Day 5: Amsterdam to Heidelberg, Germany

From Cindi:

Today we left Amsterdam at 7:15am to drive to Heidelberg, Germany. It was a long day on the bus. When we left Holland and crossed the border to Germany, we were on the Autobahn. There is no speed limit for cars, however, for buses there is. We could only go 50 while we had some cars passing us at 140. There was a beautiful Porsche Cayman that screamed passed the bus (wish that was me!).

Our first stop was in Cologne, Germany. We visited the awesome twin-spired Gothic Cathedral. It was 500 steps to get to the top of the spirals, the sign said 30 minutes round trip. By the time we saw the sign that we could go to the top, we didn't have time or we would have climbed to the top.

Scott's been disappointed the last couple of Cathedrals that we've gone through because he wasn't allowed to take pictures. But this cathedral he could take pictures! so he took pictures of the beautiful stained glasses and the beautiful inside. After having a sandwich and a yummy German dessert, we were back on the bus to Heidelberg.

Along our travels today, we stopped for a potty break at this convenient store that charged 50 euros (cents) a person to go potty! UNBELIEVABLE!!! I quickly found that Europeans don't use ice in any of their drinks. So no fountain soda drinks, I was dying. As for soda in a bottle, the Europeans charged anywhere from 4.50 - 5.50 euros (so in US dollars, a soda would cost $5.80 - $6.80). Not a price that we wanted to pay, so needless to say my addiction to soda went away quickly.

Before arriving in Heidelberg, we took a cruise down the Rhine River to some amazing castles on long the riverbank hillside.

We arrived in Heidelberg and walked the town and into some shops. Scott took some pictures of Heidelberg and its beautiful buildings. Tonight we had a group dinner at the hotel. During dinner we each took a minute to introduce ourselves. This was the first time that we all opened up and started to talk/joke around with each other. They all were wowed that we were from Idaho. Go figure. Dinner was nice. After dinner, we went to the gas station to get more snack for our bus ride tomorrow. Our hotel beds were two twin beds separated by a night stand fixated to the wall. Fun times!!!
Heidelberg