Continued from Heidelberg Day 1.

I couldn’t stay asleep last night until about 4am due to jetlag(7 hours ahead of Austin). When I finally woke up, it was already sunny outside. I asked RL what time it was, she said 6am or so. What? No way! It turns out that she read her watch upside down and it’s already 1:30pm. I guess that means it’s time to get up. At least we feel well rested today.

Nice, overcast today. The weather should be a little cooler today.

Get some tickets for our tram.

OK, here we go.

Back at Bismarkplatz, and then heading into old city to find a quick bite to eat.

Exploring the less traveled roads of old city.

Ohhh, what do we have here!! A mobile supermarket!

This one sells sausages!!

This truck sells meats and cheeses. The food trailers here puts all the food trailers in Austin to shame. It’s like a whole supermarket over here.

Cured meats.

Fresh seafood. Amazing!

OK, some brats and Fanta. The Germans love their Fanta. Just the perfect early morning snack to keep us from getting hangry later in the day.

Walked by several sewing stores and saw this very German looking sewing machine. It looks so technical and Teutonic.

I believe this is a library. Either way, pretty sweet looking building.

At the edge of old town, there’s this building that has tall barb wires. A prison? It’s literally located right next to some nice houses.

Made to the station for the funicular to take us part way up to the mountain to Heidelberg Castle. Look, no lines at all!!! I love traveling in the off season.

Let’s go!

We got off the funicular and this would appear to be the way to the castle.

There’s a beer garden up here. Nice.

Ohhhh…ahhh.

I prefer the big house on top and RL prefers the little house on the bottom.

The castle. It lays in ruins after many wars and many lightening strikes, but still quite spectacular.

Wedding photos! Except…this Asian couple are both the photographers and the subjects.

KL points.

Manhoods are precious, extra protection is needed.

 

The inner courtyard of the castle.

 

That’s a pretty fancy sundial. Too bad we can’t see how accurate it is today due to the overcast weather. Speaking of weather, we do appreciate the cooler weather today.

Asian tourists, I think these are Taiwanese. I must say, even the Chinese tourists that are here, they are well mannered unlike the Chinese tourists traveling around in Asia.

Within the castle there’s a little pharmacy museum. Meh, not too interesting to me.

The back side of the castle facing the river.

The wine storeroom of the castle.

Supposedly the world’s largest wine barrel.

This was pretty cool. A whole section of the wall fell out from this turret. I did some digging around and apparently this was caused by the gun powder stored here exploding. Cool.

Back on the funicular we are heading up the mountain again.

Now, we transfer to this old school wooden funicular(over 100 years old) that’ll take us all the way to the top of the mountain.

The whole ride up, the wood cabin kept on squeaking as we shimmied up the mountain. Good thing this is Germany and they actually care about safety, so I wasn’t worried.

Reached the top of the mountain and it was worth the money (0 effort since we just sat while being pulled up.  For those more those who like more of a challenge there is a hike and bike trail from the town to the top) to come up here. Stunningly beautiful.

Ohhh, they have a beer garden up here too!! I love Germany!

Prost! The empty field in front of us is actually used for hang gliders to take off. Too bad none were seen today.

Here we sat, slowly enjoying our delicious alcohol and the delicious view. Life is good. Unlike the hectic Asian leg of the honeymoon, we are hoping for more peace and quiet such as this for the European leg.

Sad to leave, but it’ll be getting dark soon and we are getting hungry. Heading back into town to find a bite to eat.

Back on the funicular.

Then the second funicular.

Now, let’s see, where to eat at.

It was around this time that it started to rain.

This restaurant will do. Grabbed a nice table right by the windows. This is perfect, we are staying dry and warm inside while also enjoying people watching from the window.

Love goulash.

The rain picks up and makes our dry dining experience even better.

The Bavarian fare that everyone usually associates with German food. Meat and potatoes! Yes, the food tasted as good as it looks.

Supposedly this restaurant opened in 1398!

Of course, cap off the night with some ice cream.

They actually had passion fruit as a flavor!

Again with the perfect timing, by the time we got done eating, the rain has stopped.

The outer edges of her nipples are clearly shown. Take my word for it. Would not fly in the US.

Wait for our tram back home.

Haha. RL is holding her breath for as long as possible to try to cure herself of the hiccups. It’s been ongoing for like 20 minutes now…Yes, eventually it did go away…like another 20 minutes later.

Advertising at the tram stop. Meh.

Back to our hotel on the wrong side of the track. Tomorrow is a travel day, good thing we don’t have to check out until noon. Let’s hope we can fall asleep at a reasonable hour tonight.

It’s been a really nice easy day. Traveling in Europe is so comfortable and easy.

To be continued at Rothenburg Day 1.