After hiking for almost 3 hours we only made it to the first monestary, so we called it a day and headed back down. If we had only known about the bier garden waiting for us at the top we would have trucked on through. I guess we will have to take another trip.
There are two ways to get to Philosopher's Walk and the Philosopher's Garden: cross the Old Bridge and follow the winding "snakes alley" up the side of the hill, or drive. We drove, of course, since we were carting two little bambinos, plus it's a couple hundred steps...no thanks. The roads were very narrow and we couldn't figure out where to park. We saw some people parked on the sidewalk, and, even though there was a tow sign close by, we decided to do the same.
People walked in front of us and weren't in any rush to move out of the way.
Cool garage in the side of the mountain (had to take a pic).
A short walk landed us in the garden. Everything was in bloom, the flowers, the trees. It was absolutely beautiful.
There were benches all along the path for people to sit and take in the view.
Here is the view across the Nekar River towards the castle ruins.
Maddox enjoyed walking along the garden for a little bit, but soon wanted carried. His hiking legs didn't make it very far.
Carson hagning out in the umbrella stroller like a big boy.
The steps from snakes alley leading down to the street.
The "Post Card" view with 3 of Heidelberg's major sights: the castle ruins, the Old Bridge, and the Church. It's impossible to take a bad picture at this sight.
What started out as a leisurely stroll through the garden turned into one hell of a hike up the Heiligenberg Holy Mountain! There are several different paths to take while you are climbing. We knew there were some ruins and an amphitheater up here and started the search. When the path came to a Y there were stone markers with german words and arrows pointing in different directions. We had no idea what they said, so we guessed a direction. For the most part, it wasn't too steep. There were mountain bikers, runners, and friendly locals going in the same direction. One old local man stopped to chat and when I told him we didn't speak german he tried speaking some english. We couldn't really understand what he was saying but he kept pointing to the boys. I picked out a few familiar words "light", "man", "woman", "good". We just smiled, said "ya", and eventually went on our way. We walked and walked, wondering where everything was. We couldn't even see views of the city anymore. At one point we stopped going uphill and came to a tower. Finally! Turns out we took the long (very long) way around.
Here we are taking a break at the tower. There is so much graffiti all over everything here. That's one thing that suprised and disappointed me.
Ben climbed to the top with Maddox to take a look at the view.
After a short breather we decided to continue upward. We knew we were on the right track to get to the ruins now. The path got quite a bit steeper and, not having had any REAL excercise since Carson was born, I was struggling to say the least. We came to a small observation sight with a bench, so we sat. When we started this excursion I knew we would be doing some hiking, but I had no idea we were going to the top of a stinkin' mountain! If I would have known that I would have packed better. We were bogged down with bottles, formula, diapers, wipes, juice boxes, snacks for Maddox. There was so much stuff in the diaper bag that I didn't bother to pack any water for us. Boy I could have used it. I only packed 2 juice boxes and didn't want to leave Maddox high dry. We opened it up, but limited ourselves to a few sips (this is where knowing about the beer would have come in handy.) While looking out we realized you could see our housing in the distance, so we took a picture.
And we continued on the way up. We have come this far, we had to see the ruins. My legs felt like jello, I was carrying Carson in my wrap, and Ben was pushing Maddox in the umbrella stroller. I was starting to lag behind, so I grabbed ahold of Ben's back pocket to help with the momentum (ok, so I needed a little help with the upward climb. I'm just glad his pocket didn't rip off.)
We finally made it up to the first ruin, St. Stephen's monestary! Woo - hoo!! That took long enough. Honestly, I was huffing and puffing, didn't think I was going make it. I even got snippy with Ben and threatened to go back down (not cool, I should apologize).
Are you ready for the icing on the cake? As we climb relentlessly towards the ruins, vision blurring from exhaustion and dehydration, what do we see...... A PARKING LOT!! We could have driving up this thing? Seriously?
Oh well, it was a good workout. Here is the tower, which Ben climbed.
Stairs? No way, not after that hike! The boys and I waited at the bottom.
The views were fantastic.
We had been hiking for hours and the kids were going to have to eat soon, so we decided to head back down, which was much easier, and much faster since we followed the correct path. We will drive up another day to see the other sights (and visit the bier garden!)
Was the car towed? Nope! Our lucky day. But, how to get down this narrow road to the bottom? The road was way too narrow to turn around, so when there was a break in the mobs of people walking up and down the hill, Ben expertly drove in reverse all the way down. He said his ATED (anti terrorism evasive driving) skills came in handy. Whatever it was, excellent work, hun.
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