Day 2 - 17 June 2018 - Festival Time in Heidelberg

It felt really good to wake up from a nice night's rest after being up over 24 hours the "day" before. We enjoyed a nice continental breakfast with Stefan and several other travelers. We learned that there was a festival happening downtown on the banks of the Neckar River, so we decided to take in some local culture.  

We walked a few blocks to the light rail station and caught a #26 train to Bismarkplatz which is the heart of the old city of Heidelberg and a number of light rail lines converge there. The train was pretty full as many were headed for the same event. Upon arrival, we walked about 1/2 mile over the main bridge spanning the Neckar River and observed the festival stretching down river for over a mile in the riverside park. There were all sorts of booths promoting various aspects of health and welfare along with dancing competitions, live music, sailboat rides, a BMX bicycle stunt jump into the river, and a Protestant church service with some English songs. There were a few food and beverage vendors and the lines were quite long. On the adjoining street there was a giant flea market with largely all manner of toys, children's clothing and other things for sale plus more booths supporting various causes.

We left the festival and walked the mile or so up river to the historic Roman bridge which was undergoing renovation. From there we headed into the main tourist street which is a mile long pedestrian mall. It was also pretty busy and we found a favorite restaurant where we enjoyed a late lunch including my absolute favorite beer in the world: Victoria. It's a very light Pilsner style bordering on sweet.

We made our way back to Bismarckplatz where we caught a train back to Kersheim and walked back to Knopftours where we watched with Stefan and his family the World Cup soccer match between Germany and Mexico. Unfortunately Germany lost 1-0. Afterwards we caught up up on internet and did some planning about where we would go next. We selected Nuremberg as we have never been there before and it's on our way to the Czech Republic which is our next major destination. Would we make it there? Stay tuned for the next installment.