August 3 –
It was a bit foggy this morning so I opted for 5 miles on the treadmill instead of running by the river. Not nearly as scenic but it was easier on my knees and allowed Gillian to “work out” on the elliptical as well – very interesting! The morning was consumed by necessary tasks: laundry and mailing! We negotiated a German landromat – not too difficult since the machines had a choice of English as a language. We should be good for another week now.
Speaking of languages, I have to say that German is the language we hear *least* often in this city! English is spoken pretty much everywhere – even when we are really trying to use German! They always hand us the English menu in the restaurant… Next would have to be one of the Asian languages. I confess that I can’t hear the difference between Chinese and Japanese very easily – nor am I adept at telling the written words apart on signs – but one of them is heard everywhere! Except at our hotel. Apparently every wealthy Muslim staying in Frankfurt is staying here. I feel like the odd woman out with my hair showing!
Nevertheless, while the clothes were in the dryer we headed to the post office to mail two *more* boxes of stuff home – one box of things we’ve picked up and one box of stuff we brought with us but realized that we really don’t need. 17 more kilos of goods to be delivered to the Cannon household – all for a mere €104! It sounds like a lot but actually works out to be half of what we paid in the U.K.
So chores done, we headed out of town to Heidelburg. I have heard so much about this city that I suspect that my expectations were a bit inflated – “prettiest town in Germany”, “I must have taken 400 photographs”, etc. I have to say that it was a lovely place but not nearly as spectacular as all the recommendations I received would have indicated. One thing is noticable though: it is in very good shape and many of the older buildings are, in fact, old. It was a base for Allied troops during WWII so it emerged relatively unscathed relative to the rest of Germany. Maybe that’s where all the high opinions come from and I just missed it.
We were also disappointed in the castle. Maybe we’re in castle overload but having seen some really excellent examples of restored, unrestored, occupied, ruined, and any other types you can think of, this one just didn’t wow us. And I promise, it wasn’t the walk up the unbelievably steep hill that put us off! First off, you can only see the insides of most of the buildings if you buy a ticket for a guided tour – which is extra over the entrance cost. We’re not really guided tour people; we prefer to get a map and wander about ourselves. Second problem: no maps. Every place we’ve been had at least a single page leaflet with the basics for getting around the castle/cathedral/chateau, etc. Not here – they would be happy to sell you the book about the castle with a map in it for €5 though!
The one truely *wow* thing about today (over and above the yummy lunch with the beer brewed by monks!) was the Grosse Fass or Great Vat which holds more than 220,000 liters! It is truly unbelievable. I have no idea what the story behind it is or why it came about – since I didn’t buy the book – but it was truly unbelievable to see and stand on!
We had our daily eis (ice cream!) and headed back to the train station just as it started to rain. Things were dry again as we got back to Frankfurt and we finalized our visit to Germany – with a lovely dinner of Chinese food! We have now managed to sample Chinese food in France, England, Scotland, Luxembourg and Germany this trip. We’ll be in Switzerland next week so we’ll need to put that on the list and then we debate whether or not Luxembourg covers the Benelux countries or if we need to have Chinese food in Belgium and the Netherlands as well! In case you missed the back story, we have decided to compare Chinese food all over the world – in our book, you haven’t visited a country until you’ve eaten Chinese food there!
/san/
[Pedometer: 31,189 steps or about 15.5 miles (not including my run) which tops our Paris excursion!]
The Cannon Family's travel blog 
