Jonathan and Robby's Heidelblog

(our heidelblog picture page is here). more later!

6 November 2003

Robby : We're back! We only had a couple of pilsners at the Cafe Gecko before we left...so not too much of a late night! We sadly left the Hotel Kohler at 5am and got the Lufthansa bus back to Frankfurt, then caught our plane back to the states at 10am. It took longer to fly back than it did to fly over (10 hours instead of 8-1/2), but this time the flight wasn't as full so we had a chance to spread out. We watched "The Italian Job" and "Charlie's Angels 2" and saw Normandy out the plane window as we left Europe. We also saw the Outer Banks when we flew over the states.

We rested up in Atlanta, had Jonathan's son Ian's christening on Sunday and then I drove back Sunday night with Lynne, Logan and Aunt Inez. It's strange to be back...

We'll post some pictures up here next week, so check back then and see some photos of our trip!

This was a really great trip. It was fantastic to spend so much time with Jonathan, he and I have been through so much together throughout the years, and we still get closer. It was also really great to go back to Heidelberg after all these years. It was worth every penny. I just hope it doesn't take us another 20 years to have another great trip together!

Thanks for reading! --Robby

5 November 2003

Robby : What a great day! It was really sunny out so we walked up the Neckar river to finish up our final shopping. It was a bit cold in the morning but it warmed up considerably as the sun got higher in the sky. We then hit the Hauptstraşe for one last shopping binge, then went to the Kaufhof for some more final shopping. People here in Germany are funny when they are in large groups, everyone just pushes ahead without really looking to see where anyone else is, and noone forms a line at checkout...so we get a lot of little old ladies pushing through crowds of people to check out at the counter.

Jonathan asked this question: "When does bratwurst become bratBEST?"

After our shopping bonanza Jonathan and I went out bicycling up the Neckar and through the old part of the city (alt stadt). We almost made it to Neckargem¸nd but the sun was getting lower in the sky so we headed back to town. We then just rode around parts of the city where we had never been. It was great, and the sunset was spectacular.

This is our last evening in Heidelberg. We packed our bags early (tons of glass and breakables...) and then headed to a great little restaurant I knew of, Der Schnitzelbank. Fantastic dinner, I had the Gorgonzola schnitzel and Jonathan had the "Art des hauses" schnitzel. Fantastic meal. This place is really great, it's hundreds of years old and all wood down there, very dark and smokey (as are most places here).

After dinner we came here to the internet cafe, amongst smoking teenagers playing networked games, swearing in a mix of german and english.

We leave tomorrow at 5am...so it's either early to bed or stay up late drinking hefeweise. Which will it be?

4 November 2003

Robby: The sun was out today! A great way to start Jonathan's birthday. I had breakfast downstairs while Jonathan slept a bit more, then we walked up the Philosophenweg, it was such a beautiful day, the leaves are changing and it was just truly great to be out in the sunshine. We walked over to the castle and on the way had some "schnitzelburgers" off the Hauptstrasse. The castle was fun, lots of great photo opportunities. Saw the big wine cask and then the pharmacy museum, and then walked around the castle gardens. We took a nice long stairway down from the castle and then did some shopping down the hauptstraşe. Had a good night with Oscar and his family... we're tired and now are off to bed. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JONATHAN!

Jonathan: We had a very long day of walking it wasİvery much a tourist day with the philosophenweg and also the castle. We had a good time but I was a bit tired from all the activity from the night before. We ended up taking a nap around 5pm to 6:30. Robby called his friend Oskar and then we went to his house for dinner. He had 2 kids that were 7 and 5. It was great to see that no matter where in the world you are kids are the same at bedtime. I had to look through all sorts of helmets and swords his boy showed me after dinner!

3 November 2003

Jonathan: Rainy and cold this morning but we were up much earlier then before, about 7:30. We decided to go shopping today and are pricing stuff out. We still haven't purchased much but many ideas are in front of us. Christmas is in full swing, lots of junk but we should be able to pick the good stuff out. As the germans would say "it is not possible" NOT to find something here for christmas. More later! We ended up hooking up with one of Robby's friends from high-school and staying out very late. More below...

