Germany: Lack of memory: Heidelberg: 2 sensible methods

We started in Cologne and apart from the amazing size of the Cathedral building and the love padlocks on the bridge I have forgotten everything about it. This is because we walk everywhere with a map and then catch a train somewhere else and this is probably not a good way to have a holiday. You need to stop and think sometimes.

We knew that Cologne had been destroyed in the war so we were glad to see how well the town had been rebuilt. The next day we took the train to Heidelberg. The train journey was rather wonderful as it took us along the great Rhine valley and there are vineyards on the slopes. Heidelberg itself is sited on one side of the river Neckar,although there is a famous bridge going across, the town hasn't strayed over much. This was where I rebelled and demanded we get a guide book as we had no idea what was what in town; although you can guess that all the buildings are very historical and probably owned by the university. There is a brilliant travel bookshop in town but they had only one guidebook to Germany in English, and this was where Rick Steve, author of Germany 2014, came into our lives. This is is his incredibly helpful entry on Heidelberg:

Lowlights
Heidelberg
This famous old university town attracts hordes of Americans. Any surviving charm is stained almost beyond recognition by commercialism. It doesn't make it into Germany's top three weeks. 

 So this was very disappointing and also very untrue, because there we were in early August and we didn't hear any American voices, and we saw plenty of Japanese, Chinese and Korean people (maybe students at summer school?) and as the day turned to evening we had many of the cobbled squares to ourselves. Yes, there were many tourists on the hill seeing the castle and the castle gardens, but by no means so many that we couldn't enjoy the place! The views are lovely and the river is peaceful. We had dinner in the student canteen which is where I enjoyed the second example of brilliant German practicality. There is a buffet for all the dishes on offer. You take a plate and help yourself. I thought (wrongly) it would be an all-you-can-eat buffet and this encouraged me to be a bit of a pig, which isn't sensible. I probably took too many curried chick peas and a surfeit of spicy quorn glop. So how is it priced? By weighing the plate. This is so sensible I can't understand why I haven't come across it before.

The student canteen is in the old armoury. The town is full of make-do like this. We ate under the trees outside at trestle tables with students and sundry others. Apart from this, we were pleased to make the acquaintance of Robert Bunsen (in statue form only of course), as we had never realised he was German.

I should add that the first sensible German method was that for queuing for a train ticket - you take numbered ticket and then sit down on a comfy red bench until your number comes up. Queuing is never fun but this way takes some of the pain away.