Heidelberg: Redefining Romance
With the pandemic reminding Europe of its existence and winter setting in and ending our days prematurely, I thought it best to stay at home for some weeks. As I was organizing the drawers and arranging my travel souvenirs, I realised how I have preserved one town carefully in my memory, the way a lover preserves dried roses in the pages of a book. A quaint town that set the bar high for every place I am yet to visit, the first town in Europe I fell in love with: Heidelberg!
Heidelberg is a town about 78 km south of Frankfurt situated on the river Neckar. Heidelberg University, founded in 1386, is Germany’s oldest university. Heidelberg is a scientific hub and home to several international research institutes, including the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and four Max Planck Institutes. Besides being the town of researchers, it is also the town of romantics. If online articles are to be believed, Mark Twain was in love with the town. In his words, Heidelberg was “the last possibility of the beautiful”1. A little more than two years ago, my visit to Heidelberg made my first autumn in Europe memorable and introduced me to the romantic side of Germany.
Old Town
Autumn in Heidelberg
Heidelberg is a pair of mountains playfully dodging each other as the Neckar river flows between them. I could just sit by the river looking at the antique Old Bridge and watch time pass by. The landscape took me to a much older time, when as a kid I used to draw a cliched scenery: two mountains and a river flowing between them. And then it took me to a more recent (but still older) time, when I visited Laxman Jhula (Rishikesh, India) with my family. The memories made my heart fill with joy. It was simple, and simply beautiful.
Old Bridge connecting the two mountains
After an interesting walk through the old town, we hiked to Schloss Heidelberg (Schloss means “castle” in German). First things first: the castle is home to the Heidelberg Tun, the world’s biggest wine barrel that holds 220,000 litres! The majestic Schloss Heidelberg was spared neither from the wrath of humans nor nature. In 1600s, it was destroyed twice by the French and from 1500s to 1700s lightning caused multiple fires which led to a lot of destruction. The citizens of Heidelberg even used the ruins as a source of building materials for their own houses :o
Neckar river and Schloss Heidelberg
Centre of the Town with a view of Schloss
Schloss Heidelberg
The castle still stands tall proudly boasting its ruins. In the ruins I tried to look for pain, but only found art. Strangely enough, they were very picturesque. Like many other German towns2, every crack in these ruins seemed to scream, “broken, but beautiful!” I am not sure why but this took me back to the blurred memories of caves and monuments I had seen in India (Elephanta caves, ruins in Mahabalipuram). Sometimes home is imprinted so heavily in our heart that our mind looks for it in new places.
Castle ruins
The view from the castle was beautiful. The color coordinated adorable little houses were very pleasing to the eyes, and the view gave me a strange satisfaction. To be honest, it made me miss my sister a little bit. She would have loved this view (she loves everything symmetrically aesthetic)!
As I stared down awestruck at the beautiful view of the Neckar river and the old bridge, I remember thinking to myself, “Wow, Germany is beautiful!”. I think Heidelberg was the first step towards a realisation: I am a happier tourist when I visit quaint little towns. I fall more deeply in love with art with every little European town I visit and I hope to create more art by penning down my experiences!