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Heidelberg, Germany, is a great place to take a boat ride on the Neckar River, either the short 40-minute round-trip or a longer half-day round trip to the village of Neckarsteinach where you can explore fascinating castle ruins. We show you both choices in this short travel movie.
It's just magnificent to sit on the upper deck of the boat out in the sunshine and enjoy the fresh air while having some drinks served to you and watching all of these grand sites float by. You’ll get nice views of Heidelberg as you cruise along and the announcer tells you some about the history.
The 40-minute cruise gives you a relaxing view of the city and riverbank parks from the comfortable perspective of a small boat. Now you'll notice as you cruise along the river banks there some beautiful houses. These are like mansions or small castles, many of them now have been subdivided into apartments you might have a duplex there were a troop of triplex here that were formerly large single-family homes adapting to the modern times.
And then there's the long, beautiful rivers-edge park. You'll see this is very popular with the locals as 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. and this River Park continues and continues for nearly a mile. 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 and even swim in the river. The water is clean enough and warm enough in the summer time that the locals will jump in.
If you go all the way to Neckarsteinach, it takes 90 minutes to cruise there, then you could spend a few hours having lunch and exploring several small castle ruins, and return to Heidelberg in the afternoon. This is a very nice ride on a medium-sized river ship that holds several hundred people, with comfortable chairs, both indoors and on the deck, plus a decent snack bar.
Neckarsteinach is known as the Town of Four Castles, so the main event here is walking along the footpath which brings you to these old ruins. It is worthwhile to continue about a mile, all the way to the final castle, which is the best of the lot. You can clamber over the abandoned walls, and walk the crumbled 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 to spot their prey.
Back in the Neckarsteinach village center you will find several nice restaurants serving typical local foods, that will taste extra-fine after working up an appetite on your hike to the castles. Sometimes a small brass band performs at outdoor pubs here, so listen for the tunes as you walk around. Keep in mind your return boat schedule, as departures are about once every hour until the last one at 5:00pm.
On the edge of the Heidelberg town the Neckar River has a lock. There's a number of blocks along the rivers of Europe. Of course, to adjust for the different levels of the river as it goes uphill or downhill. So you go into the lock and watch that process. It takes about five minutes for the lock to fill up. In this case we’re going up higher so that's always kind of interesting to watch the water come into the lock chamber and fill it up and then the gates open on everybody likes to grab a railing in have a look and see what's going on especially good for the kids. And while were waiting perhaps have another beer. Or you can have lunch on board some of the ships.
The boat leaves from the dock near the university cafeteria, the Marsstall, that medieval fortress looking building, which used to be an arsenal. It's right near Bauamtsgasse, about one half-mile from the Marketplatz.
You will love this boat excursion, a good alternative to just staying in Heidelberg.
