Germany 1: First stop- Heidelberg

We had a stopover in Washington, DC.  From there, it was an eight hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany.  When we checked our bags, I told the woman that we were going to Frankfurt, because we liked hot dogs.  She didn't get it.

The second flight was a nightmare, as we had four kids behind us.  Two directly behind, and two just behind them.  The mother was two rows behind.  The father was directly behind us and could not be a more uninvolved father if he tried.  They were between two and three years old and carried on and screeched throughout the flight. 

We arrived at Frankfurt a little past seven in the morning.  We picked up our car without issue.  The cars here are just like back home, with driver on the left side of the car and car on the right side of the road.

I chose Heidelberg because it is an older style town, not too far away from the airport.  We could rest and recuperate for a few days, do some small hikes, and then move on.  First, however, we stopped at Burg Frankenstein, a castle made famous for having the same name as the story.

It was a small set of castle ruins, but nice enough.



We dropped off our luggage and the hotel and parked our car in the nearby parking garage.  We ate at the local chinese restaurant and then returned to the hotel around 1:00.  Then, we napped for five hours. 

After getting up, we decided to hike up to the castle.  It was free to walk around. 



We walked down to the central marketplace, which had a large church.  It reminded us of Italy.  There were many restaurants in this area, many of which were set up so that people could watch the World Cup.



You can see a bridge from our hotel room, the Alte Brucke Heidelberg.  Unfortunately, the massive entryway to the bridge was completely covered in scaffolding.  We went across, walked down below the bridge, and continued walking east, where we found another bridge to recross.  We had gelato for dinner.