I have to admit, despite having planned Heidelberg as part of my trip to Nuremberg, I was initially a little sad to leave Nuremberg and arrive here. But then I woke up!
This is a super beautiful little town, with lots of similar and beautiful colourful houses and cobbled streets and a definite romantic vibe. The OldTown or Aldstadt also felt to me maybe about a quarter of the size of Nuremberg, and therefore was really easy to quickly become familiar with it. In the end I was sad to leave!
Here’s a few things I recommend for you to do during your stay:
- Enjoy a drink at Café Grano– overlooking the Kornmarkt Square, and watch the world go by. Soon as I saw it I wanted to go in- you know when you just have one of those instant love affairs with somewhere? It’s simple, but it’s lovely. I sat reading and sipping an amaretto and coke in the window seat here and that afternoon it lashed down with rain a bit and I was cosied up inside. One of those “my life is bliss” moments.
2. Stuff yourself with the best cakes at Café Gundel, a bakery since 1896. https://www.gundel-heidelberg.de/ So good, I came here several times! The bakery is ALWAYS packed out which says a lot. There is a lovely space for seating outside but inside is pretty roomy and beautiful too. I recommend anything with erdbeeren (strawberry) here, the kasekuchen (cheesecake) and a pastry if looking for a morning desert called the Mohnschnecke which was delicious!
3. Visit the incredible Schloss Heidelberg: https://www.schloss-heidelberg.de/en/home/ Amazingly and as I experienced, this is captivating and free to visit at night which i totally recommend (but you cannot go inside at night time, just around the castle and its grounds). In daytime, the daily tours to take you inside are AMAZING. An adult ticket was only 7 Euros, plus I paid an additional 5 Euros for the one hour tour (the options were either a tour with a guide to see inside the castle, or the same price for an audio guide to take you outside the castle). The tours at the time of writing are from 11.15am, on the hour every hour (see website for further details). I walked up twice, but the cable car price is included in the ticket. This was my favourite part of Heidelberg and I was sad glad to see it by day and night. The castle has been burned down, looted and hit by lightning twice! Therefore what remains is really quite spectacular.
4. Walk over the Alte Bridge and cross over on the over side of the River Necke for gorgeous views of the Aldstadt and the castle.
5. At night time stroll down the Hauptstrasse or “main street”- for people watching and gorgeous buildings such as the Hotel Ritter. Get a cocktail from Dr Flotte. Happy Hour is there daily from 6-8pm, and they offer take away cocktails (yes you read that right- welcome to Germany where you can enjoy a drink legally on the streets!) for just 5 Euro- mm and strong ones too!! 🙂
6. As always, I love walking the tucked away streets which run parallel to the main street, the Hauptstrasse. Get walking and check out Unterestrasse and Pfaffengasse running down to the river, the Necke. They take your imagination roaming free ….mostly because not everyone is on them, and the buildings are simply divine. I walked around here at 9am on a Saturday morning snapping away and was the only one doing it, which was lovely. Heidelberg is a really lovely place to chill out in 🙂
As always, please let me know if you go and if you found any of these recommendations useful! Heidelburg is somewhere I’d love to return to, but living vicariously through others might just be the next best thing!
x