Jane left me a great breakfast, only I had inadvertently left the freezer portion of the fridge ajar and everything had frozen...got ready and left. This time, leaving Jane’s ghetto, I saw a young man also leaving, so without thinking, I asked him for a ride to Heidelberg! I’m hitchhiking through Europe!
He and another young man commiserated with me about the long climb down the footpath, and dropped me off at the Kongresshaus (City Hall). I was so excited when I got out, I wanted to call Jane right away and tell her I had cadged a lift, and realized I had left the phone at the ghetto.
On my way to meet Mike, I found the site of the original Jewish Temple in Heidelberg. Jews are first on record in Heidelberg history in 1372, but according to the sign at the site, they were persecuted throughout their time here, and finally, in 1940, were all rounded up and sent to a concentration camp in France. There is a new temple somewhere else in Heidelberg, but the site of the original one is now marked with stones, including a large stone marking where the Torah would have been.
Again, it was a gorgeous day. Mike met me and brought me a pear, and we headed first for an internet café so I could e-mail Jane about the phone situation so we could make our plans for meeting later. (Jane ran home at lunch and retrieved her phone.)
In my e-mail there were two surprises - I had received invitations from not one but two German bookcrossers to attend their bookcrossing meetup the following night! Apparently they had received Release Alerts about the books I had been leaving all over Heidelberg, looked me up on Bookcrossing, and found that I was from the U.S. They both (independently of one another, I was to find) wrote and suggested that if I was still visiting Germany I might like to join them for dinner and a meetup on Friday night. I jumped at the chance and told them that my brother and sister, both of whom are also Bookcrossers, would be joining me.
Mike wasn't done on computers, so I took a walk and went into a nearby toy and antique shop. There were wonderful photos - I am always intrigued by antique photos, but I didn't buy any. Mike joined me in the store and we looked at some of the toys.
Mike and I decided to tour the University Museum but first, in the Universityplatz there was a Markt going on – a bakery markt! There were about 6-8 kiosks with all manner of baked goods, and one guy even had a portable pizza oven where he was cooking flammenkuchen. There were lots of samples, too, so we went around and had a few, including some tastes of new wine, the seasonal and slightly fermented wine which tastes more like fruit juice. We had a delicious bread and nut loaf thing.
We went into the University Museum where a helpful guide set us up with headsets and little palm-pilot/iPod like thingys that you could enter the number of the exhibit into, and you would not only have an English explanation, but also a really clear picture (very helpful when they were talking about the pictures on the ceiling of the Old Assembly Hall.)
The first floor of the exhibit was mostly about the history and distinguished faculty of the school (Heidelberg University was the third University, after Vienna and Prague, to be established in German-speaking Europe.) It even included information about the impact of the Nazis on the University. I have noticed at various museums and sites that the Germans do not shrink from telling about the harm the Nazis caused.
We were next sent to the second floor, which has the beautiful Old Assembly Hall. Much of the time you are not allowed up there because it is still used, but our guide let us go. There was a class being taught, but we quietly sat in the back and took in the beauty while we listened to our guided tour iPod.
Next we had to leave the building and go around to the Augustinstrasse to see the old Studentenkarzer (Student Prison.) At the turn of the century students who were disorderly, made fun of police, drank too much, disturbed the peace, or just generally acted like they lived in Delta House, were sent to the prison, where they lived on bread and water for 2 days, then they were allowed to have food (and beer) brought it. Apparently it was a badge of honor to have spent time there, and few students didn’t “do time,” While they were there, they decorated the place by writing on the walls with watercolors and candle smoke, leaving their portraits and many sayings. There was even a drawing of my boy Perkeo! They named their rooms – Palais Royale, Sans Souci, etc. The drawings and writing remain and are really cool. There were some photos of the actual students there as well.
Walking back from the Student Prison, we saw the best street performer we had seen so far, The Rat King. We watched him for a long, long time! As you can see in the pictures, he was dressed as a rat, with little ratty teeth. He would reach across with his umbrella and get a hold of women. One poor little Japanese woman was walking past him and not paying a bit of attention when he nabbed her. I wish I had my camera rolling then! She nearly jumped out of her skin. I did get him on video, be sure to check it out. (Sorry I can't figure out how to turn the video right-side-up. You'll have to turn your head.)
