MIKE AND JESS' TRAVEL DIARY

Netherlands and West Germany Trip

Day 11 - December 11 2023

Our last day of the trip!! I (Jess) have been looking forward to this day trip a lot. And after we were a bit let down by having to skip numerous experiences on this trip, there were some high hopes it would meet our expectations. Thankfully, Heidelberg exceeded our expectations! Since the Christmas markets don’t open until 11, we got to have another late start to the morning. We caught a 45 minute train and started walking towards the city center. We had picked out a brunch (so we thought) place on the way to the Christmas market. We walked into at noon and were informed the kitchen was closed… But they would still serve us. So, we got the Hummus Dream toast and Green Shakshouka. It was good, very fresh.

Heidelberg has a castle on the top of a hill just above town. You can take a funicular to the castle or walk up to it. Naturally, we decided to walk up the hill.

We continued on to the castle gardens to get a shot of the castle and the city.

Next, while we had the light, we wanted to walk down to the river to get a shot of the castle from below on the bridge nearby.

It was time for shopping and Christmas markets. In town, there is a two story Christmas store I was so excited to visit. We quickly perused the shopping at the outdoor markets, had a gluhwein, and spent a good 45 minutes in the Christmas store. We walked out with a very large bag full of stuff. Good thing we brought along the extra duffel bag.

Now, with the “must -dos” done, we could relax at the small, cozy Christmas markets. We really enjoy the experience of smaller German towns this time of year. It just has a different feel than the Dusseldorf or Frankfurt sized cities.

Mike had seen Poutine at one of the stalls, so we headed back there of course. It was really fries with a BBQ/beer gravy and cheese sauce. Not quite what he was hoping for, but the fries were delicious so I ordered some plain fries. Along with a regular gluhwein and I tried the Rose gluhwein.

We wandered a bit and got the same castle shot from earlier, but lit up at night.

We had an hour to kill before we needed to make our way back to the station and our feet needed a break. So, we grabbed a table at an Italian restaurant across from one of the outdoor markets and got a couple glasses of wine and focaccia.

It was time to head back and we had a bit of a walk ahead of us to get back to the train station. This was the perfect way to end the trip. It was so festive, so cute, and more intimate than most of the other cities we visited. It was hard to say goodbye!