Canoodling with Schupfnudeln

22 December 2009

Canoodling with Schupfnudeln

Tuesday morning Anna and I got up early to move on to our next destination. Before checking out of Hotel Adler in Frankfurt, I tried to book a room for my last night in Germany when I would be alone, from 23 December to 24 December. The friendly front desk employees informed me that the hotel was closed for Christmas from the 23 December to the 4 January. What a new concept! I can not fathom a hotel in the US closing over the holidays! Although inconvenient for me, how nice it is for the employees to have that time off! I’d figure out my last night of lodging some other time.

Fifteen euros and one hour later, Anna and I disembarked the train and stepped into Heidelberg. Heidelberg is in the state of Baden-Württemberg. The town is known for two different famous writers, Goethe and Mark Twain. The travel guide claimed that there is speculation that one of the reasons that Mark Twain liked Heidelberg so much was because the word Heidelberg is derived from Heidelbeerenberg which translates to “Huckleberry Hill”. Mark Twain wrote, “A Tramp Abroad” while in Heidelberg in the 1870s. Heidelberg is known to be a university town. In fact the University of Heidelberg is one of the oldest universities in Europe, founded in 1386. With good university towns comes good night Heidelberg also boasts a beautiful castle. Over all it is a colorful and well-preserved town full of baroque architecture as it was spared from the bombings during WWII. It also has the longest pedestrian zone in Europe, the Hauptstrasse, or Royal Mile, at 1600m long

Anna and I consulted the tourist office outside the train station to figure out how we were going to get to our hotel in the aldstadt of Heidelberg. The friendly woman informed us that it would be a 1 hour walk (4 km away), or a 10 minutes bus ride. She also told us we had arrived at a good time as today was the last day of the Heidelberg weihnachtsmarkt! The bus dropped us right in the middle of everything, at Universitätsplatz, right next to one of the weihnachtsmarkts. It was a bumpy ride wheeling our suitcases down the cobblestone roads, and I was now encumbered by an extra bag full of German souvenirs collected over the course of the week. Even with my forearms throbbing from dragging my heavy bags, I was not distracted from this beautiful city. Heidelberg immediately became my favorite of all the towns we’d been to all week, with Miltenberg as a close second. Miltenberg and Heidelberg are actually tough to compare as Miltenberg has the feeling of a sleepy village in the hills, and Heidelberg feels more like a small, busy city.

After checking into Hotel Zum Pfaltzgrafen, a family run hotel on a narrow, winding and hilly side street off the Hauptstrasse, we set out to explore. Looming over the old city of Heidelberg are the remains of the Heidelberg Schloss (castle). The castle has Gothic and Renaissance styles. Construction began in 1398. It was a decent hike to actually get to the castle and potentially treacherous with steep, uneven, icy cobblestone paths. It had most definitely warmed up today, probably just under 40°F, so all the snow was melting and creating an icy slushy mess. Anna and I walked through the castle gardens, which are surely more impressive in the summer months, but offer a great vantage point from which to see the city below. It felt good to climb the steep path to the top of the hill and get my heart rate up. I’d be lucky if I burned off even one glass of glühwein, but that’s okay.

Two girls in the park were taking pictures of themselves with the city below as a backdrop. I offered to take the photo for them and we chatted for a bit. One of the girls was German, but she could have fooled me as she had flawless English. The other was American but living abroad in the Czech Republic, teaching English. She had spent the year before doing the same in Turkey. I have to say I was a little jealous of the freedom of her nomadic traveling lifestyle. But I do realize that I should be thankful that I have a reliable career which can offer me employment both at home and abroad.

The view from the elevated park really was wonderful. The pictures would have been a bit better if the sun were shining though. The old city directly below us was filled with colorful buildings topped off with red-tile roofs separated from each other by narrow and winding roads. The tallest buildings in the aldstadt were the cathedrals. The river Necktar separates the city in half. It flows through the Odenwald valley, which eventually drains into the Rhine River. Various bridges arched up and spanned its breadth. The far side of the river bank was lined with large mansions, likely today run as hotels. The greater Heidelberg area was quite large and stretched out virtually as far as the eye could see. We walked through the castle grounds a bit more, at which time Anna decided to take the tour of the interior, and I opted to do some more walking around Heidelberg while we still had sunlight and perhaps go for a jog.

After we split ways, with plans to meet back at the hotel later, I wandered back through Heidelberg towards the hotel. I passed through two of the weihnachtsmarkts, one of which had an ice skating rink. I stood for awhile, watching the smiling faces of the German children whiz by on precariously balanced skates. If they were to fall by chance, they would be quite well protected in their puffy full body snow suits. Next I walked through the weihnachtsmarkt located outside of one of the large cathedrals. The townspeople were crowded around the glühwein stalls, imbibing as much of the hot wine as they could on this last day of the Christmas markets. I spotted a couple walking down the main street in town who from a block away I could label immediately as Americans. In fact, I would put gamble that I could probably even guess which state they were from too. Both were wearing cowboy hats, one had a long leather coat on, the other had black leather chaps, I think there was some leather fringe too, but that could be my imagination running away now. They had to be Texans with a look like that and as they got closer, I could hear their southern drawl and watched as they guzzled down their glühwein. I really wonder what some people are thinking! My motto when traveling has always been to try my hardest to fit in with my surroundings and respect the norms of the country I am visiting. I believe that standing out as a foreigner will most likely only bring negative attention towards oneself, like stereotyping, pick-pocketing, and a bevy of aggressive men trying to sell knock-off designer sunglasses. Americans have a reputation worldwide for being loud, obnoxious, and very ethnocentric. I want to at least set a good example for my country. These cowboys pretty much hit up every American stereotype seen in pop culture and frankly I was embarrassed that we were compatriots. I could have been wrong, maybe these leather-clad southerners were worldly and cultured with a passport full of foreign stamps, or diplomats in Halloween costumes, but I doubt it!

