Heidleberg is a university town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. In the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter were students. Heidelberg is part of the densely populated Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region.
Heidelberg University, founded in 1386, is Germany's oldest and one of Europe's most reputable.
The "old town" on the south bank of the Neckar, is long and narrow. It is dominated by the ruins of Heidelberg Castle, 80 metres above the Neckar on the steep wooded slopes of the Königstuhl hill.
The castle is a mish-mash of styles because it has been destroyed and rebuilt so many times since its origins in 1214.
Preservation work began in the 1950s to stabilise the structure.
Our next and last stop in Germany was Stuttgart.
"Stuttgart is also located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known locally as the "Stuttgart Cauldron".
Its urban area has a population of 634,830, making it the sixth largest city in Germany. 2.8 million people live in the city's administrative region and 5.3 million people in its metropolitan area, making it the fourth largest metropolitan area in Germany.
The city and metropolitan area are consistently ranked among the top 20 European metropolitan areas by GDP." Wiki.
"Stuttgart is a transport junction and possesses the sixth-largest airport in Germany. Several major companies are headquartered in here including Porsche, Bosch, Mercedes-Benz and Daimler AG.
Stuttgart is unusual in the scheme of German cities. It is spread across a variety of hills (some of them covered in vineyards), valleys (especially around the Neckar river and the Stuttgart basin) and parks. This often surprises visitors who associate the city with its reputation as the "cradle of the automobile"." Wiki.
The Porsche Museum was wonderful and Paul was in his element.
Although once we got to the motor racing stuff I was glad I had brought a book.
So the second third of this last big road trip was over. The odometer was reading 10,000km. The driver wanted to crawl into a cave and sleep for a month and the passenger wanted to go home.
But no, south-west France called as did the end of the summer sunshine and we had two weeks before our next booking on the southern coast near Marseilles. So we decided to go house hunting - as you do!
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