My first memory of Heidelberg is driving through the hills on the approach. I vividly remember listening to "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" by Death Cab as we drove past a castle and wound our way down towards the town, and I must admit, my cynicism was dissipating. First problem we had was that Jim hadn't booked us into a hotel yet, so we were dropped off at the venue (an arts centre down by the canal) while he went and tried to get us checked in somewhere. Heidelberg is a University town and truth be told there aren't a great deal of obvious hotels kicking around. So he had to dig deeper and eventually found us an apartment that could sleep all of us (albeit people sleeping on floors etc), but it was ideally located and a break from the norm. We got the call from Jim, we headed to meet him and checked into the apartment. I 'bagsied' a bed, stuck my bag on top of it and went on the hunt for a pint.
This wasn't to be the case. Tam (our manager) advised that we had to go to the venue to do our soundcheck. Bit of a nightmare, but I would get a beer over there. So we set up in the ampitheatre around 4pm and had the rest of the day to ourselves before the show that night. Out the back of the venue there was a little beer garden, which was absolutely perfect for the day. We raided the rider (which seemed to have a never ending supply of strong German beer) and sat there. A few people decided to go a wander but, as always seems to be the case, me and Ryan stayed behind to have a beer and talk nonsense for a while. We ploughed our way through a good few (too many) of the beers before the rest returned proclaiming Heidelberg to be the best place on the planet. We had a day off the next day, so that would be my time to investigate whether or not that was true. The record company guys from Germany came and met us and treated us to a nice meal at a restaurant along the road. The menu was entirely in German so there was a bit of guesswork involved, but can you ever go wrong with German meat?
The show itself is all a bit hazy; not because I was particularly drunk, it's just a long time ago. I do, however, remember it being very good and like any show we've ever done in Germany we got a great reception. After the show Paul and Gary did their usual sprint to the merch stand (presumably to chat to German girls) while me and Ryan returned to the rider to see what was left. Yay!! It had been topped up again. So we sat out the back again and sampled even more of the German beers, this time without a gig to worry about.
The hotel was within walking distance so we headed back in dribs and drabs. My next vivid memory is of me, Ryan and Jim walking along the canal back to the hotel taking pictures, singing and generally acting like drunken buffoons on holiday. We did have a day off the next day, but we were leaving Heidelberg around 5pm to drive to Munich, which was going to be a very long drive. Worries about being hungover for that were well and truly gone for the moment though and we enjoyed our walk home which culminated in a complete collapse when we got back to the hotel.
The following morning I dragged myself out of bed and decided I had to go and explore this beautiful place. I was feeling fuzzy and pretty dreadful if truth be told, but I could shake it off. I made it outside and the heat was actually hurting me - and it was only 10am!! First thing required was breakfast, so I found a cafe and tried to bring myself back to life. On tour I generally like to spend a bit of time myself... it can be quite intense travelling with people all the time. I kept a journal at that time, but I won't include the entry from that day in here. I remember it was all very depressing about wanting to move there and really, really missing someone. So after a bit of wandering around I headed back to meet everyone else just as they were getting themselves up for the day.
It was a Sunday so the town was very busy, with everyone gravitating towards the canal. We headed there and planked ourselves on the grass embankment and watched as people sailed past us on pedalos. Do you sail a pedalo? Maybe that's not the correct term, but they were on pedalos anyway. I have plenty of pictures from that day somewhere but I can't find them. I'm sure they'll turn up sometime. After much humming and hawing we decided we would have a shot on the pedalos. There were only 5 of us there at the time so we split into a 2 and a 3 and decided that a race was the best way to spend time on a pedalo. Unfortunately I was paired up with Laura who thought she was out for a relaxing sail. Gary, Paul and Ryan in the other pedalo had the extra weight so we had a chance, I thought. Nope! No chance! Laura just sat there and took in the scenery, while I burst a gut to get ahead. It would never happen, so I did what any man would do in my position... I barged into them. Hence a whistle from the side of the canal and my first warning. 5 minutes later, as I stood up in my pedalo (can't even really remember what I was doing, but I think I was trying to jump onto the other pedalo to capsize it) and another whistle sounds. I'm OUT! Called over to the mainland and my deposit is a goner. Oh well, it was fun anyway.
After that we went for a few beers, a wander around some very cool vintage shops and waited for the call to tell us we were back on the road for a monster drive to Munich.
It was all very fun, if a little fleeting. I decided to go back to Heidelberg in the Winter the following year and it re-affirmed how much I love the place. It's got absolutely everything I like about German life. I need to go back! I've refused thus far to re-read the journal entry I made when I was there because I'm pretty certain it would depress me greatly, but I should one day. Maybe I'll just move there for good actually.
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