Several weekends ago we had to travel to Ansbach for some basketball games, on the way home we decided to stop by and see the Heidelberg Castle. We didn’t get to Heidelberg until after 4:30 pm so we missed the last English tour and it was starting to get dark but we decided to stop by and visit part of the outside while we were there. Truthfully it’s not one that was on my ‘must see’ list because according to Rick Steve’s is not one of the ‘must’ sees but it was on my Panther Paws list so I did want to get it crossed off 😉 The English tours are limited I think 5 a day starting at 11:15 am and then every hour after that.
I loved these houses that lined the river bank in Heidelberg!
Trying to find the castle was not the easiest process. You would think that finding a large castle would be easy, but the GPS likes to be crazy and it’s to really ‘clear’ where to go using the signs in the town. After several loops around the city and a wrong turned down a one way tram street (yikes!) we finally found the small side street to take us up to the castle. Also I could not for the life of me find an address on the website to use in the GPS, I was using my phone though. If you have the same problem follow the signs for Schloss, you’ll go through the tunnel and it’ll be the 2nd road or so on the right going up the hill.
We parked along a side street and this was the view of the castle, you can see part of the ruins behind the trees. If you look by the little blue pedestrian sign there is a long staircase that we walked up to get to the top. There may have been parking closer up but it was starting to get dark and we were trying to hurry and get up there to see before we lost all the light. It was a bit cold so it was a hurried walk but would be even better in better weather, but it is a good hike so not for those who can’t climb many steps.
This neat church was on the street where we parked as well.
This is a view of the staircases as we were walking up. There were several smaller buildings around the castle not sure exactly what they were or if they belong to the castle or not. Also not staircases are uneven and Boo almost took a spill so watch where your walking.
This is a look down as we were climbing up the staircase, the castle is on top of the hill over looking Heidelberg.
From this view down you can see part of the castle ruins, some of the smaller buildings, and the city across the river.
As you climb higher and higher you start to get a great birds eye view of the city of Heidelberg! It was not a clear as I would’ve liked but as we’ve found traveling Europe you have no control over the weather here.
This the bridge through Heidelberg that you can often find in photos. When you reach the top at the castle there are some great overlook points to check out and take pictures from.
The castle walls had some statues on them as well.
It was starting to get dark but I love how you can see the light from inside glow in the windows!
Boo standing in front of the castle
He was leaning against the concrete wall you see on the left, as you can see it’s a LONG way down, he and Bub were making Mr. B and I nervous, LOL! At one point Bub acted like he was going to jump up on the wall (he was just pretending) but boy did it get Mr. B & I’s heart racing! Needless to say if your afraid of heights or afraid of your kids falling from them this area might be a quick stop on the visit.
It was cold and windy when we got to the top but I’m glad we took a few minutes to look around and see the castle. If we’re going through there again and have some extra time I might try to get in with the English tour but I would probably just explore the town instead. They have one of the oldest universities and there was some neat architecture and buildings that I’d like to go back and look at, on a warmer day…in the daylight.
We also tried Coyote Cafe (from the Panther Paws recommendations) and it was amazing! A bit hard to find but the Chicken Macaroni was so delicious!! If you follow me on Instagram you probably already drooled over it! I know I was a bad blogger and didn’t take any pics except with my iPhone! Bea’s Chicken Spaghetti with white lemon sauce was amazing as well. If you happen to stop by and try you need to walk down the main road of the walkplatz and take a right, it will be down a little ways on the right. We had to look all over for it!
Heidelberg is about 2 hours from Spangdahlem, walking the grounds of the castle was free so we did not pay anything for this outing (just for dinner). You could easily spend more time walking the castle grounds, and sightseeing in the city for a free to low cost sightseeing day trip. While Rick Steve’s may not think it’s worth a stop I thought it as a beautiful city and worth us taking a look around! And truthfully I think his books are geared towards getting the most out of a visit for a tourists, we have much more flexibility living here as we don’t have to cram as much as we can into one trip. So you have to know when to go with ‘pro’ advice and to go with your gut, I’m glad we didn’t let this opportunity pass by!
Know Before You Go:
What: Heidelberg Castle, Germany.
How To Get There: Approximately 2 hours 11 mins from Spangdahlem and 1 hour 12 minutes from Ramstein.
