It's the real 'Berg baby!!

 I'm  little behind, so I'm going to catch up with 2 posts!
Weekend three was spent in Heidelberg, Germany! We left Saturday morning, stayed the night and came back Sunday afternoon. There aren't many hostels in Heidelberg, but we managed to get a room on the main drag of the town, the Hauptstrasse, which is full of shopping and bars. All the restaurants have their tables outside, which is good marketing to me! It is a pedestrian only shopping strip, and it was full of people.
Our hostel had it's own restaurant, and we met a nice guy from Texas there. He graduated with his PhD and backpacking through Europe was his present to himself. He was by himself, so we hung out with him for awhile. We had an amazing dinner at the hostel (and a discount because we were staying there)!! The bad thing about our hostel being so close to all the bars is that the noise didn't stop till 6am. Those Germans know how to party, let me tell you!

View of the bridge from the top of the castle.

We walked along the Old Bridge (apparently they don't think of creative names for these things...). <--This is the entrance to it. It's suppose to be pedestrian only, but you see the car coming through? Ridiculous people! Walking across the bridge gave you a pretty view of the Neckar Valley River. They had cruise tours, but we didn't take one.  Just walking along the bridge gave you a pretty view of the town.

On Sunday, we went to the Heidelberg Castle and student jail. The castle is in ruin and deteriorated, but it's apparently one of the finest Gothic-Renaissance castles in Germany (at least that's what Frommer's says). The palace of Friedrich the IV is here, he lived here from 1601-1607 I think. We payed a small fee to go into one of the areas, but there were more fees for going inside the palace and other things.There was also a wedding going on (we've seen so many wedding since being in Germany, it's ridiculous!), so we didn't go in.

This is the palace part I think of the castle. There were so many things going on, I don't know what half of them are. Just enjoy the pictures and the architecture :) It was absolutely breathtaking to see. I just wish I knew what every part of the castle was. Frommer's only tells me so much!

We also went to the Studentenkarzer, or otherwise known as the student jail. This is where the rowdies of the University went. You could be sent here for 2 to 4 weeks depending on the crime. Drunkenness, chasing pigs down the street, giving the prison guards a hard time, etc. The students often used charcoal and such from the fireplace to write on the walls. They drew silhouettes and school work on the walls. The last students imprisoned here were in 1914.

On the way home, we accidentally got on the wrong train. We got on the fast train, which our Bayern pass was not good for. A Bayern pass is for up to 5 people, it's a cheaper way to travel. You buy a pass for a region of Germany that you will be traveling in. You cannot use the Bayern pass for fast trains, so we got caught. We were let off easy however, and only had to pay for 1 fast train ticket, which is 26 Euro instead of for all four of us. Next time though, we're in trouble! Heidelberg is in a different region then Ansbach. Sometimes the train guys are nice and let you go if you're not going too far into the region. On one of our connection trains, we had a pass for the wrong region. This ticket guy was probably the most strict about the rules. He wrote up one of the girls. She had to sign a piece of paper saying she understood the rules and whatnot. If she gets caught again, she might not be able to ride on the train. We always have to travel in pairs, so maybe we'll just use another girls name. haha! Usually you can buy tickets on the train if need be, so that was our plan. However the regional train we were on apparently didn't allow for that, which was new to us. At least we know now!