Postcards from Heidelberg

I woke up late Sunday morning since I left from Munich and reached Mannheim late on Saturday night. The trip to Heidelberg was due on Sunday. Although Heidelberg is just 16 min by train from Mannheim, I reached Heidelberg only at around 12:30. The first thing that I needed to do was to go to the tourist information desk and get a map of Heidelberg. The map had information about a walking tour of the old city region. It was marked with 45 different places in the old city. But before that I had to make a visit to the Castle at Heidelberg.

The Heidelberg Castle
The Castle of Heidelberg is one of the most famous ruins in Germany. It was built during the 15th century. The first building was built during the time of by Prince Elector Ruprecht III. After that the castle underwent many modifications and additions as newer Prince Electors came to power.
One of the most noticeable things is that the entire castle is built in two different styles. The northern and the eastern parts comprise of the newer Renaissance buildings built around the 16th century. The southern and the western ends are comprised of the older buildings built in the Gothic style of architecture.
Information for tourist : From the Hauptbahnhof (German for the main railway station) take the bus to Bergbahn. At Bergbahn buy a ticket to the castle for €2. On reaching the Castle you will have to buy an entry ticket for €3. The guided tours are available in English, German & Japanese. A guided tour in English will cost you €3.5.

Walking tour of the old city
The Walking tour of the Heidelberg old city starts from the Universitaet Platz(University square) which is a 20 minutes walk from the castle down the hill. There are a few places of interest, at the University square, like the old & the new University buildings, the University library, Jesuit college etc. A walk on Hauptstrasse (main road) from the University square will bring you to the Marktplatz (Market square). This is a very busy place even on sundays due to the presence of many restaurants. The Church of the Holy Ghost, the Hercules fountain and the City hall can be found here.

There are a lot of other interesting places that I was not able to visit since I had to take the 19:30 train back to Mannheim. But I am definitely going to come back. This is possible since Heidelberg falls midway between Rot-Malsch(where my office is) and Mannheim(where my hotel is).

More photographs : http://www.harishgnaik.net/photos/heidelberg-21.08.05/