Heidelberg
Germany'S Oldest University Town, Founded 1386, Below A Ruined Red Sandstone Castle; The Old Bridge, The Philosophers Walk And The Long Hauptstrasse Through The Baroque Old Town · Heidelberg, Baden-Wurttemberg
Heidelberg is the old university town on the Neckar where the river leaves the Odenwald hills, and the most visited small town in Germany. Above it stands the red sandstone shell of Heidelberg Castle, blown up by French troops in 1689 and 1693 and finished off by lightning in 1764, left as a ruin on purpose and painted by every Romantic who passed. Below it, a single long pedestrian street runs through a baroque old town rebuilt after those wars, past the Church of the Holy Spirit, the market square and the 1386 university, Germany's oldest. The Old Bridge of 1788 crosses to the far bank, where the Philosophers Walk climbs the Heiligenberg for the view everyone photographs. The castle holds the Great Vat and the German Apothecary Museum, and a funicular runs from the old town up past it to the Koenigstuhl summit. The honest caveat: from mid-morning to late afternoon in summer the old town is wall-to-wall coach parties, and the same streets at eight in the morning or after seven in the evening are a different town.
Heidelberg Altstadt on the Neckar, with the castle ruin on the Koenigstuhl slope above it and the Philosophers Walk on the far bank, Heidelberg, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
The old town, the Old Bridge, the market square and the Philosophers Walk are open streets, free, and accessible at any hour. The castle courtyard, the Great Vat and the German Apothecary Museum are ticketed and open daily, generally from mid-morning to late afternoon with earlier closing in winter and last admission roughly an hour before the gates - confirm current times. Guided tours of the castle interior run at set times only. The funicular from Kornmarkt to the castle, Molkenkur and the Koenigstuhl runs all year at roughly ten to twenty minute intervals on the lower section and less often on the historic upper one, with maintenance closures - confirm. The Student Prison and university museum keep museum hours and often close Mondays. Neckar boats are seasonal, roughly spring to October.