Parking: Is a bit tricky, you can use the parking garages and take the trams up to the castle.
Cost: Free to walk around the outside, €6 adults more for guided tour to see the inside of the palace, also note they only offer English tours at certain times.
Traveling with little kids: Probably would be best to baby wear, not sure strollers are allowed in the castle and we had to walk a ton of stairs to get up to walk around the outside.
How long: Plan on at least 30 mins if your just walking around the outside, more for tour/inside.
Where to find info: Above links
Heidelberg is on my to-do list. It looks like a pretty town.
Please tell me that you don’t really base your travel on Rick Steves though. I listened to a lot of his stuff when I first started hopping around Europe, and I came to the conclusion that I cannot STAND him. He’s smarmy.
Ha ha! I actually love Rick Steve’s, especially his walking tour info for the places we visit. But no I don’t base where we go on his advice alone, I do tons of research and then use his info if it happens to be somewhere he wrote about. Take for instance there is no info in his book about Heidelberg (except not to go, LOL!) but I’m glad we went anyways. He is not the only source of info but we’ve had good experiences with what we’ve used so far. What is your favorite or go-to book for traveling Europe? I use several 😉
I actually appreciated Rick Steves a lot more when we first got to Germany – he made everything seem a little less overwhelming. Now that we’ve got our feet on the ground, I use other sources to plan our trips. Anyway, I haven’t been to Heidelberg but it’s been on my list. I have a friend who is from there and her photos of home are beautiful. Thanks for sharing your adventure! I am looking forward to catching up with your family’s adventures!
I agree about him making it less overwhelming. I love his walking tour info because it would take me forever to hunt down and put together all that info for each of our trips, it’s much easier to let him do the work and us benefit from his experience 😉
I visited a couple of months ago and loved it. We also rode the cable cars from the castle to the Christmas Market downtown and then went up to the top of the mountain to the Konigstuhl. It was pretty awesome.
Oh I so need to do the cable car next time! I have a few in our family who are not fans of heights but I bet it is amazing! Thanks for sharing the idea:)
Heidelberg is my favorite! We were there a super long time ago, in 2003. I loved the castle and the whole town. Mostly what I remember about the castle was the amount of steps. There were tons!
I agree about the steps! It was a good workout just getting up to the castle, LOL! I agree I loved the charm of the whole town as well 🙂
We love the Rick Steves books too! But I can’t believe he says not to go to Heidelberg! From all the pictures I’ve seen it looks amazing. So, sorry Steve, but we’ll be going as soon as it warms up a bit 🙂 Thanks for sharing all your photos!
He said it’s ‘over commercialized’ but I didn’t really see that there…but then again I just love being in and experiencing Europe so my expectations are pretty low 😉
Hey, Thought you left one of the boys in Alabama to finish school, or maybe it was to begin college. Boo’s a handsome young man. Hunter will be a freshman at Troy University this fall. He’s excited as he should be. Have no comments about Germany as we have not been there. Thank you for sharing so we can at least enjoy your adventures through you.
No, Boo is with us finishing his Senior year here and traveling Europe and will return to the US for college this summer. Glad your enjoying the posts.
Heidelberg is a very pretty town and I’ve always loved visiting it. However, I’d say it’s maybe one of the most touristic towns I visited while there (have you seen the T-shirts “I’m not a tourist, I live here”?), especially since Germany tends not to be a real tourist destination (exception being Munich/Bavaria and Berlin). I wanted to dislike it as a tourist trap, but in honesty, it is a very charming and picturesque place to visit. I always parked in the car parks and walked to the castle. There’s also a little train you can take from the pedestrian zone that will take you up if you don’t want to take the hill by foot!
No, I haven’t seen those shirts! Too funny! Thanks for the info about the car parks, if we go back we’ll do that and take the train or cable car up. I agree I too thought it was charming and picturesque, I wish we had made it to town earlier in the day to take more photos but there is always next time 🙂
It’s a beautiful castle, though not as romantic and pretty as the one in Sleeping Beauty. Living the expat life must be hard sometimes, but seeing so much of the world must be one of the perks!
