Heidelberg

Heidelberg is best known for its university. Heidelberg University was founded in 1386 and is the oldest and one of the most prestigious in Germany. Here studied such famous people as Dmitriy Mendeleev, Max Born, Paul Josef Goebbels, Max Weber, Helmut Kohl.

Tourists come to Heidelberg to see the old city. It's not in the center and is located on the banks of the Neckar river on the outskirts. Here is the castle on the hill (1294), the main residence of the Electors of the Palatinate until the end of the 17th century. In 1693, the castle was turned into ruins by armies of Louis XIV. Reconstruction was carried out only in 1897-1900. The reconstruction still continues, you can see that on the photos. Every year 1.3 million tourists visit the castle and it shares the first place as the most visited castle in Germany with Neuschwanstein. In the basement is the world's largest wine barrel.

We’ve been to Heidelberg twice: in 2011, we took the train and just walked around the old town, and in 2025, we came by car and stayed overnight at the MEININGER Hotel (booking.com). After breakfast, we headed to the old town, which was completely deserted.

You can take the funicular from the Old Town to the castle; there’s a multi-level parking garage in the same building at 49.410972, 8.712333. In October, the funicular started operating at 9:00 a.m. (https://www.bergbahn-heidelberg.de/), but we arrived earlier, so we walked to the castle. Along the way, we saw some beautiful villas.






We walked around the castle and reached the Scheffelterrasse observation deck. The city was shrouded in fog at the time, so we waited for it to clear. The terrace offers the best view of the city and the castle.






















After that, we went back to the funicular and rode up to the top station on Königstuhl Mountain. If you don’t have kids, I’m not sure what is to do there, except maybe take in the panoramic view.




There is a small museum at the upper station of the funicular.






But if you have kids, you can visit the Märchenparadies Heidelberg amusement park (https://maerchen-paradies.de/), which is exactly what we did.




And here are some photos from our walk in 2011.

There's an interesting sculpture near the old bridge. Everyone who takes pictures inside the mask thinks that it's a cat. Futhermore, mice are "sitting" nearby. But in fact it's a baboon that holds the mirror in its paw: a symbol of vanity.

Getting there: By regional train from Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. You can come from other major cities located nearby, such as Frankfurt, Kaiserslautern, Saarbrücken, but they are located in other lands and the trip will cost more.