Heidelberg: A Perfect, Laidback City Break

Located on the banks of the river Neckar, Heidelberg is one of the most beautiful cities in Germany with its rolling hills, charming Old Town and imposing castle ruin. We spent four days in Heidelberg and are quite certain that we'll return to this lovely city one day.

Our reason for visiting Heidelberg was a roundabout one. Stephen visited in 2021 on a business trip and had such a great meal at Heid's Heidelberg that we began planning our trip the minute he returned home. He also mentioned, as a complete afterthought, that I'd probably love the fairytale surroundings too. He was absolutely right!

We flew from London to Frankfurt on the Thursday night, staying at an airport hotel before catching a train to Heidelberg on the Friday morning. We checked into the grand old Heidelberg Marriott Hotel and whiled away the afternoon in the spa, enjoying views of the Neckar river. We headed straight to Heid's Heidelberg that evening and enjoyed a spectacular steak dinner before taking a long twilight walk back to the hotel.

We woke up late on the Saturday morning and took a long walk along the Neckar river and into the Altstadt.

We grabbed pretzels, kardamom knopf and coffee at the bakery on the Hauptstrasse. Stephen loves pretzels.

We strolled into the Kornmarkt where we found the Kornmarkt-Madonna fountain sculpture. The ruins of Heidelberg Castle lie up the hill in the background.

We then began the long, steep, winding path up to Heidelberg Castle. I couldn't work out why our journey was taking so much longer than Google Maps had suggested. It was only once we got down to street level again that we realised there was a funicular. I'm sure you can guess how disappointed I was not to have ridden on that funicular given my love of funiculars!

Still, we enjoyed every minute of our walk. The castle ruins and grounds were fascinating; it's free to walk around but you can pay extra to go inside. The views of Heidelberg city and the river from the castle grounds also made it all worthwhile.

We met my old high school friend Julie and her husband for lunch at Das Bootshaus on the afternoon of our third day. I had an excellent chicken schnitzel, Julie had a gigantic plate of prawns, and the men had burgers. That evening we returned to the spa for a sunset swim and superb Thai massage.

On our final morning, we walked into Altstadt again. We were several hours early for our lunch booking and stopped for sausages at MyCurrywurst on Hauptstrasse. It was very good!

We then strolled through the university and down the winding streets.

Stephen is right, Heidelberg is like a fairytale. There was something quaint and charming to see at every turn.

We found our way to Alte Brücke, the old bridge that connects the Old City with the Neuenheim district. This arch bridge was built in 1788 and is named after its patron, Karl Theodor.

The bridge offers 360° degrees of beautiful scenes from the river nymphs at the base of the sculpture of Karl Theodor (above) to a stunning glimpse of the ruins of the Heidelberg castle peeking out over the rooftops of the old town.

Below is the statue of Karl Theodor featuring the four river nymphs representing the Rhine and Moselle, Danube and Isar rivers.

Looking in the other direction you can see the Bridge Gate protecting the bridge. In front of that stands the statue of Minerva, goddess of wisdom, erected as a homage to Theodore's love of art and science.

Our final stop in Heidelberg was to enjoy eisbein at Vetter's Alt Heidelberger Brauhaus. This was another treat for Stephen! Our trip was over too soon but we know that we'll be back one day as Heidelberg offers the perfect, laidback city break experience.