I was excited to be able to take a run. I had been nursing a running injury in my groin for the past two weeks aggravated further by daily intense yoga classes back home. Over the course of the week in Germany, I had noticed the tightness and pain in my groin finally dissipating. I probably just needed a rest from strenuous activity, but I think the constant slow walking we did had helped to loosen it up. It was great running weather too, not too cold but a nice temperature to keep one from sweating too much. I have to admit, within the first minute of running, I could feel the pain in my groin, but I thought, “To hell with it!! I have been living off of powdered sugar waffles and deep fried potato pancakes all week, I need some exercise!” I quickly learned that the main shopping promenade was not the best spot for running as one had to continually dodge Japanese tourists toting cameras with absurdly long lenses, German couples window shopping hand-in-hand, and mothers pushing bundled up babies in prams. I headed for the river and ran along the banks of the Main, crossing over and back on two different bridges and really just snaking my way through the old city of Heidelberg. Running is a great way to scout out a new city. I should have been doing this every day—damn you, pulled groin muscle! I did not pass another runner during my 30 minute jog which was quite surprising! Even in my small suburban town at home, I am sure to pass at least half a dozen runners when I go out. But clearly the Germans are a much thinner and healthier nation than our own. I do not know the statistics, but the average European citizen certainly leads a less sedentary lifestyle. Most people walk when they need to go out and do things like food shopping or mailing letters. A large percentage of people use bikes to get around as well, especially in Scandinavia, Germany and the Netherlands. It’s a shame our American lifestyle is not more conducive to these habits.

Anna informed me that I was too smelly to go out on the town after my run, so I took a quick shower and we went back outside to make the most of the last few minutes of sunlight. We stopped at the weihnachtsmarkt where I promptly ordered a waffeln, immediately negating any of the positive benefits I had obtained from running. You only life once, isn’t that what they say? Anna and I spent the next few hours stopping into the busy shops to finish up our Christmas shopping, perusing through the weihnachtsmarkts. We decided to forgo glühwein this time and tried some heiss honigwein (hot honey wine) from one of the honey vendors. At one of the food stalls, we noticed everyone eating the same snack, it was a dish called Schupfnudeln mit specksauerkraut. It was a delicious combination of handmade potato noodles like a spaetzle with sauerkraut containing tiny little bits of ham. This dish is unique to the Baden- Württemberg state. I might have to try to recreate this one at home, maybe just so I have an excuse to say “schupfnudeln” over and over again!

We decided to have a late dinner at a small pub we found on a quiet side street near the river. I enjoyed a tall glass of the local hefeweizen and Anna and I shared sauerbraten with spatzle and the German version of mac ’n cheese: spatzle baked au gratin style. They were both delicious. The pub was reminiscent of a British pub, a cozy place with wooden tiles, antiquities hanging on the walls, a laidback environment where one could spend the whole night unbothered.

Back out in the streets of Heidelberg after dinner, the crowds were still out in full force, drinking up all the last drops of glühwein, clearly already starting their holiday. Sadly, the weihnachtsmarkts were already being deconstructed! But this meant that at one stand, everything was 50% off! It seemed that all of the university students were out in full force, walking through the dark streets, arms around each other in chains, speaking in the elevated volume of intoxicated voices. We followed a group of them into a crowded bar with loud pop music. The bar was certainly breaking fire codes by allowing so many people inside. I actually do not think I have ever been into a bar this crowded. I was surprised that my feet still touched the ground with how tightly squeezed in I was! After much pushing and crowd surfing, we actually ended up with a great seat at the end of the bar, perfect for people watching. I ordered us some more hefeweizen, but accidentally said the German word for “three” instead of “two.” Oops!! The barmaid luckily did not make us pay for the third, later on it was eventually served to someone else. They like recycling here! Anna and I enjoyed watching the bar full of very drunk Germans! It was quite the party scene for a Tuesday night. The bar antics are the same in Germany as anywhere else! Everyone generally was very friendly, even though we could not understand a word they said, smiling and nodding goes a long way! Anna and I did not enjoy the fact that smoking in bars is still allowed in Germany. It seemed that literally every last person had a cigarette in their hand. We realized how lucky we were to live in places where this disgusting habit was banned. I was actually surprised they had not yet outlawed it in liberal Germany, for god sakes, even France had done away with smoking in public! Anna and I both felt compelled to take showers immediately upon returning to the hotel that night. My jacket still smells two days later, but that’s okay, Heidelberg, I still love you.