Robby: A cloudy day, but made sunny by yet another cute note from Lynne that fell out of my suitcase. How funny! There must be hundreds that I haven't discovered yet. Our breakfast was good, nutella and bread, yogurt, cheese, etc. The coffee has a kick, which is a good thing 'cos the sp”tzle really slows me down (and...er...the beer too :-)). I called mz old friend Oscar and we plan to meet tonight at 7pm at a bar in the old town. This should be interesting...I haven't seen him since 1984, and that was only a quick visit. He and I were good friends when I lived here in 1980-81.

We hit the big shopping center Kaufhof and checked out the christmas stuff...Germans really do love christmas.

As Jonathan mentioned above...the phrase we hear a lot is this "It is not possible...". Germans have all kinds of rules here that are really funny. And everything must be registered. The guy at the hotel who rented us our bikes said "In Germany, everything must be registered"... in other words, it is not possible to rent a bike without registration.

We had some snacks at a little cafe, a chicken curry pastry and coffee for me, and a pizza thing and coffee for Jonathan. Got some berliners (puffed dough thing with cherry filling and sugared top) for the road. We took a bunch of pictures as the sun came out, and bundeled up for the cold wind coming down the Neckar. We plan to hit the castle tomorrow for Jonathan's birthday. We're waiting for a nice sunny day to hit the Philosophenweg (Philosopher's path) and may rent bikes again and try to ride up the Neckar valley a bit.

Jonathan suggests filling our pockets with wursts so as to impress the locals. He says that the smell attracts the ladies. Not that we're actually TRYING to impress anyone...

We met Oscar at the Stille bar and had a few beers. It was great to see him again after all these years. I am surprised at how good Jonathan and I were with our German, and Oscar said we sounded pretty good for not having spoken in 22 years! We went to the Max Bar after that and then to a Tapas restaurant (Oscar is Spanish) and had some olives and ham, with some great cheese and paprika, drank a few more beers and talked about the old school. During the course of the conversation we talked politics, as all Europeans do, and we were interrupted by an older German man named Wolf, who was angry about Iraq and the whole situation... He started in English and eventually ended up 6 inches from my face barking at me in a solid stream of very drunken political German. He was allright, though, eventually he said "I don't hate Americans, I just think they're stupid" and slammed his fist on the bar. He appologized and then complained more about Rumsfeld (this name also sounds like some joke word in German...). I didn't understand much of the German, but I did find out he was a German army officer during the 60s.

We said goodbye to our drunken friend and walked Oscar back to his car, it was really great to see him after all these years. The night was still young so we stopped by to see our old pal Eddie in Goodfellows, and through the door saw some girls dancing with him, so we went in and had a few pilsners. After this the girls and their boyfriends asked us to sit with them, so we got to meet them and had another shot (courtesy of Eddie...this time it was tequilla!). We talked politics, they told me that all Americans are stupid (is there a theme going on here?) I told them I'd do my best to let our leaders know that the German people are dissatisfied with our politics! We made it home at 2am...

2 November 2003

Robby: A sunny morning! We had our nice Hotel Kohler breakfast then rented bikes (the hotel rents bikes for Ä5 a day) and rode down to our old school, the Internationale Gesamptschule Heidelberg, took some photos and visited the school yard. It was such a nice day out we just kept riding; after the school we headed to Kirscheim and through a bunch of bike paths around small German gardens and farms. We wound our way back to the river and then to Neuheim and around the north side of the river, then I got a flat on my bike and had to walk part of the way home (fortunately it wasn't that far away). We then brought our bikes back and spent the rest of the afternoon walking around window shopping, as all stores are closed on Sunday. We bought some postcards and then came over here to our internet cafe.

It was interesting to see the old school again after all these years. It certainly has aged, it was a brand-new school in 1980... It's also funny to see all the places we used to visit, not much has changed. More later!

