Heidelberg

Introduction

Heidelberg Alt Stadt

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Heidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, in the central southwestern corner of Germany. Located just over 100m above sea level along the Neckar River, it has about 150,000 inhabitants and is a popular touristic place.

Neighbourhoods

Heidelberg consists of six sectors with a total of fourteen districts:

• Central area: Altstadt, Bergheim, and Weststadt.
• North: Neuenheim and Handschuhsheim.
• East: Ziegelhausen and Schlierbach.
• South: Südstadt, Rohrbach, Emmertsgrund, and Boxberg.
• Southwest: Kirchheim.
• West are Bahnstadt, Pfaffengrund, and Wieblingen.

Sights and Activities

• The old town (Altstadt)
• The Heidelberg Castle, 80m above the old town
• The University (see below for link) is one of the oldest functioning educational institutions in Europe, dating back to 1386
• Church of the Holy Spirit
• Church of the Jesuit's
• Providence Church
• St. Peter's Church

Frosty Afternoon

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Events and Festivals

• Heidelberger Castle Festival - July/August
• Ball of the Vampires - February, Carnival
• Classic Music Festival - March/April
• Half marathon - last weekend April
• Frühlingsmesse on the Messplatz - May
• Heidelberger Schlossbeleuchtung fireworks display - June, July and September
• Old Town Autumn Festival - last weekend September
• Heidelberger Theater Days - October/November
• International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg - November

Weather

Heidelberg has relatively warm summers and winters which are still relatively mild, though snow and frost is certainly quite common. Summer temperatures from June to early September are generally around 25 °C while nights are around 15 °C or a little lower. Winters last from December to February when temperatures are above zero during the day, with nights around or just below zero.
Precipitation is quite evenly distributed throughout the year, though May/June and November/December tend to be just a little wetter. Most months see about 60-70mm of rain/snow, June almost 90mm. March and September are driest, around 50mm.

Getting There

By Plane

Although Heidelberg doesn't have its own airport, there are three other options nearby: Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden.

• Baden Airpark is located some 40 kilometres from Karlsruhe and just 12 kilometres from Baden-Baden. It's mainly served by lowcostairlines, like Ryanair which flies to/from Alicante, Cagliari, Dublin, Girona, London, Porto, Rome and Stockholm.
• Stuttgart Airport offers a wide range of flights. Although there is only one runway, it's the major hub for German based lowcost airlines German Wings and TuiFly. Together they form the bulk of arriving and departing flights, with connections throughout Europe and the north of Africa mainly. A few destinations include Moscow, London, Agadir, Funchal, Barcelona, Reykjavik, Madrid, Rome, Luxor, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Palma de Mallorca, Vienna, Warsaw, Thessaloniki and Lisbon. KLM has regular flights to Amsterdam and other destinations with airlines include Atlanta, Helsinki, Paris, Tel Aviv, Copenhagen and Malta.
• Frankfurt is Germany's main International Airport. Flughafen Frankfurt am Main (IATA: FRA) is found at 12 Kilometres from the city centre, and receives flights from almost all national and countless international destinations. Among others, Frankfurt is the primary hub of German national carrier Lufthansa. The Lufthansa Airport Bus links Frankfurt Airport with Heidelberg almost hourly. It takes about 75 minutes one way.
• Although located 120 km from Frankfurt, the Frankfurt-Hahn Airport (HHN) can be of some significance if you want to have more choices regarding lowcostairlines. Ryanair is the main operator with flights to/from Alghero, Alicante, Bari, Berlin, Birmingham, Bologna, Bratislava, Cagliari, Carcassonne, Dublin, Edinburgh, Faro, Féz, Gdańsk, Girona, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Jerez de la Frontera, Kaunas, Kerry, Klagenfurt, Lanzarote, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, London, Lübeck, Madrid, Málaga, Manchester, Marrakech, Milan, Montpellier, Osijek, Oslo, Palma de Mallorca, Pescara, Pisa, Porto, Prague, Reus, Riga, Rimini, Rome, Santander, Santiago de Compostela, Seville, Stockholm, Tampere, Tenerife, Trapani, Valencia, Venice, Wroclaw and Zadar.

By Train

Deutsche Bahn (DB) has frequent trains to Baden-Baden (1 hour), Frankfurt (1 hour) and Stuttgart (40 minutes).

By Car

Heidelberg is located just east along the A5 highway from Frankfurt to Karlsruhe.

By Bus

By Boat

Getting Around

By Car

Parking is expensive, €1.50 an hour, €16 per day!

By Public Transport

Tram 5 links the Hauptbahnhof with Bismarckplatz and buses 11, 21, 33, 34, 41 and 42, as well as tram 1, run between Bismarckplatz and the Hauptbahnhof. Buses 11 and 33 go directly from the Hauptbahnhof to Neckarmuntzplatz.

By Foot

Much of Heidelberg is easily explored on foot.

By Bike

Eldorado offers bike-rentals.

Eat

Drink

Sleep

Work

Learn

• University of Heidelberg
• Heidelberg American High School

Keep Connected

Internet

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

Post

Germany's postal system is very efficient, their logistics branch DHL is one of the best companies in this field world-wide, with domestic post or within a radius of 400 kilometres, send within a day. The website of Deutsche Post has an online calculator for postage fees as well as a post office finder. Within Germany, sending postcards costs €0.45 and standard letters €0.55, within Europe it is €0.65 for a postcard, standard letters to places in Europe cost €0.70. Outside Europe, the prices for sending a postcard or standard letter are €1 and €1.70 respectively. Although you will find the old post offices (mainly in the city centre), most of the smaller neighbourhood post offices are part of a small tobacco shop or grocery store.