Canada Does Heidelberg

The name of the weekend suited it perfectly as there were lots of
Canadians. The weekend started with a two hour drive to Colin?s house.
He lives just outside Heidelberg and had invited 8 Canadians for the
weekend. I was the only one of the 9 of us here from UNB for the
summer to not go to the meeting that was on Friday so I met them
there. Another UNB student, Jessica, who is traveling Europe for the
summer stopped to join us for the weekend. Once every one had arrived
and a bit of catch up was done we debated what to do for the evening.
Once we found out the last tram ran at 11:30 and it was almost this
time we decided to stay at Colin?s to relax and catch up on everyones
lives. This is exactly what we needed as everyone was tired.

On Saturday morning once everyone was up and most of us showered and
dressed we headed to the bakery to get some breakfast. One thing that
Germany has mastered is their bakeries and baked goods! It is almost a
bad thing because just walking or biking by is tempting. We all found
something deliceious for breakfast and brought some for the other who
were still showering. After breakfast we planned out the day which
started with the girls going to the grocery store for food and the
boys to a different grocery store for a flat of beer. We headed to the
grocery store to get food for a bbq lunch and we had decided to make
homemade vegtable soup for dinner. I know people in the store hated us
because 8 English speaking girls semi took over the little grocery
store for a bit. However, we did manage to fill a cart with enough
food to feed 11 people for a day or more. One thing we forgot was to
bring shopping bags or backpacks for the food since you have to buy
bags. We decided we would pull the dumb Canadian/tourist card and use
the cart to go to Colin?s house before we brought it back. Along the
way we stopped at two different bakeries for bread, rolls and coffee.
We managed to wheel the cart back to Colin?s unload it and have Erin
and Jenn take it back without anyone saying anything.

Once we had seperated the lunch and dinner food and put the dinner
food away we packed up and caught the tram into the city. We got off
by the Neckar where we were planning on having lunch. Colin and Erin
left us here to find a spot while they went to pick up the bbq from
one of the people Colin works with. The park along the Neckar river
was a busy spot for many reasons but there was also a dragon boat
festival happening on Saturday as well. We found one spot and set up
but when Colin arrived back we learned there were special spots to bbq
so we had to move and set up once again. We spent most of the
afternoon here having lunch, playing frisbee, talking and watching the
boat races. Some of the teams had some interesting costumes on there
was a whole boat that was filled with cavemen and cavewomen for
example. After we cleaned up, returned the bbq and packed pur things
we headed up the nearby hill to walk through the Philosopher?s Way
which is a pathway that over looks the city. Here we stopped for a few
pictures and took some pictures for other people as well. Unfotunatly
being the clumsy person I am dropped my camera here. Thankfully it
still works as I am not done with my adventures yet but it does need a
bit of repair. We walked back down the hill and across the old
Heidelberg brige to the old town to walk around before we grabbed a
tram to head home. For dinner we made a delicious vegtabele soup to go
along with the fresh bread and some saussages. Once everyone was full
and most of the dinner mess cleaned up we all changed and headed back
downtown for the night. This weekend we had better luck with getting
home and made it home all together safe and sound with no issues.

Sunday morning was a bit more relaxed as people were leaving at
different times. So we had breakfast and said goodbyes to those who
were leaving in the morning. Once they were gone the rest of us headed
back downtown to go and visit the Heidleberg castle. Along the walk
from the tram to the castle we stumbled on a place selling snowballs.
Still not fully sure what they were but they were a delicious
concoction of chocolate, filling, cookie like pastery and toppings all
rolled into a ball. Jenn and Jordan walked with us to the base of the
castle path but they left us there to catch their train home. I wasn?t
leaving until later so I got to continue up to the castle and spent a
better part of the afternoon here. The castle was partially in ruins
but there were also places you could go inside. We went through the
German pharmacy museum and into the wine cellar where the world
largest wine cask is now housed. Heidelberg was really filled with
Canadians this weekend as we learned at the castle there were 200
Canadian Scouts in the city for the weekend as well. With our fill of
the castle taken in we climbed back down to the city and made our way
back to Colin?s before heading home after a great weekend.

I am not sure what happened to the beautiful weather we were having
here in Germany but it seems to have disappeared. Most of last week it
was cold and rainy and this week hasn?t started out any different.
When the sun is out it is during the day and then it rains for the
evening. I had two or three days last week where it started to rain on
my way home from work. I reslly hope that the weather turns around as
the plan is to go camping this coming weekend and I only have a few
weekends left to enjoy this amazing summer!

Work has been rather boring lately so there is nothing notable to
mention from there. I have things to do here and there but I run into
times where they tell me there is really nothing I can do at that
point. Apparently I work to fast but there is no complaints about my
work so it is okay. As I am only here for a bit longer there is not
much point in learning another type of test because it would take a
lot of time so for now I take whatecer comes my way. So with that,
that is all for now. Chow : )