I would love to go to Germany someday. Your pictures are beautiful. I love the architecture and I have a thing for castles. A few years back my daughter and I were in London and one of our favorite places was the Tower of London. How exciting it must be to see so much of the world! Visiting from #sitsblogging and followed you on Twitter as well.
I loved the Tower of London as well! I hope to go back in the near future 🙂
I haven’t been to Heidelberg but it looks lovely.unds lke you’ve had an interesting life travelling around the world. I’m a serial expat too and lived in Iceland when I was a kid! Great to “meet” you thanks to SITS.
I loved living in Iceland! I hope to go back and visit soon!
Love Germany! Thanks for sharing pics of Heidelberg Castle. Sounds like you had a nice day with your Boo xo
Yes, we are enjoying a our time exploring Europe with him before he leaves this summer for college.
That’s so neat! I went to Marburg about 10 years ago, and we had dinner at the castle there.
I’ll have to look into it and see if I need to add it to my ‘to-see’ list 😉
Wow! That is breathtaking. I would love to travel there one day.
How lucky are YOU?! Beautiful photos and wonderful place to visit. Someday, I hope to take more time to TRAVEL when the kids get older. 🙂 Great Blog as well!
I am so thankful that we have the opportunity to travel and share it with the kids, they’ve been traveling the world since the were small 🙂 It will be weird when we’re traveling without a crew in tow, LOL!
What a wonderful castle! it looks like you had a great time exploring !
I would so love to go to Germany one day! Thank you for sharing these wonderful pictures. I’ve never left the USA so I love when those who have share their experiences.
I was in Heidelberg many years ago when I was an exchange student in Germany. I didn’t see much of the city, as a friend drove me to the train station so I could go on to Bremen. Thanks for all the photos! I’d love to spend another summer in Germany, visit my “family” in Bavaria, and polish up my German language! Connecting today via SITS Comment Love. Happy Blogging!
Being an exchange student sounds exciting! We’re trying to make sure we take full advantage of our time here and travel as much as possible 🙂 I need to work on learning German too.
Jealous! I am half German and visiting Germany has always been on my bucket list. The castle is amazing!
We visited Germany for 2 weeks in 2005 and knew we wanted to live here, it’s only taken 8 years but hey we made it! 😉
I am thrilled to have found your blog. I am visiting from SITS. I am also an AF wife and have a travel blog, because we’ve moved so much!
I love meeting other AF wives who blog travel! SITS is introducing me to all kinds of new blogs 🙂
How beautiful! I love the culture and different scenes there. I’ve only been to France, which I really enjoyed. One day I’d love to travel some more around Europe. For now, I’ll go through people like you and your beautiful photos! 🙂
We are hoping to see Paris for spring break 🙂
I have been and LOVED it! I hope to get back there with my kids! Great blog! Coming by from SITS Girls!
Glad to hear that you loved it! Did you do the tour inside the castle as well?
Your traveling life sounds amazing! I love to travel, though have never made it out of the US (maybe 1 day). I love immersing myself in other cultures, seeing the sight, & trying the foods. Seeing these buildings in person would be awesome! Good luck in your travels 🙂
I never dreamed that I’d be able to see & travel the world but thanks to the AF we’ve had some amazing opportunities!
Terrific photos! I would love to go to Germany and tour the old castles, the biergartens, and cities. I keep saying one of these days we’ll make it to Europe. It sounds like you are having a great time. Congrats on finally finding a house.
I was stationed in Heidelberg in the Army, arriving Feb. ’73 and leaving Sep. ’75. I can say unequivically that it was my very great fortune to have been stationed in this gem of a town, although I don’t know what I’d say about it to the person who only has several days to spend in Germany. I’ve been days in capital cities and also in smaller ones and think that a person’s best memories and experiences will come from the smaller towns, so given that, Heidelberg would be most worthy a stop. Walk along Philosophen Weg (Philosophers’ Walk), which is on the other side of the Neckare from Heidelberg, to gain a spectacular view of the city. Spend time in its shops and restaurants/bars. Take a boat trip up and then back on the Neckar. All these you will love. It’s only through a more relaxed visit when a traveler is able to discover a place, not have it imposed upon oneself.
Thanks for sharing! I too enjoy spending time in the smaller towns, I’d love to explore Heidelberg some more but not sure if it’ll happen this time around.
great blog dear!