Heidelberg Schloss Lighting

Heidelberg Schloss Lighting

Saturday morning we headed off to Heidelberg for the schloss lighting and fireworks. When we got there we found the hotel and it was right in the heart of the alstadt (or old town) like it said. We were right on the river and right next to the pedestrian zone. Unfortunately this day was one of the hottest all year and the high was 97 in Heidelberg. The temperature actually hit 98, wonderful! It was insanely hot. And for those of you stateside saying to yourself "that's not that hot!" I would like to remind you that here in Germany we are not at all accustomed to that kind of heat, we have a few days of 80's in the summer but summer for us is mostly 70's! I'd also like to point out that you have air conditioning, we do not, so HUSH!

After checking into the hotel we wandered around the town trying not to melt. Shelby and I immediately sought out the Starbucks for some coffee. Aahhhhhhh Starbucks, how I missed you! After a little sightseeing we went on a restaurant hunt. It was more challenging than usual because no place has air conditioning, so you don't want to eat inside. However, the time of day meant the majority of the outside tables were in the sun and that's no good either. Trying to find a place in the shade and somewhere we might have a breeze was tricky. Equally tricky was that due to the World Cup games about to start for the day places were filling up fast. Finally we wound up at an Irish Pub with a fan inside, it got the job done. After eating dinner we went down to a grassy area on the bank of the river to wait until it was fireworks time. Colin immediately went on a rock hunt to collect rocks to throw in the river. He and Daddy sat on the river bank for a long time throwing rocks in the river, Colin loved it. After that Grandma and Grandpa watched Colin play for a while so Shelby and I could walk back to the hotel, the heat was making my contacts bother me and I couldn't stand them being in another 4 hours until the fireworks were over. We found Starbucks again on the way back and then staked our claim to a prime viewing spot on a bridge until showtime. Colin was excited about the fireworks and wasn't scared at all. It was really neat to see the castle all lit up and the fireworks going off above it and then over the bridge as the "bridge fell" in the battle.

The building we were staying in had been a hotel for over 300 years and was build long before then. It wasn't the nicest hotel we've stayed in but I guess when you take into account how old the building is you can only expect so much. Our room was on the fourth floor of the building and that's a lot of stairs! The room was large and was on the corner of the building. We lucked up and actually had two windows in our room, on different walls, so we were able to get a very minimal cross-breeze (of 98 degree air) through our room. Staying in the altstadt on the night Germany played for final position in the World Cup was LOUD. Couldn't sleep in the heat (with or without windows open) but definitely couldn't sleep with the noise of celebrations going on right outside the window. It was a long night and Colin was the only one who got any sleep, lol. Though the room was hot we had a very nice view from our windows and under normal weather circumstances it would be an ok place to stay.