We both had good sleeps especially with our ear plugs in to minimize the noise from the railroad. I was up earlier than Lana and completed yesterday's blog. We need to be out of our apartment by 11:00 am. We are both pretty quick with our packing. Showers, fruit bowl with yogurt for breakfast and ensuring we have coordinated our Heidelberg plans with two different sets of friends. We physically check out at 11:01 and the host is there with her cleaning staff.
As you can see from Google Maps below it is about a two hour drive from Trier to our Wiesbaden Airbnb apartment. Some freeway driving and other driving on smaller roads. Mostly driving through rolling farm territory. Overall, German drivers are pretty good especially in the fast lane as when you move up behind they are 90% good with shifting over. We discussed perhaps stopping somewhere for lunch, but that opportunity never presented itself.
It was going to be tricky with checking in to our Wiesbaden apartment as check-in is normally 16:00 and we were hoping for sooner as we could drop our stuff and then head to Heidelberg. We did negotiate with Sabine (our host) for a 14:30 check-in time. As well, we wanted to see exactly where the apartment was, where to park and any other details. We arrived in Wiesbaden a short time after 13:00 and parked on the main street below the apartment. Extremely difficult to find the address of 78E. There was a sign on the street with an arrow pointing up. Long stairs and we found a building 78A and a fellow came out to ask if we needed help? Yup, we sure do. We tell him the address and he walks us closer to the main drag of Sonnenberg Strasse and voila our apartment building 78E is there. Looks like parking beside the suite. Good thing we arrived early and figured out logistics for our place here--more on this shortly,
We walk down Sonnenberger Strasse to an Italian restaurant Buon Gusto that Lana noticed as we were driving here and we are both hungry. Well, I walk and Lana kind of limps. Still bruising and swelling on her right ankle. Looks fairly classy with proper tablecloths and huge umbrellas. All the servers are Italian. Lana indicated a rating of 4.6 out of 5. We are outside and it is a beautiful day to enjoy the fine weather. We place our orders from a pretty extensive menu.
Lana's order of large tube pasta, fresh mozzarella and meat balls. Everything was delicious. Perfectly prepared and full of flavour! A great start to meals in Wiesbaden.
Randy's order of fusilli carbonara, smoked cheese with pancetta. Wow, it was an excellent! The cheese was soft, pasta that was obviously hand-made and the pancetta was exactly the way I like it.
We walk back to our car and decide to drive up and around to our Airbnb apartment so we are there around 14:15. Major difficulties trying to get the lockbox open. We have the correct number and even phone Sabine to double-check. Finally, the top somehow releases and we have the key. We need to be quick as we are meeting our friend Shaun in Heidelberg for 16:00 and it is more than a one hour drive from Wiesbaden to Heidelberg. No time for unpacking. Just time to check out our apartment and drop our luggage. The most important thing was to protect the seven (7) bottles of wine we have purchased so far and that means getting them out of the heat in our car and into the apartment! Our little babies! The apartment has a large kitchen, living room and dining room so all good.
It is a Friday afternoon so traffic will be very busy. We use our Garmin GPS unit and Lana is the navigator while I drive like my usual self (maniac). I fit in well with many German drivers as I love to drive fast. Heavy traffic and we saw two rear-ender accidents well at least the results and then the backups. In all our driving in Deutschland we have never seen any accidents. I really admire their driving abilities and paying attention to the rules of the road.
The route from Wiesbaden south and east to Heidelberg. Yes, it is about an hour with my driving pretty quickly when I get the chance. That means up to 140 km per hour. Hey, at that speed I need to move to the middle lane when some cars fly by! These roads are not Autobahns (unlimited speed), but I think some cars must have radar detectors. Only seen one police car on a road with an unfortunate driver pulled over.
Reasonably uneventful drive south to Heidelberg and a beautiful sunny and warm day. For certain we have the air conditioner working. We have been to
Heidelberg many times in the past so fairly familiar with the city. We are both looking forward to being in the city and seeing our friends. There was a time when Lana was working for a global SAP business unit and she needed to be in Waldorf, Deutschland on a regular basis. This would mean staying in Heidelberg. Also, we did a home swap with our friends Wolfgang and Adri in 2012 for six weeks.
