When visiting Heidelberg, Germany, one of the delightful excursions you can take is
a boat ride on the Neckar River.
Now you can either do the short 40 minute round-trip ride or take a longer ride as we
are going to show you all the way to Neckarsteinach and see some old crumbling castles.
Leaving from the dock near the university cafeteria you'll soon get a fine view of the
Old Bridge and then the castle looming up behind it, providing another lovely angle
on that iconic symbol of the city.
It's just magnificent to sit on the upper deck of the boat out in the sunshine and enjoying
the fresh air, having some drinks served to you.
There can be no doubt that beer on the boat is a winning combination.
There are scullers, being a university town, you'll see that is very popular here.
On the edge of the Heidelberg town, the Neckar River has a lock.
There's a number of locks along the rivers of Europe of course, to adjust for the different
levels of the river as it goes uphill or downhill.
The normal 40-minute boat ride does not go into the lock.
It just turns around and heads back towards Heidelberg, but we wanted to go a little further
today, and they sold us a ticket where we could go for 1/2 an hour out and then turn
around, take another boat half an hour back for a one hour ride, I which gave us a look
at the forest-covered hillsides, and a chanced to see more water activities, like these stand-up
paddlers who are having fun and getting a good workout..
The boat does continue for one more hour all the way to the village of Neckarsteinach,
a historic village with some castle ruins.
Coming right up we will show you an old trip that we took there.
This time we got off the boat here at the Neuberg Abbey, wait five or 10 minutes and
catch the next ship coming back towards Heidelberg.
However, on an earlier trip some years ago we did stay on the boat and go all the way
to the Neckarsteinach.
We are cruising from Heidelberg to Neckarsteinach on the River Neckar.
It's really an enjoyable ride, takes about an hour and 1/2 to go from Heidelberg to Neckarsteinach,
and then we will get off the boat and walk around in the village.
And you can stay in the village for an hour or two hours three hours if you wish.
So it's a very pleasant outing.
You can either make it half a day or most of the day, particularly when the weather
is nice and bright the way it is today, and then get back to Heidelberg for the evening.
It's a very nice ride on a medium-size river ship that holds several hundred people, with
comfortable chairs both indoors and out on the deck and plus there's a decent snack bar
and some ships have a restaurant.
Neckarsteinach is known as the Town of Four Castles, so the main event when you get there
is walking along the footpath, which brings you to these old ruins.
The first two castles are actually private.
There are still people living in them.
Well once you get to the couple ruins you can clamber all over the abandoned walls and
walk up the crumpled stairs to get a nice view looking down on the river valley.
Like many castles along Europe’s waterways, these were homes to barons who extorted tolls
from passing ships, so they needed a good view perspective to spot their prey.
"We're standing in a castle ruins in the village of Neckarsteinach.
This is a romantic and wonderful place.
You can imagine the history that's taken place here over the years.
The castle was first built in the 12th century.
Now is just standing here in ruins.
There's foundation walls, there's the tower -- the lookout tower.
The name of this ruin is Hinterburg.
It's the oldest of the four castles in the area and the most interesting to explore with
the ruined walls, the foundations, the pathways, the staircases all set in a wild overgrown
garden.
There is something magical about castles that appeals to the kid in all of us - even the
dog gets excited by the prospects of this unusual structure, and for the serious adults
interested in history, there is a lot to explore here.
The castle was already dilapidated by the 14th century and then experienced phases of
extension, renovation and decay until it was finally destroyed in 1630, during the 30 Years
War.
You also spot the riverfront village of Neckarsteinach, which is where were going back to now.
It's an easy walk.
It's mostly downhill.
The path is not paved, but that's part of the naturalistic charm of this forested route.
It will take you about 20 minutes to walk to Neckarsteinach.
Back in the village center you'll find several nice restaurants serving typical local foods.
You might even catch a brass band performing.
(Music plays) As you're walking around in Neckarsteinach
keep in mind that you've got to catch that boat back to Heidelberg.
Each afternoon there are generally four departures.
If you miss the boat or want to get back to Heidelberg faster, you could take the train.
In that case you could've purchased a one-way ticket on the boat to begin with, and a one-way
ticket on the train.
It will come out to about the same price.
There's also a public bus connecting them.
Or you could take a taxi, it's a lot more expensive, but the boat ride is lovely, and
you'll enjoy it going in both directions.
You can see another advantage of the trip out to Neckarsteinach is the beautiful rural
scenery that you'll be enjoying, including cows grazing on the hillside.
And you might have some fun with the other passengers on board the ship.
Consider it like a mini-cruise.
You can kick back, have a beer and enjoy yourself.
Returning to town under the bridge with more nice views of the castle up above, we see
there is a solar boat powered by quiet electrical solar power.
And then there's the long beautiful rivers-edge park.
You'll see this is very popular with the locals.
There's playgrounds for the kids.
There is weeping willow trees, and various kinds of lush vegetation.
There's flocks of geese.
There's ducks swimming by.
It's a healthy marine habitat because they've done an excellent job keeping the river waters
quite clean even though further upstream the river valley is densely populated and industrialized
with companies like Mercedes-Benz operating factories, but doing it in a clean way.
The river is 10th largest in Germany and one of the main tributaries of the Rhine which
it joins 26 km further north.
They've kept the water so clean that people can swim in it when the weather is warm enough.
And this river park continues and continues for nearly a mile.
The park actually extends out into the water with various kinds of boating and swimming
activities.
Here’s some more scullers, as we saw earlier, rowing on the river.
It's a very vigorous exercise and a competitive sport.
The university has rowing clubs and for many residents it's one of their regular activities
to help keep in shape.
The Neckar River is an ideal place for the sport.
This park is free and easily accessible to everybody.
People can walk here from town very easily, or drive.
There's plenty of parking nearby, or take a bus, have a picnic, do some sunbathing,
but watching kids play can be a little hazardous.
Well we survived the journey just fine - very relaxing, nice way to spend an hour of your
time, or half a day if you went all the way out to Neckarsteinach and back.
Yet another good reason to stay for a couple of nights here in Heidelberg so that you can
properly see everything, as we are showing you in our series of movies about this fine
city.
Be sure to look for them in our collection.
You could also take a cruise on the Rhine River going by train from Heidelberg to St.
Goar.
It's about an hour and a half then catch the boat it's about a three-hour ride to Bingen
and then take the train back.
It's pretty much a full day excursion that goes through the most scenic part of the Rhine
Valley with many castles and vineyards and villages up on the hillsides.
But for the easy Heidelberg boat ride try the Neckar River.
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