Jonathan: Woke up and Rob and I were both out kinda late last night (mit Bier) so the morning started out very slowly. The bikes were very cool, since it is so flat here you just ride and ride and ride. We saw parts of the city that we would never have seen via car or bus or train, highly recommended if anyone reading this comes over. We were both feeling better by noon and all the fresh air really helped. I dont think it will be a late night tonight. We have some shopping to do tomorrow, or maybe more hiking, we will see!

1 November 2003

Robby: Another rainy day, but made better by a lovely breakfast at the Hotel Kohler. It started to clear up and so we headed up the Hauptstraşe an then the castle, and then all the way up to the top of the mountain via the tram. It was nice to walk through the dark forest, along paths that have been upkept since the 1400s (with stone markers from back then too). We're lucky that we are here now, the leaves are just changing and so there are some gorgeous colors in the forest. We walked to Boxberg where we used to live (in 1980-81), then down through Rohrbach and then back to the hotel, through small paths that went past little german gardens dotted with flowers and garden gnomes with plaster mushrooms. We called our Mother and she sounded surprised but very happy to hear from us. I've noticed that Jonathan and I are almost twins: pretty much everything we do is almost exactly the same, from dressing and looking alike to what book we brought on the plane (Fast Food Nation)! Funny. We even finish each other's sentences. Our German is about the same too, it pretty much consists of ordering beer and we can both do that VERY well.

We ate at a Hungarian restaurant down the street and ordered the exact same thing(!). Now we're geeking at an internet cafe before heading out to get some more pilsners...

We headed over to a bar called Goodfellows near our hotel and had a couple of "Groş Pilsners" and a free shot of schnapps from the owner of the bar, who is a syrian guy named Eddie. Nice fellow. We went to bed around 1:30.

Jonathan: Yet another great day in Heidelberg! So much fun to walk the whole way (well almost) from the castle to our old apartment. The food is right up my alley as well, lots of meat and potatoes. Every here looks so healthy, probably because they walk everywhere. Lots of mountain bikes up in the mountains. Crazy forest, reminded me ofİ a scene from one of those roman movies where the romans are marching through in their short skirts and then all these hairy barbarians attack!İ It was really very pretty up there. More soon!

30-31 October 2003

Robby: And here we are! The plane ride was uneventful, mostly just sitting in tiny seats and no sleep. Germany is as rainy and cold as ever; we stumbled around in a sleep-deprived state, ate some bratwurst and then took a 3-hour nap. I noticed some graffiti on the freeway down from Frankfurt--spraypaint slogans just like in the US, those big bubble letters, kind of cool. I was thinking... why don't they spraypaint in blackletter or Fraktur?

We're at Cafe Gecko now starting on our first pilsners.

Next stop was the Goldener Schaff where we had sauerbraten with hausgemacht sp”tzle (and a few pilsners...). Excellent food. We wandered up the hauptstraşe (main street) and wound up near the old bridge at an irish-english pub called something like Tapper Tandys. Karaoke with American GIs singing "Friends in Low Places", it was halloween and even without costumes it was pretty scary. We drank many more pilsners and then headed back to our Hotel.

29 October 2003

Robby: One last day of work and then we'll be on our way! I am testing out editing this blog thingy in HTML from remote. Works pretty well I think. We leave tomorrow from Atlanta, I'm meeting Jonthan at the airport. Nervous? Maybe... Jonathan called last night and wants to know if we can hike up the Philosophenweg. Nat¸rlich! Not much else planned beyond that, maybe some hiking on the mountain, and a visit to the castle... Jonathan mentioned someting about German plumbing, not sure...have to get back to you on that. We'll be such ¸bergeeks that you can probably get daily updates to this Heidelblog, we've even scouted out the cybercafÈs and internetkoffeestuben that we plan to visit. But no worry! We'll manage to get out and see the town sometime. (Although it looks like rain pretty much the entire time...!)

I also got in touch with my old friend Oscar and might meet him for a drink.

26 October 2003

I am almost ready to go, it's sunday before our big trip and I am concerned that my german isn't good enough.Here's our schedule , in case you need us.Plans are to do the following:

-nothing in particular

-get matching lederhosen and march about town

-drink beer

-eat schnitzel and pommes frittes.

Wish us luck!