By Jim Johnson

Getting started
Excellent signage guides visitors on a walking tour of the Old Town. The signs show not just maps but explain—in German and English –the history and significance of the location.
The Hauptstrasse (Main Street), Germany’s longest pedestrian street, leads to the Old University, popular with tourists more for its Student Prison (Augustinergasse 2) than for its architecture and history. From 1778 to 1914, minor transgressions—disturbing the peace, excessive drinking, rudeness to school officials—landed students in jail from a few days to several weeks, during which time students attended classes. Imprisonment, at least once, was seen as a mark of honor. Student sketches, paintings, and graffiti offer a glimpse into their lives and humor.
The Hauptstrasse ends at the Market Square and the late Gothic Church of the Holy Spirit, built in the 15th and 16th centuries. Facing it is the Zum Ritter Sankt Georg (Knight St. George), with a vibrant Renaissance façade. It is one of few buildings to survive the 17th century and perhaps Heidelberg’s most magnificent structure.
Enter the Jugendstil (art nouveau) University Library and view one of the city’s less-seen treasures, an extensive manuscript collection dating to the Middle Ages. Across the street is the 12th-century St. Peter’s Church.
Escape the throngs and find compelling shops and less visited restaurants on the many side streets, like the Untere Gasse, with its funky boutiques and bistros. Tourists don’t seem to have found the Weinstube Café Burkhardt (Untere Gasse #27), with two small, quiet rooms and a peaceful inner courtyard. The fare is mildly exotic—vegetable risotto with pesto, couscous with lamb and vegetables, and chicken breast with carrot-ginger vegetables and basmati rice—and comes in at less than €10.
Head to the Steingasse for a concentrated collection of cafés and pubs like the Brauhaus Vetter, the Casa del Caffe, and the Sylvia Bar. Slip into the hidden courtyard behind Steingasse 9 with its half-timber gallery.

Funicular
After two years of renovations, the Bergbahnen (Funicular) reopened on March 23. The first stop is the Castle—otherwise reached by foot over one of several routes, including one with signs that alert walkers of the 133 steps that lie ahead. Painted numbers on the steps tell breathless climbers know how many steps they’ve ascended.
While many visitors get off at the Castle, much more lies ahead. Buy a roundtrip ticket to the top, or the Kőnigstuhl. At the next stop, transfer at the Molkenkur station to the historic and fully restored original 1907 wooden cars of the Kőnigstuhl Bahn. The ride is a bit bumpier and the quarters a bit tighter, but this train has character as it pulls up grades ranging from 28 percent to 43 percent.
The view to the Neckar Valley stretches brilliantly, and the Castle and town take on almost toy-like qualities. Across the way, the trails of the Philosophenweg (Philosopher’s Way) zig-zag across the southern slopes of the Michelsberg and Heiligenberg.
At the top station, signs announce that travelers are now 549.8 meters (1804 feet) above sea level. (Heidelberg itself is at 437.8 meters or 1,430 feet about sea level.)
Here in the Heidelberger Stadtwald, the name “city forest” is an oxymoron because there’s nothing in this evergreen forest that hints of a city just below and out of sight. The only sounds are the cries of birds and the occasional tolling of bells carried on a perpetual wind.

To the Castle
Return by rail just as far as the Molkenkur. Take the footpath and imagine yourself a 17th-century Swedish invader approaching the castle grounds from above. Through breaks in the forest, the castle ruins slowly take shape. Within the walls, the terraced gardens ramble like a stacked wedding cake gone creatively awry with stairs, tunnels, ramps, and pathways connecting them in a baroque game of hooks and ladders.
The upper terrace, to the far right facing the river, stretches as wide and long as three footfall fields. The southeast corner offers Heidelberg’s best view of the Altstadt and river framed by the castle ruins.
The inner courtyards are worth the €3/1.50 admission and yield an even better view of nearly 400 years of construction (and destruction, thanks to the Thirty Years War and lightning) in styles from Gothic to High Renaissance. Entrance also includes visits to the Great Vat (the largest wine barrel in the world) and German Pharmacy Museum. For an additional €3.50/1.70, take a guided tour for an even better understanding of the castle’s history as well as the significance of architectural styles inside and outside the castle. (It’s a veritable stone textbook.) A less expensive and more independent option is to take an audio tour. Pick up a player and headset at primary entrances.
On your way down, resist a smile as you hear less enlightened visitors groan, “129, 130, 131…”

