Stuttgart; Sunday, 17 July, 2005

An early start to the day to get the train out of town to Hidelberg. One of Germany’s premier seats of learning (Think Cambridge or the Sorbonne!) the city is also home to a ruined castle and spectacular scenery.

We caught the bus from the man station into town and then walked to the funicular railway station. From here most of the tourists were only going up one stop to the castle, but we decided to get tickets for all the way to the top and back down, with a stop at the castle on the return. I'm glad we did, because when we came back down again the queues to go to the top were horrendous.

The railway goes up two stops where you change from the modern sleek carriage to something more "vintage" from here its another 10 minutes or so off climbing to the top, from where there are glorious views over the whole of the valley with the Necker river meandering through it and the vineyards clinging to the side of the hill. As it was just gone midday by this point we decided to stop for an (extended) lunch at the restaurant dinging on the balcony that looked out over the valley.

After a particularly pleasant meal we headed back to the railway station and caught the funicular back down to the castle to have a look around.

After spending some time looking at the castle, and the museums inside it, we caught the funicular back down to the centre of the town and wandered (in the end ran the last 200m) back to the train home to Stuttgart, and diner.