We had pretty much decided to do a boat trip up the Neckar the next day, so we walked down to the boat dock to look at the ships and get a copy of a schedule. As we were walking along, I saw a "Hunde Toilette." Those wacky Germans! Even if a dog could lift his leg that high, I don't think he could read it! And speaking of wacky Germans, we found a flier for the Rockatini club, which said, "God Bless Rockatini! Every Fucking Friday!" They sure know how to get to a point.
Walking back up to the Hauptstrasse, we stopped at the Havana Bar overlooking the Neckar and had a drink. It was beautiful out, and there was a large butterfly bush right near our table. It was loaded with butterflies and I got a nice picture of one. We watched the Rhineships and the tourist boats going up and down the river.
We walked down the Hauptstrasse to meet Jane, and there was a beggar, a young guy, with the cutest sweetest dog. Mike got a picture of him (the dog, not the guy. Mike takes pictures of DOGS and GIRLS, mostly.) I took a detour and bought Mom a pretty scarf for her birthday - very German-looking with eidelweiss flowers on it.
Jumped in Jane's convertible and sped off toward the town of , to a restaurant Jane knew of called the "Zum Anker." The restaurant is right on the Neckar river, about 20 minutes outside of Heidelberg. The village of Dossenheim is so tiny you are through it in a minute. It is also very VERY rural. We sat outside on the terrace of the restaurant. Immediately next door is a farm with a big old barn. That's the barn in the picture with the umbrella. We watched a farmer and a small child go back and forth on a big tractor. Talk about country dining! Jane and I watched as a woman at a nearby table got her food...it was a huge bowl of some thick white stuff. It came with bread. We asked her what it was, and it was CHEESE! A big honkin' bowl of cheese. So of course, we had to try that. All of the food was very good and fresh, and we enjoyed it with German beer. I had delicious pumpkin soup, and of course I released a book. After dinner we walked down to the river. Some folks had set up a little getaway right at river's edge - a few lawn chairs and a table. Looked like my kind of spot.
We drove back to Heidelberg, parked, and walked back to the Dubliner to await our second Quiz Night with Fergus. By the way, Fergus looks just like Wallace of Wallace and Gromit. Ask anyone (meaning Mike or Jane.) When he grins, he has those sort of empty pockets on either side of his smile, just like Wallace. The resemblance was remarkable.
I had more or less become addicted to the black currant cider by then, and had a big ice cold glass of it. It's alcoholic, but you would never know it. Quiz sheets were passed out to all of the teams, and the quiz began. Most of the teams seemed to be American, with maybe a few Irish and British participants. Fergus had just gotten back from a trip to Prague, so he threw in a few Prague questions, which made Jane and me happy. The Paulkovich team, which we named "Team Dorftrottel," (Village Idiot Team) aced the entertainment questions, natch. But the rest of the questions were HARD! I couldn't believe people were answering them. Really difficult world politics questions, lots of European sports questions-you know we were totally Lahm Arsch (lame-ass) at that. Also, we thought we were terribly clever giving our team a silly name. But when it came time to name the winners, the teams were "Save Britney" (as in Spears,) "The Crotchless Panties" and "Tits." As Nigel says, "There's a very fine line between 'clever' and 'stupid.'"
Jane and I left when the quiz was over and walked back to the car, only to find that Jane had gotten a ticket. WRONGLY, I might add! We took pictures so she could submit some proof. Oh - and before we left the Dubliner, while Mike was still enjoying a beer, I ran up to his room and left (under his pillow) a gay porn magazine I had found on the street a few days before and which had Jane and I "eeeuuuuuuwwwww-ing" ever since. We wanted to see if he'd say anything about it the next day. Jane surmised that he would triple bag it, put it in the bottom of the trash can, pile garbage on top, and then put it out in the hall before he could sleep. She was very, very close. And he did say, the next day, "you guys know anything about ...." Poor Mike. He thought he was going on a sedate vacation with his two sisters, and he ends up in a fraternity initiation. "Thank you, sir! May I have another!"
Back to the ghetto for another 15 minutes of a Mr. Mom before going to bed.
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