Germany, day 28: Nach Heidelberg and Koeln

Let the importance of packing beforehand not be doubted! My roommate believed us to depart at a quarter past seven, while I remembered quarter-til. I wished it to be the later, so I got up at 6:20. I hadn't packed. Needless to say, I realized my mistake, and I went without breakfast in favor of packing.

As it turned out, we delayed the group, but we made the train anyway. It was a long ride down to Heidelberg, where the weather was a bit wet, but not too bad.

We had lunch at wherever we pleased along a marvelous, but long, street of nearly-exclusive pedestrian traffic.

I got a falafel sandwich and a Berliner, which were both tasty. The professor and a good number of the students ate in the Bierkrug, a restaurant that the professor has faithfully visited on every school trip he takes to Heidelberg.

A statue in a square with the castle in the background, on the hillside

After the hundreds of stairs, the exact number of which I have forgotten, we arrive at the castle grounds, a bit wet from the rain, and tired from the climb. We waited an took pictures while the rain carried on, and we stopped to see the world's largest wooden barrels.

We set about getting an English tour of the castle, which did not seem difficult. Interestingly, the Heidelberg castle was saved by tourism, and it is only partially rebuilt because the Romantics wanted it to be left in ruins. (The building that was rebuilt did not turn out as well as planned, apparently.) We saw statues, paintings, and furniture, but the most fascinating to me was a great, green heating-stove.

A delightful green stove would heat the air in the halls.

After the tour was finished, we had a wonderful view over the city:

Me in front of Heidelberg, as seen from the castle.

Once finished with the castle, we headed for the Church of the Holy Ghost, which was not too far from the castle. The organ inside was very interesting to behold:

The horizontal pipes struck me as odd.

Of course, our final destination for the day was our hotel in Koeln, also known as Cologne. The train ride from Heidelberg to Koeln lasted about three hours, but much of those hours were in the scenic Rheinland, which is gorgeous and ornamented with castles and vineyards.

We arrived in Koeln and, upon leaving the train station, we discovered the Koeln cathedral while "epic" music played in the background from the Music Unlimited concert venue that would last until Saturday night.

We headed to the hotel, and dropped of our bags in our respective rooms (ours had a single, double-person bed, rather than two separate beds). We were on our own to find food in the city, so I commanded a group of six or so to find a Doener and Falafel vendor. We found one, and everyone liked their food. I, of course, took the vegetarian falafel. The shop was in clear sight of the Rhein, so we headed down to the river and enjoyed the night view.

Also, I learned and/or noticed that there are now two fewer single engineering students. That is to say, those two are in a relationship with each other. No, nobody has been sent home.