Heidelberg and Cologne, Germany

Heidelberg and Cologne, Germany

Cologne Cathedral European Tour Germany Heidelberg Heidelberg Castle Heidelberg Tun Priceless Europe Tour The Travel Junkie Traveling World's Largest Wine Barrel

One part of the Hiedelberg Castle

Our second to the last stop is one of Germany's romantic places to get married, Hiedelberg. Nestled in the hill 300 feet above the city of Heidelberg stands the breathtaking Heidelberg Castle.

The castle is a combination of several buildings surrounding an inner courtyard, put together with a haphazard look. Each building highlights a different period of German architecture.

To be honest our minds weren't functioning or even paying attention to our tour guide. We liked the place though.


Plus it had an awesome panoramic view of the city. ;)


In a separate part of the castle there's a cafeteria/bar that houses the world's largest wine barrel. The Hiedelberg Tun stands 7 meters high, is 8 1/2 meters wide and holds 220,000 liters (58,124 gallons) of wine.


Speaking of wine, meet Tito Joy and Tito Danny. They're my drinking buddies during the tour where they made me try different kinds of wine. Hehe. Cheers to you both!

 
The last stop in Germany is the city of Cologne famous for having the largest Gothic style church in Northern Europe, the Cologne Cathedral.


According to our local guide, the cathedral covers almost 8,000 square metres of floor space and can hold more than 20,000 people.


The cathedral also has these tall stained-glass windows that are really one of a kind!

 
After the cathedral we were given a few minutes to walk around and check out the stores. We didn't buy anything (reserving all our pocket money for Paris) but according to our group mates the prices were cheap plus the additional tax free discount for tourists was a whopping 16%! I love Germany!

Day 7 of Rakso Travel's Priceless Europe Tour

Day 7 of Rakso Travel's Priceless Europe Tour

Cuckoo Clock European Tour Germany Königsbau Passagen Leonardo Hotel Heidelberg Walldorf Mercedez Benz Museum Rakso Travel Rakso Travel Experience Rhine Falls Switzerland Titisee Travel Junkie Traveling

Apologies for the shameless mirror selfie. :p That's me inside our comfort room (yes,  at Leonardo Hotel Heidelberg-Walldorf. We're halfway done with the tour and my whole body is feeling the exhaustion from all the walking, sitting (inside the bus) and waking up early to move to our next destination.

Day 7 has got to be the busiest day of our tour which covers a visit to Rhine Falls (Switzerland), Titisee, Stuttgart and Heidelberg in Germany. We left Hotel Swiss Star around 8:30AM and arrived an hour later at the Rhine.

The Rhine Falls (Rheinfall in German) is the largest plain waterfall in Europe.

The 150m wide and 23m high (I expected something higher though) waterfall is located near the village of Neuhausen in Northern Switzerland. Entrance is free by the way so you can just come here and enjoy the view of the falls. If you have time and you're feeling a little adventurous then you may rent a canoe to get to the falls. Parang ang struggle pumunta don with the strong current no? Hehe.

An hour and a half later we finally arrived in Titisee, Germany.

Titisee-Neustadt is one of the famous regions in Germany with the view of lake Titisee and parts of the Black Forest. Titisee is famous for their cuckoo clocks and obviously the black forest cake. The cake is named not directly after the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) mountain range in southwestern Germany but rather from the specialty liquor of that region, known as Schwarzwälder Kirsch(wasser) and distilled from tart cherries. This is the ingredient, with its distinctive cherry pit flavor and alcoholic content, that gives the cake its flavor. ;)

I missed the cuckoo clock demonstration but was able to check out souvenir shops selling them. A German cuckoo clock costs around €250-300.


2 hours later we arrived in Stuttgart, Germany. This is the Königsbau-Passagen shopping mall, a Classicist building built in the mid 19th century.


We came here to visit the Mercedez-Benz and Porsche museums. Sadly they were closed that day.. and no one from both tour agencies in PH and Europe even bothered checking the schedule. :( Imagine mo yun? Traffic was so bad tapos pagdating close pala yung musem every monday? Tsk.


We ended up visiting the showroom instead. Lol.

What a waste of our previous time. Take Note: All museums in Stuttgart are closed every Monday! Instead of checking out Porsche, the group decided to just go back to our bus and proceed to our hotel in Heidelberg.

2.5 hours later we finally arrived at Leonardo Hotel Heidelberg-Walldorf.


This is by far the biggest hotel room we've stayed at during our tour. This room could accommodate 4 pax plus more if you'll get an extra bed. The overnight rate for Leonardo Hotel costs around €75 per night with breakfast.


This is also probably the oldest because it looks old and smells old too. Hehe.


Going back, the bathroom is clean and spacious too.

Despite looking like an old hotel, it was the best when it comes to serving food. We were so tired from the road trip and getting a steak for dinner was truly unexpected. Sorry if I forgot to take photos, I was too pissed by the fact that we wasted our time in Stuttgart and not in the mood to take photos of our beautiful dinner. LOL. Bumawi naman ako for breakfast. ;)

 

Nothing beats having bacon and eggs for breakfast. May bonus pang ham, roast beef and smoked salmon. Yummmm! ;)

 
Of course they also have a salad and cereal bar. :)


Let me tell you a secret. My friends from work love drinking hot tea (para kaming mga Titas of Manila) so every time we have breakfast I'd steal tea bags from the hotel and gave it to my friends as pasalubong. Hehehe.