Heidelberg
Up an' at 'em early.
Woken by the rain but by the time I was ready to extract myself from the comfort of my sleeping bag, the rain had stopped and the sun was drying the tent.
I left before the café had even opened its doors so had to make do with "emergency coffee" (instant coffee in luke-warm milk).
I followed the river along some very quiet roads - extremely quiet in fact and I was wondering why there were no motorcyclists out and about. Then I turned up the valley and discovered why. The sun had not yet reached the valley and with the recent rain, it was bitterly cold and slippery.
I was trying to find the "lake with the motorcyclists café" but as usual the directions were too vague and I got lost. Had a really good time exploring the roads though and even ended up on a "weekday only" road. It was divine, absolutely gorgeous with perfect surface and brilliant twisties through a dark forest. Bliss! Why was I the only two wheeler here?
Apparently motorcycles are banned on weekends - well I suppose that's one way to control the Boy Racers.
Did a nice loop back to the campsite and looked for a supermarket to grab the makings for lunch. None open - not even a corner store. I was spoiled by Switzerland having 7 day opening like Australia.
I tootled off to do some sightseeing in Heidelberg and again, no shops were open in the city. All the souvenir shops and restaurants were doing a booming business but all the other shops were closed. I found this rather surprising because the town was heaving with tourists and it would have been a perfect "selling" environment but even the watch and jewellery shops had their doors bolted.
I ended up having a very average and rather expensive kebab for lunch and then dived into the Irish Pub for a drink. I hung out there for a while as it was such a nice atmosphere. Heidelberg is a big student town and this is evident by all the posters and activities and buskers and bicycles. It has a lovely vibe about it and I reckon it'd be a great place to go to uni.
I wandered slowly the full length of the main street - which is a pedestrian mall - and listened and watched a few buskers including a Flashmob doing Swing dancing.
I found a service station that was open and got the makings for dinner then retired back at the campsite for a relaxing evening.
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