Heidelberg, Germany (June 2005)

With its baroque charm, and views of the River Necktar, Heidelberg is a charming German town off the Romantic Road. We rolled into Heidelberg and camped out at a family run B&B, just off the main pedestrian thorough-fare. The town's most notable site is the Heidelberger Schloss (the castle atop the hill). And with a city center, Heidelberg is easily accessible by foot, with plenty to explore. We toured the city with a German native, who gave us the inside scoop on University history. Turns out that the Universität Heidelberg used to have a "student jail," for student's who disobeyed curfew and essentially broke the rules. Over the years, this jail burgeoned to house many, many "delinquents" and became a popular fraternity of sorts, as everyone wanted to do wrong to get into the jail. We were lead through the student jail which is covered wall to wall with murals, signatures, and autographs from those students who were considered too disobedient to live without supervision. Eventually the jail was disbanded, but the gates and murals remain - a nostalgic testimony to some of the first students who identified college life with more than just academics. Also in Heidelberg, in addition to narrow streets and picturesque houses we found legal absinthe and hookah bars, definitely a college town!