Weekend I: Of delayed trains, Old Castles and Bridges

On Saturday, we decided to leave for Heidelberg on Sunday morning. The plan was as follows. We were 5 people. Me, Om, Vivek, Vinay (Vivek and Vinay are sophomores from IITB) and Manpreet. We chose to travel using the weekend pass which is 37 euros for 5 people. I was to leave from the 7 pm train to Saarbrucken with the pass from where Manpreet would join me with my bag as well and we would go towards Heidelberg and on the way the other 3 would join us.

Fortunately I did get up on time and I was on the train station by 6:45 pm but since when did things work well for me the first time itself :P. The train that I planned to take was canceled. I later got to know that the track had broken and they needed to fix it. I tried to find another way to get there through Homburg, to which there was a train at 7:32 am, but by the time I got to the platform to catch it, they announced that this train was also canceled until further notice. So I tried to inquire what had happened and to find a way to Saarbrucken, but to no avail thanx to the lack of German skills.

I came across a couple of Indians who were also going to Saarbrucken. I told them about the situation and I now had 2 more companions worrying with me :P By now, the next train to Saarbrucken had also been canceled. We waited there with no plans at all on what to do when all of a sudden the train to Saarbrucken opens up. We rushed to the train which left on time but due got delayed on the way. It poured all this time, so the weather was not helping the situation either.



After reaching Saarbrucken, I met Manpreet and I was finally reunited with my bag (Yay!!). We had to wait another half an hour for the next train to Kaiserslautern. There was a group of anime characters (:P) boarding the train.



Once on the train, we sat down and hoped that this train would not be delayed. On the way, huge crowds got on the train at every station.


We found out that there was a football match in Kaiserslautern between Kaiserslautern and Oxburg, so supporters of Kaiserslautern were flowing in from everywhere.

We reached Kaiserslautern late and consequently had already missed 2 trains as per our plan. There is a train every half an hour from Kaiserslautern to Heidelberg so we could board one right after half an hour. We reached Heidelberg at around 1:30 pm.

There we met Shashikant, another fellow from IITG, doing an intern at university of Heidelberg. We all boarded a bus, and then a little walk uphill and we were at the castle.


Frankly speaking, compared to Indian forts the castle was tiny. But it was well maintained.

Also, I noticed that they had renovated the castle (and more renovation was taking place)


The view from the courtyard was pretty beautiful.


There were big wine barrels in the museum which were the main attraction according to the guard there :P I wonder if they ever made wine in them.

Once the castle was done, we went to the garden took a stroll there. There was a beautiful tree there.


After that we started descending to the bridge. We ended up traveling further away from the bridge. We had to take a bus to the bridge.


By this time most people were pretty tired and we decided we should leave early. There was a good chance that we could have some party at Kaiserslautern, since Kaiserslautern were most likely to have won the match. We ate a bit at McDs and caught the train to Kaiserslautern. We were at the train station at 7:30 pm. The football match had been drawn but KL had made it from tier II to tier I (I have absolutely no idea what that means except that its supposed to be a good thing for the team :P)

Back at my room I was greeted with a beautiful sunset view.


I made pasta and soup (readymade obv) for food. By now my pasta has started to taste pretty good. Though I still am not sure how close to the actual pasta it is, but who cares ... it tastes awesome :D

Do check out the pics in my picasa web album.

So until my next adventure ...