I went to germany and told someone (a german) that I was next going to Heidelberg.
I got the idea from the “Student Prince” operetta.
But the german guy said, “Why does every american want to go to Heidelberg, it’s like every german going to Muncie, Indiana”.
So that raises a good question, why do Americans go to Heidelberg?
There’s a large US military base there, so lots of Americans know about the area. I had a friend living there and went to visit; it’s quite pleasant with some interesting things to see. Not a vacation destination, but not a bad place to stop off while in the area.
Is Muncie, Indiana famous for dueling scars? Because that would be pretty cool.
Umm, shouldn’t you address that question to the Americans then?
As a German, I have no idea. It supposedly is very beautiful, and there is a strong US military presence there. So maybe its popularity spread by word of mouth.
Perhaps other Americans have seen The Student Prince too, or, at least, have picked up the idea from someone who knows someone who has seen The Student Prince (or some derivative work) that Heidelberg is a cool, picturesque place with lots of hearty beer drinking and carousing.
I’m Irish, visited a few years ago. It’s a picturesque town with lots of fun bars and restaurants. Lots of students, soldiers, people from all over the world, and beautiful architecture that escaped WWII largely intact. I’m considering visiting again soon. I really liked it.
While I am not a German citizen, I was an American soldier stationed in West Germany (as it was back then) and I can give you an answer from an American point of view. From the end of WWII, Heidelberg was the headquarters for US Army-Europe. The guys on the very top of the heap sooner or later ended up living there. The presence of a bunch of generals attracts a bunch of amenities – the best quarters, the best clubs, the best jobs – as a consequence the armed forces’ movers and shakers tended to gravitate there and remembered the place fondly, as opposed to, for instance Wildflicken and Grafenwoher. I, on the other hand ended up in Kaiserslautern which is a bit lower on the social standing scale , none-the-less, I remember K-town fondly.
On top of that, Heidelberg is a beautiful city on a lovely river set among wooded hills with a big picturesque Renaissance castle (albeit one that the French pretty well blew up and tore down during the wars of Louis XIV). It is a pretty and prosperous place where Americans were welcomed as customers if for no other reason and the American army was a major support of the local economy. Unlike some other cities, I remember no particular animosity toward US soldiers in Heidelberg. All that sort of gives the place a rosy hue.
You’re just making up these place names right? OK, apparently they’re real, but they sound like somebody’s caricatures of German city names.
Both were (and maybe still are) frozen mud-holes used as maneuver areas where the armored and infantry divisions went a couple time a year to take the fresh air and healthful waters. Kaiserslautern is a garrison city west of Frankfurt a/M, big logistical base on the Interstate to Paris. Ranstein AFB and Landstuhl Army Hospital (where my first daughter was born) is right next door.
I stopped over in Heidelberg on my first trip to Europe when I was 21 in the mid-80s. No military connections and I’d never seen The Student Prince.
If you’re doing the typical American-student youth-hosteling “Grand Tour” scurry through several different European countries in a couple of weeks, Heidelberg is a strategic halting point on your way from the Rhine Valley to Switzerland, and continues the beautiful-scenery theme.
(I finally get to tell this story on the Dope!) Heidelberg is also a fun place for science-nerd types, partly because a number of its streets are named after well-known scientists (though this isn’t unique among German cities). I remember we thought it was pretty cool that we were staying in a pension on Bunsenstrasse—yes, the Bunsen burner Bunsen.
However, in the beginning we felt a little embarrassed that we didn’t recognize the name of another German scientist who was clearly quite important, because his namesake street seemed to be everywhere: i.e., a certain Dr. Einbahn.
Yes, eventually we did figure it out. 
Dr. Professor Einbahn lived in the ubiquitous city of Ausfahrt.
Hee hee. I’m embarrassed to admit how long I had lived in the Netherlands before it dawned on me that none of the buses actually went to Buitendienst.[SUP]1[/SUP]
And when you’re cruising along one of those groovy Dutch bike paths and you see a signpost up ahead with one of the signs labeled “Doorgang Verkeer”, you should slow the fuck down instead of frantically searching for it on the map in your handlebar case. Ouch.[SUP]2[/SUP]
[1] “Out of service”.
[2] Literally “Route turn”, i.e., “sharp bend”.
Ooo, loved the Heidelberg Castle. We also took a Rhine River day cruise and I think we left from Heidelberg but I could be wrong about that. My connection was military. Spavined Gelding, hub has worked in all of those locations over his 35 year career in the Army.
Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that the military men there were “the very top of the heap” and therefore well-behaved (or at least, for the sake of their reputation, more willing to enforce discipline on those who weren’t). I lived in Kaiserslautern for three years and any animosity towards the soldiers was well-deserved: my (and many others’) only interaction with them was being kept up at night by their drunken yelling in the streets and their overpowered car stereos playing at full blast. I used to occasionally read the local military newsletters which were available at some restaurants; it seems every issue had some very prominent articles about the soldiers’ appalling drunk driving statistics. I consider myself lucky that I speak German well enough that people can’t tell where I’m from; I’d have been ashamed for people to even suspect that I was one of those disruptive soldiers.
it is beautiful and I have friends that live (near) there.
We’ve been teasing a friend of mine for 20 years after a similar incident on a school trip to Berlin. He’d taken over navigation duty on our quest to find a particular pub and examined the map carefully for several minutes before expressing his bewilderment: “I can’t find Einbahnstrasse on the map!”
He’ll be delighted to find out he’s not alone.
Oh, and I was once in Heidelberg for a telecom conference. Very nice city.
Single men in barracks don’t grow into plaster saints.
K-town was use to soldiers. It has been a garrison city since Clovis took the Cross. The Romans were there. The French were there for the Revolution and Napoleonic period. Barbarossa, no shrinking violet he, kept an establishment there with all the pan-European soldiery that involved. The US was there from 1945 onward. There was still a French armored cavalry outfit there in 1972. Lots of “fish bars.” Lots of good gasthauses. Not a few “Lilli Marlines” and Lust Hauses. There was a really scary WWI monument to the local regiment in front of the city hall.
Granted, this describes much of Germany. And Ireland. And Italy. And France. And England…
Kaiserslautern! I was trying to remember the name of that base; I remembered the one at Heidelberg but there was another one we visited a few times, and that was it! Thanks!
My family were civilians on the former CFB Lahr (mom is a teacher), and through some sort of agreement Canadians associated with the military were allowed access to American bases (and I presume the opposite must have been true as well!). I remember doing some shopping there, and my father would make a point of picking up the Stars and Stripes newspaper and reading it in the coffeeshop.
I really, really, really wish Canada hadn’t shut down their military bases in Germany, not only because I feel that the recent Iraq and Afghanistan missions could have benefited from having Canadian bases available in Europe (our soldiers used American facilities for many things), but also because if they still existed I’d have gotten my teaching certificate and done everything possible to go back! I revisited the base this summer, but it’s not the same anymore.
Such an amazing experience, living out there.
Oh, and Heidelberg is simply beautiful. For us, it was easy to visit when family came to see us because it wasn’t too far, and it captured a lot of the “Europe!” feel tourists want. That, and the Haut Koeningsbourg castle!
Uncertain.