How to Spend Time in Heidelberg Germany

We just took a 10-year anniversary trip to Europe with my sister and brother in law. The excitement about being home from our trip and seeing our kids has worn off, and I think we are ready to go back on vacation! We recently visited three different countries on our 8-day trip to Europe, so I will break them all down for you in separate posts. Not only do I want to inform you of places we stayed and things we did, but I want to have a “diary” entry of our trip so I can always look back! Here is how to spend time in Heidelberg Germany.

Planning the Trip

A little background info: We planned this trip about 6 months in advance in celebration of our 10 year wedding anniversary (May 2013). My sister and her husband celebrate 10 years in October of the same year. Steve and I have both previously been to Europe but this was our first time going together. My sister and her husband are very well traveled and basically planned the whole trip, which we are eternally grateful for. They had been to all of these destinations previously, and used to live in Germany, so having our own personal tour guides (and German translators) was amazing!

The Plan

We flew from Chicaog to London to Frankfort. Once in Frankfort, we picked up our rental car. We thought we were getting a Passat wagon, but they informed us that they had a vehicle with Italian plates (our final destination), which would save us about $300 from having to pay an out of country drop fee. Sweet! We’ll take it. It turns out the vehicle with Italian plates was actually a Mercedes minibus! We could have packed 12 people in this thing and it ended up being a hilarious change of events!

After picking up the bus, we drove about 45 minutes to Heidelberg and checked into our hotel. We stayed at Hotel Hollender Hof, right near the Old Bridge. This is within walking distance to everything and our rooms overlooked the Neckar River.

Heidelberg is oozing with charm. The cobblestone streets, planter boxes, quaint shops, outdoor dining and drinking, and views are just fabulous.

We could not be in Germany without mentioning the delicious beer! The four of us are beer drinkers, and we had our fair share! Perfectly brewed, poured, and in the perfect glass. Heaven!

I think we basically ate and drank our way through Heidelberg. The weather was perfect for strolling the streets, drinking delicious milch cafes, eating at some of my sister/Nate’s favorite places, touring the Heidelberg Castle, and eating dinner at the Strahlenburg Castle in Schriesheim. The view from our table was breathtaking.

Schwetzingen

We also had the pleasure of visiting he small, and amazingly quaint town of Schwetzingen on our last day in Germany. My sister and Nate have friends that live here and we were invited to their home for a German BBQ. These are the experiences I find to be the most memorable. The feeling of getting to do and see things that most “tourists” do not. It was so fun for me to see the inside of a German flat and taste the food and listen to the language and interact with their children in such an intimate setting. The hosts then took us on a stroll through Schwetzingen and we ended the day with a little coffee/beer out in the town square at the Kaffeehaus.