The InterCityHotel Frankfurt is located almost directly opposite the northern exit, it is very clean, room is small but ok, and the buffet breakfast plentiful. Even banannas!
We had pre-booked a day trip to Heidelberg and fortunately the bus pickup was very close to the railway station, just around the other side.
The trip on the bus to Heidelberg was very interesting. It was my first experience of the autobahn, very orderly and everyone stuck to their appropriate lane, lots of quick Mercedes and Porches. Very thick forests right up to the road nearly the way, very green as they have had a wet winter.
Once in Heidelberg the bus took us up the hill as far as it could go. The streets were very steep and narrow, just as well it was a small bus! Then we had to walk the last 500 metres up to Heidelberg Castle up on top of the hill overlooking the "old town". Great views of the town and the Neckar River below. We walked around part of the outside of the castle, before entering through a huge gate and across the moat. Once inside there was a town square and a band playing old songs and instruments from the time. The only place you got inside the castle was the wine cellar where there was a 2200 litre wine cask. We tried some Ice Wine which is only produced in small amounts and is very expensive, very sweet, but refreshing on a hot day. We then went through another tunnel and came out on a balcony overlooking the town. We then left the castle and took the Funicular train down the mountain to the town. Now this was no ordinary train as it goes down the mountainside on a 43% gradient. From the station at the bottom of the mountain it was a short walk into the middle is a town square with a big church right in the middle surrounded by hundreds of little resteraunts, we had time for a bit of a walk around town and over the bridge and then it was back on the bus to Frankfurt.
Back in Frankfurt, we had a quick coffee at the station, and decided on an open top bus for a tour around the town. The bus driver seemed a bit strange, but off we went, ducking our heads under the many tree lined streets. The bus driver very kindly stopped the bus in the middle of the bridge over the Rhine so we could get a picture of the city skyline didn't seem to phase him with all the drivers behind tooting their horns. Half way around it started to rain, so he just stopped the bus in the middle of the road and pulled the roof over, more tooting. Just as well he pulled the roof over as it poured for the remainder of the trip.
We finished the day with some beers back at the hotel. |
