Crystal Bach Rhine River Cruise – Day 3 – April 2, 2019 – Karlsruhe (Heidelberg), Germany (7 am-10 am)

Docking Location: Steiger Hafenbecken 2

This day turned out to be my least favourite day of the whole cruise, not because of Heidelberg but because of the non-productive time in Mannheim. In order to visit Heidelberg, Crystal docked at Karlsruhe, another industrial port.

While we were doing our ship tours, the boat left Karlsruhe for Mannheim. Unfortunately due to river traffic, Crystal Bach could not dock at Mannheim at 2 pm as scheduled. We ended up circling around Mannheim, doing a mini city tour and visited the main attraction of the city, the water tower.

After a 1-hour drive, we arrived at the beautiful ruins of Heidelberg Castle. Our guide, Mike, was humourous and informative.

the romantic Elizabeth Gate, built by Friedrich V in a single night in 1615 as a surprise for his wife Elizabeth Stuart.

The ruins of Heidelberg Castle with Gothic & Renaissance designs.

Friedrich Building is the only building that was resotred in the whole entire castle.

The wine cellar has the world’s largest wine barrel with a capacity of 219,000 litres (57,853.6795 U.S. gallons).

After the 1.5 hour guided tour in the castle, we were dropped off in the Old Town where we had 1 hour’s free time. The Heidelberg Castle nestled on the hill 80 meters (260 feet) above the city of Heidelberg offered a breath-taking view.