The day after my grad school friends left, our dear friends from Indiana arrived. Alex had been asking about this day for weeks, months even. They are intrepid travelers and we had two fantastic and full days of fun and adventure.
They flew into Frankfurt at 7 am and we picked them up from the Heidelberg train station at 8:45 and it was a wonderful reunion. I was thrilled to see my friends Hilary and Dave and Alex was literally jumping up and down with giddy excitement to see his friend Quinn. After our initial hellos, we took a tram to their hotel, where their room was ready and they were able to freshen up a bit after their strenuous journey.
The boys used the opportunity to catch up and Alex was thrilled to receive a copy of the book "Planes" to go with the upcoming movie.
We thought our first activity should be to take a boat ride on the Neckar. So, we headed over along the banks of the river to catch the Liselotte, our vessel of choice for fun boat rides this summer. We could see her across the river,
and were waiting on our side.
I love this image of the two boys who haven't seen each other in 7 months just chatting away.
Once on the boat, it took s about 30 minutes to get to the Old Bridge and Old Town.
At the foot of the bridge is a statue of a monkey and a plaque basically saying that we're all just monkeys. The boys each wanted to take a turn sticking their heads in.
We then strolled across the Old Bridge, admiring the statues etc.
All over Europe lovers come to old bridges to fasten a lock to some part of the bridge and then throw the key into the river as a symbol of their enduring love. I have seen it in Prague and here in Heidelberg. I've read in the papers that city authorities come through regularly to remove these locks. It was tricky and funny to try to explain all this to the boys.
The rest of the morning, we wandered through Old Town and settled into a nice local restaurant that served regional specialities for lunch and even makes its own beer. We took the boys to see the jail the university had set up for delinquent students and they were duly impressed:
The students, particularly in the 19th century, left wall art behind, sometimes displaying their fraternity colors and symbols, sometimes a clever poem, often their names and the dates of their incarceration.
The rest of the day, we let the boys play at some of Alex's favorite playgrounds. They played for hours in the water and the sand,
at one point pretending to be pirates.
We ended the day at a local pizzeria and Quinn was so tired that he fell asleep at the table, the poor thing.
The next morning, we joined our friends for breakfast at their hotel, ready for another full day. We took a tram to our first destination, the castle.
We rode the funicular up the hill again. Alex is getting to be a pro at this!
The first thing he wanted to show his friend was an old oven/cave he had discovered on one of his previous visits.
For the first time ever, we actually took an official guided tour of the castle and we got to see some new interiors as well as get a new view and insight on familiar sights.
The boys behaved remarkably well.
And the castle showed itself off in its best colors in the sun.
After our time, touring the castle grounds, we scoured the nearby area for a geocache that Hilary had pinpointed on her GPS beforehand. She had even brought a special Batman travel bug to put into the cache. Here, the boys are showing off the toy and the GPS at the castle.
Hilary has found the spot and is leaving her info and the Batman in the cache in the woods near the castle.
The boys each got a treasure out of the cache. After our time at the castle, we took the old funicular farther up the hill.
There is a kids amusement park hidden in the woods on top of the hill, called Märchenparadies or fairy tale paradise. We had heard a lot about it, but had not yet explored it. Given the heat of the day, spending a few hours on top of a hill in the woods seemed a good idea and so we ventured in.
There wer old-fashioned merry-go-rounds, some mechanical rides like this one of an enchanted horse on a track through the woods,
there were go-karts and Alex showed off his prowess - recently acquired with his cousins in Speyer.
This silly dragon ride was pedal powered (clever!) and Hilary and I took it for a spin as well, though - sadly - there are no pictures of us.
There was, of course, an obligatory train,
several, in fact,
and even trampolines - to mention only a few of the available amusements!
The kids had fun, the parents got a chance to relax in the relative cool of the top of the mountain, and the day was brought to an end, back down in the valley at a favorite local open-air restaurant.
The following morning our friends left for Switzerland and new adventures awaited us as well.
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