Not being able to spend Easter with family this year was hard (and not getting to eat my grandmas brunch was even harder). So we got out of Cologne for the weekend and went to Heidelberg, Germany.  We decided to take the train this time instead of drive. The train ride was a very scenic route along the Rhine. We sat at the bistro had a beer (or two) and watched castle after castle come into our view, it was great! Once we finally got to Heidelberg we walked around the old town, stopped into an old German restaurant for a beer (to get out of the pouring rain), grabbed some great Italian food on the way back and went to bed after a long travel day.

We got up early Saturday morning and headed back to Heidelberg’s old town. Our first stop of the day was the “bridge monkey,” a bronze monkey that sits at the edge of the bridge. Legend says that if you touch the mirror the monkey is holding it will bring you wealth (we gave it an extra rub). If you touch the fingers of the monkey it will ensure your return back to Heidelberg.  We got a picture with the monkey, rubbed the mirror, touched the fingers and moved on to the castle.

We started the very steep climb to the castle that over looks the whole town. A lot of the castle itself is in ruins. Once we finally made it to the top we walked around the gardens and then signed up for the next tour of the castle. As we were starting the tour we overheard two little girls that were so fascinated by the castle the second they walked into the courtyard one sister whispered to the other “welcome to Arendelle” and proceeded to pretend they were “Frozen” characters the entire tour, it was really cute. After the tour was over, we had a drink at the castle bar that housed the largest wine barrel in the world which can hold over 220,000 liters of wine. We then took pictures of the beautiful surrounding area and made our decent down the hill.

The rest of the day consisted of checking out the famous Zuckerladen candy shop, buying (and sampling) delicious melon schnapps from a distillery and getting some Heidelberg wine. We then found a cool German restaurant to eat dinner, for dessert we stopped to get a schneeball (a balled desert made from shortcrust pastry) and finished the night off with a schnapps at the hotel bar. At the end of the night I looked at my Fitbit and we had walked over 22,000 steps which is almost ten miles. Needless to say, our legs were a little sore the next day.