My travel in Europe:
By train in Southern Germany, 2023

Content:

• Planning for a round trip in Southern Germany
• Day 1, Karlsruhe
• Day 2, Heidelberg
• Day 3, Heidelberg
• Day 4, Mannheim
• Day 5, Mannheim
• Day 6, Speyer
• Day 7, Rastatt
• Day 8, Rastatt - airport

Day 4, Mannheim:

In the morning of the third day in Heidelberg it's time for us to move to the next town. We take the bus to the train station and from there the train to Mannheim. Even this town we stay two days in and this time the hotel has a breakfast included. When waiting for the bus Gunilla notice that one of the bus signs tells something abut astronomy. Then I remember that I did a list of observatories in Sothern Germany. When I looking at that list I sadly see that we missed the observatory on top of the hill where the castle was here in Heidelberg, the Planck Observatory. Well, we can't visit everything on our travels. I was too stressed about our problem with the train tickets the first two days.

Overview of Mannheim city center:

Almost every old building in this town was destroyed during the WW II.

Heidelberg Altstadt:

When we leave our hotel in Heidelberg I see two ladies looking down on the sidewalk, when they walked away I curiously looked at what they saw. There are three memory plates installed in the sidewalk. It must be Jews who lived here and were deported during the WW II war, poor people.

Mannheim:

To Mannheim from Heidelberg it's not a long travel, 25 minutes by train, I think it was possible to take the tram too. Here is the main train station we arrived at, Mannheim Hauptbahnhof. Gunilla say coffee, one minute later we sat down so she could get her important waking up drink.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Mannheim (Mannheim, Wikipedia)

The hotel isn't far away, maybe 600 meter. When we walking to it we find this park Laurgärten. Now a day a play ground but earlier a fortress.

Leonardo Hotel:

We arrived as usual many hours before we could get our room.

We are a bit curious about this hotel and after we checked in we walk around to see what it looks like. This is the terrace where they serve the breakfast, nice !

Without the luggage we can now start walking around in the town, first thing to see is the water tower. It's 400 meter East to our hotel. Lot of works going on in the town as it does in our Stockholm at home.

On the nearby streets where we live there are a lot of restaurants, but we are not hungry yet.

Mannheim Water tower:

Wasserturm Mannheim as they say in German. This was one of the first building they rebuilt after the war. I understand that because it's very beautiful.

The water tower is placed in the Freidrichsplatz. We walking down to the fountain and look around.

We sat down on a bench and enjoy the views. Already this water tower is worth the travel to Mannheim.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Mannheim Water Tower (Mannheim Water Tower, Wikipedia)

Luisenpark:

One block away from the water tower there is a big park, Luisenpark. That something we want to see, it's easy to find because there is a very high TV tower in the park. When we come closer we found that the park has a fence around it to stop visitors. It must be some main gate into the park, but the weather forecast has told that it can be rain later this day and we want to be back to the hotel before that.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Luisenpark (Luisenpark, Wikipedia)

We cross the park at the end where there is free passage and came to the river Neckar. We sat down for a while, most people here with there dogs. From Mdicussstrasse we take the street Bassermannstrasse back to town.

It's just three blocks to walk until we come to the main road.

We have to cross the main road to come to the older part of the city. Heavy traffic here but we found a tunnel we could use to come over to the other side of the street.

The streets here has block names, this is at T3/U4 street. The building is a school we think. We are now in the Northern part of the city. From here we turn South and walk back towards the hotel.

Mozartschule:

Later we came to this old building, is it restored or did it survive the war ? It looks like a church but a sign tell us that is a school, Mozartschule.

Marktplatz:

Not far from Mozart school we found the big Market place. They are already closing at 2 o' clock.

• https://de.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Marktplatz Mannheim (Marktplatz Mannheim, Wikipedia)

Altes Rathaus:

At one end of the Market place we find this old building, is it a market hall, or ? No, find later that it's the Rathaus.

A lot of walk and now we are hungry, have a little problem to find a restaurant with tasty food for us. At last we find a Turkish restaurant, we shared these three delicious plates.

Paradeplatz:

After eaten all the good tasting food we decided to go back to the hotel for a rest. It's 3 o' clock now and we have access to our room. On that walk we came by the Paradeplatz, a beautiful square with a park with flower and this fantastic fountain.

One of many flowers on the square.

• https://de.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Paradeplatz Mannheim (Paradeplatz Mannheim, Wikipedia)

Oststadt Theater:

What we first thought was a shopping center we find to be a theatre. Three blocks to the right and we are back at our hotel.

The street where we stay at is very busy, lot of things happens all the time. It's Saturday and they play music at different places. We just wonder, is it some special event or every weekend ?

Back to our hotel, the reception is on the third floor, unusual.

We continue to investigate the hotel. On the top floor there is a swimming pool and a terrace.

Beautiful views from here and the weather is still fine.

If it's too cold to eat the breakfast on the terrace we can sit indoors here.