Lana's plan was to find parking near Wolfgang and Adri's apartment and then walk into the
Altstadt where we would meet Shaun at 16:00. For certain she did not take into account it is a long walk into the section of the Altstadt where we are to meet Shaun. Immediate problem with the parking machine as it refuses to accept our foreign credit cards. We do not have change to plug the machine and get our meter ticket. We try everything with no luck. We even ask some local shop owners to swap a bill for change and no luck either. We phone Shaun as we are now running late and maybe he has some ideas? There is a Crown Plaza hotel nearby and we decide to try and park in their underground parking and then take a bus into the Altstadt. Shaun would meet us.
Oops.... The Crown Plaza parking machine will only open for hotel guests so that option is not going to work. Decision to set the GPS unit for Parking 12 or 13 in the Altstadt (Lana's good idea) and off we drive and luckily we find a free parking spot very close to the part of the Altstadt where we are meeting Shaun. Definitely we will need some type of parking pass to place in the windshield so we take our chances at not getting a parking ticket during the two hour period we will be with Shaun.
We quickly walk to the area where we were to meet Shaun near the ancient Church and nearby Platz. He is not there. We phone him and he has walked to the other end of the Altstadt to meet us at the bus stop. Yikes, we drove rather than a bus because we simply can't pay for meter parking. Oh well, he walks down and we are finally together. We decide to walk towards where he used to live and then
Alte Brucke and a walk to
Frollein Bent. Lana is doing pretty well with her walking despite the uneven cobblestones in this old area of the city.
Shaun loves this hip cocktail bar located near the Neckar river and with a fine vista of the Alte Brucke in the distance. We have not seen Shaun in person for many years so a great opportunity to catch up. Shaun is an ex-pat from Australia and loves living in the Heidelberg Altstadt and continuing to work for SAP. That is how Lana met Shaun many years ago while working for the same team. No picture of Shaun as he doesn't like having his picture taken. We find a table under an umbrella with the idea of seeing the Alte Brucke (old bridge) while we drink and chat. Problem is the huge tourist buses keep blocking our view until about 1/2 way through our time with Shaun there are no more buses. Interesting and diverse cocktails and Shaun loves cocktails. As well Shaun is good friends with the owner.
The Alte Brucke in the distance (buses have gone). By the time the buses had departed we were finishing our first round of cocktails.
We spend at least two hours chatting and laughing and it is time for us to get going to Wolfgang and Adri's place as we are to meet them at 18:30 for a casual dinner in their third floor apartment. We find street parking very close to their building and Lana has change for the meter machine. In addition her two Euro coin is good for parking until the next morning. Yeh! Lana thinks their building is on the very corner, but we walk around the building unable to find an entrance door. On street level are commercial and retail businesses. Difficult to find an address though--and their number is 1/3! Never seen an address like that before. The building just across the street is actually their building and we buzz Wolfgang.
Relaxing in Heidelberg.
Lana and Wolfgang.
Picture taken by their daughter Valeria.
Family pic of the Schulers!
Lana met Wolfgang many years ago as he is another SAP employee. His wife Adri is from Bolivia. They have a six year old daughter Valeria. They own two apartments in the building and rent the other apartment. We decide to head out with Valeria to purchase a bottle of wine and show us their neighbourhood. Adri will be home later as she had an appointment. We pick up a bottle of Riesling (surprise?) and wander the area with seeing her elementary school and her old kindergarten building.
Back to their apartment and we sit for a casual dinner comprised of wine, breads, cheeses, ...... Great conversation and catch up on all their news. We stay way too late as we don't leave until around 22:00! Very dark and Lana not keen on driving this late at night. I will drive and Lana navigate using our GPS. Within five minutes we come across a gridlock on the freeway where nobody is moving. We decide to take the exit and switch to Lana's google maps on her iPhone as the GPS does not do a great job of re-routing you when there is a problem with it's recommended route (typically is tell your to make a u-turn when you deviate!) We think Highway 3 will reconnect us with the A5 freeway somewhere north of the 20 minute tie-up. It does work out although it is a super long drive back. We are not back at the Wiesbaden apartment until 23:10! Both exhausted and pretty much to bed immediately.
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