May 31, 2012 Heidelberg Germany

Heidelberg which is famous for its old castle, is located in the Necker River Valley.

The old town on the south bank of the Necker is long and narrow. The main street is a mile long now a pedestrian St. running the length of the old town. It is dominated by the ruins of  Heidelberg castle 8o metres above the neckar river on the steep slopes of the Konigstuhi hill.

The old stone bridge across the river was erected 1786--1788. which has a medieval bridge gate on the town side known as the Pepper Pots.

During world war 2 Heidelberg was one of the few cities in Germany not significantly damaged by Allied bombing situated in the American zone of Germany and became the headquarters of the American forces in Europe.

This morning we walked down to Bismarck Platz (town square) caught a bus up the hill to the bottom of the castle. Then quite a steep climb to get up to the courtyard where we had a walk around. Great old castle which was built at different times in different styles. It really is quite impressive. We have had very misty weather while in Heidelberg so the views weren't very clear not good for photos.

We then walked back  down town and walked over the old stone bridge through the old gates. Called the pepper pots. You get a wonderful view standing on the bridge looking across over the old town on the river bank up to the castle which is at the top of a very steep hill. We then walked back through the old town which we did yesterday back to our Hotel. Very tired feet and very hot.  

We are staying at the Leonardo Hotel which is in Bergheimer Strasse (street) which is in walking distance to all the old town and the river bank. Just as well as we still don't have our car. Two days now without it and have just had a phone call saying that they are now organising a rental car for us as the papers for the Eurolease are still missing and have now tracked them to Paris. We are suspose to be leaving early tomorrow morning for Annecy France which is about six hours driving so still don't know if we are going to get away. I could use a very bad word but will just say DAM them. What a mess up.........One minute they were telling us to organise our own rental then we got a call to say they were going to organise it and get back to us but it is now 5.30pm and we have heard nothing and want to be on the road at 8.00am tomorrow. ........

Guess what just got the phone call re picking up a rental car tonight so we can continue on our trip tomorrow but still don't know when our Eurolease  Renault Megane is going to be delivered to us. The longer they take the further south we will be heading for delivery from Frankfurt, but that isn't our problem.

Later--Just got back from picking up car, smaller than I had hope for but at least it is wheels. Had a meal and now ready to collapse.

Will have to post pictures tomorrow hopefully.

Good night.

May 30th 2012 Heidelberg Germany

We have arrived at Heidelberg about one hour driving south from Frankfurt, staying at the Leonardo in Bergheimer Strasse in walking distance to the old town.

You won’t believe it but we waited until midday for the paper work for our car, after arriving at their office at 7.30am but it didn’t turn up so our patients were running out. They offered us a rental car to go on with but by now Pete was too tired to drive after flying all night. In the end we told them we weren’t waiting any longer and demanded that they drive us down to Heidelberg and deliver the rental car down to us tomorrow. At least this way we could start enjoying Heidelberg rather than sitting waiting for our wheels.

Finally got down here about 1.30pm, dropped our things into the hotel and went off walking the streets of Heidelberg. Lovely place although the weather looked threatening with a build up of very black clouds, and yes the heavens broke, very loud thunder so everyone took shelter and waited until it stopped which wasn’t long so we then wondered back to the hotel in the sun. Didn’t spend much time looking today, as it has been a very long day, sore feet and swollen ankles from the flying. Will tell more about the place tomorrow.

This blog is a day late due to very expensive wi-fi at this hotel and as it is free on their computer I have had to work out how to use that with yes Jen copy to my stick then onto hotel computer what a mission but now have it suss so will get todays one away tonight (31st) Also can't download photos on this computer.

May 29, 2012 Auckland to Frankfurt Germany

We are on our way

Des picked us up at 9.30am and took us out to the airport to catch our flight Malaysian MH130 to KL.

Dave was working so had a quick chat to him before we went through. We left on time 1.15pm flying time 11.5hrs. We had quite a bit of turbulence across the Tasman delaying the serving of lunch by nearly two hours.

Was an unusual leg in that we flew west, south of Sydney, north of Adelaide by approx 100miles and all out west to The Aust Bite and then turned north.  Tail winds all the way and up to 100mph travelling north thru Australia. The crew weren’t particularly friendly, no smiles but spose they were efficient.( This is Petes bit of reporting and you could guess all about weather matters)

We are sitting in the airport right now and awaiting onward flight to Frankfurt. It’s hot as hell and not sure if there is any aircon. They were trying to sell us a bottle of water at 4Euros per 500mls. We have over three hours here before our onward flight. Our next flight to Frankfurt is over twelve hours.

We arrived at KL at 11.45pm NZ time and leave here after 3.00am NZ time so hope we sleep well on the next flight. Only dozed on the first leg. We won’t be arriving in Frankfurt until after 4.00pm Wed. then we have to get the car and drive for an hour to our destination. About 24 hours flying time in total.  

Better go for a walk!!

It was over four hours before we returned to the plane. By now so tired as soon as we had a snack on the plane took a pill and when to sleep for about 7/8 hours and arrived at Frankfurt before we knew it.

Went to the Holiday Inn for pick up of our rental car to be told that it isn’t ready re to do with some paper work telling us that it will be another four hours yet. DAM…. Then we can finally get on our way to Heidelberg.

Will get this posted now and get started probably tomorrow. Must be about 31 hours since we left Auckland now and still sitting waiting to get on our way.

A lot of tired writing so hope you can make some sense of it.