easily be achievable even on our bikes.
The way back was better signposted but still not great and had to take this photo pretending to be interested in it rather than just look at the map turning round
You may notice I have altered the thread title. That's because we are no longer in Bavaria but hope to do some volcanoes next 3 or 4 days
