Heidlburg

The Train from Zürich to Heidelberg didn't find its way to Zurich, so, instead, we caught a regional train for a couple of stations, then transferred to our “ICE” (the inter city express trains are Germany's answer to France's TGV, fast, streamlined, with a really sexy looking tapered front). The train we got was a local commuter-style train, which left us somewhat concerned about how long it would take to get to our destination... but they squeezed every bit of speed they could out of the overladen railcar, and by the time we reached the actual ICE they had waiting for us, we were only 20 minutes late, time which we easily caught up on on the high speed rails on the way into Heidelberg.

When we arrived, late in the evening, we headed to Jurgen and Manu's place, grabbed a bite to eat, and crawled off to sleep. The next morning, we slept in a little, and David showed me to the centre of town, with a little introduction to German bakeries, he then headed to the university, while I went to the laundromat. 2 hours of internet and a pile of clean laundry later, I was exploring a beautiful town, walking up toward its castle, walking along the banks of the Neckar river and taking a minute to check out the old weirs and not-quite-so-old run of river power stations under them. The day came to a brilliant end, watching the sun set from one of the bridges, where I was lucky enough to meet someone who had exactly the same idea as me, and the same camera.., she even had tried to take the same photos as me, (but of course mine looked better :P)

With various promises of rather exciting beverages such as the Varma Aple, (which translates into English as Warm Drake), I was somewhat nervous about how my evenings in Heidelberg would finish, but in the end, I only experienced some rather nice beer, and new wine.., an exciting seasonal beverage, fermented only for a short time, yeasty, slightly fizzy, and very sweet, making it very easy to drink far too much.

On the second day in Heidelberg, we got an early start, David gave me a whirlwind tour of a bit of mountain and showed me where he used to live, before he headed off to the university. I then wandered around a little more, stopping to watch a sand barge pass through the lochs at the end of town, and to take photos of a seagull looking a little confused while stranding on a piece of wood caught in one of the inlet vorticies of the power station. I then headed up the hill to check out the ruins of an old monestry, and the not-so ruined ampitheatre built for propaganda rallies during Nazi times.

Later that afternoon, I went into the KIP, (Kirchoff institute of physics), where David managed to find me a computer to spend my afternoon replying to emails, and I had a chance to meet some of his former colleagues... who all seem to hold him in high regard. with comments like “I was trying for three weeks to fix this problem, 1 hour with David and it's working.

That night we went to a pub where I tried the local specialty >>>>>>..., once again, completely saturated with cheese, (I love European food!!) and, of course, being in Germany, I had to try a couple of local beers.

My last day in town was somewhat less exciting, sitting in an internet cafe for most of the day, booking a ridiculously high priced train ticket, then joining David and the Physicists for a barbecue in the evening..... mmmm new wine...,