Delights Across the River
More delights lie across the river. Head over the Old Bridge from the Altstadt and follow signs to the Philosophenweg, a wooded path that winds up the hillside of the Michelsberg and the Heiligenberg above it. Walk through a stand of 19th-century villas to the quiet woods where Heidelberg’s philosophers, poets, and scholars once walked, talked, and gained inspiration.
From the Old Bridge, take a 10-minute walk downstream to Neuenheim (you can also drive or take the #34 bus from the Hauptbahnhof). It’s a once-medieval, sometimes-chic, always-charming quarter with abundant character and few tourists. Bistros, cafés, boutiques, and shops abound, including some of Heidelberg’s more exclusive restaurants and stores. Neuenheim’s market (on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.) is bigger than the one in the Altstadt and more authentic. During off hours, kids play ball and older residents play chess in the shadow of the 12th-century tower of the Market Church.
Stop at the Bar d’Aix en Provence (Bergstrasse 1, tel. +49/6221/41 98 95), a cozy tapas bar with tasty nibbles like Spanish pistachios, plums wrapped in bacon, dried tomatoes and Catalonian sausage, and green olives filled with anchovies, or a mixed cheese platter with four types of cheeses and a baguette. In the equally intimate surroundings of Le Coq Bistro and Restaurant (Brückenstrasse 17, tel. +49/6221/411133), enjoy more substantial upscale fare like gnocchi filled with mushroom cream, Argentinean steak in Port wine sauce, and duck breast in orange sauce (reservations suggested on weekends).
Just past Neuenheim, Handschuhsheim is the oldest part of Heidelberg (dating from 765)—and a rustic surprise. Barely 10 minutes from the hectic downtown (take the #3 tram), this former village lies between sprawling vineyards and the wooded slopes of the Heiligenberg. Its tree-lined, cobblestone streets lead past the Tiefburg, a moated castle built during the early Middle Ages, and the Romanesque St. Vitus Church, built in part during the 11th century over 8th-century ruins. Don’t miss its extensive 16th-century frescoes. If thirst or hunger intervene, stop at the relaxed Gilberts Goldener Adler (see Food section below) or, for more upscale fare, at the 300-year-old Gasthof Lamm (Pfarrgasse 3, +49/6221/479 30), where you have your choice of historic inner rooms or the outdoor beer garden and courtyard. Handschuhsheim is a hidden gem.

The Romantic Four
Upstream along the Neckar, the four significantly intact medieval towns of Neckargemünd, Neckarsteinach, Eberbach, and Hirschhorn—dubbed “The Romantic Four”—are well worth a day’s exploration by boat, bike, train, or car. Each, in fact, is worth a stay.
In Neckargemünd, a 45-minute stroll around town reveals excellent examples of half-timber homes, especially in the narrow Kleppergasse alley that trails along the remnants of the 14th-century town wall. Quiet dining at Gasthaus zur weissen Rose (Bahnhofstrasse 46, tel. +49/6233/23 10) features regional cuisine with a focus on fish. Part of Neckargemünd, the former fortress town of Dilsberg perches on a nearby hilltop at a bend in the Neckar. Much of the castle dates from the 12th century, and it’s a step back in time to walk the narrow streets.
The 90 steps up the castle tower yield a commanding view across the Neckar to the four castles of Neckarsteinach. Two of them are ruins and open for exploration. Climb the tower of the ivy-draped Hinterburg Fortress, and look down at a stone blueprint of the ruined foundation. Across the way, you can view Dilsberg from a different perspective.
Eberbach still has its original form with its four corner towers and extensive medieval center. Thanks to its long history as a spa town, it also has an excellent variety of fine shops, hotels and restaurants. The Hotel Krone-Post (tel. +49/6271/20 13) is almost worth a separate side trip with rustic elegance and creative cuisine.
In Hirschhorn, half-timber homes stand flush against and over the medieval town walls. Walk along the Hauptstrasse, where tiny alleys stray toward the Neckar. Pass through the town gate, built into the Market Church, and climb the winding Klostergasse alley to the 15th-century monastery and, above it, the medieval Hirschhorn Fortress, now a hotel and restaurant.