Cologne/Heidelburg

Today we had planned to mostly explore Cologne. We visited the cathedral which is definitely up there with the most impressive I've seen, and I ticked off another "to do" for the trip and had a giant pretzel, I'm all about the food! We then went for a walk along the Rhine to the chocolate museum, not to actually visit the museum (we've been to Swiss chocolate museums - can a German one really compete??), but to visit the cafe and sample their amazing cakes (more food). Of course they also serve some of the best hot chocolate I've ever had! 
Although there were bits of Cologne that were nice enough, I think it was very much a victim of the war and as a result had lost a lot of its' old buildings - it kinda felt like a lot of other modern cities, so we decided to move on to Heidelburg a bit earlier.
Again the German train strike played havoc with our journey, and we spent a very stressful (and at one point - tearful) 2 hours stuck in Frankfurt with no idea when or if a train was coming. However, eventually we did manage to get a train and we arrived in Heidelburg.
I had chosen Heidelburg from seeing some pictures during my research, and I was pretty confused when we arrived in a fairly modern city! However we knew it was a bit of walk to the hostel - over half an hour later my legs and back were regretting the decision not to take the bus. But oh my, we found the old town, and it was stunning! The sunshine did help, and after dumping our stuff we headed out into the town for a lovely meal in the sunshine at a little Italian restaurant. We then went for an evening stroll up the hill for a beautiful view of the castle (see extra photo). I couldn't recommend Heidelburg enough, one of the loveliest places I have ever been!