Why Heidelberg Is STILL Germany’s Most Beautiful City

Why Heidelberg Is STILL Germany’s Most Beautiful City

Alexa and I have finally made it to Europe, specifically Idleberg, Germany. And we’re here for one reason. Well, a wedding. But while we’re here, we’re going to show you what makes this city perhaps, possibly probably the most beautiful city in all of Germany. And through that, we’re going to show you guys the old town, the castle, the university, and the very famous philosophers’s walk. That’s going to entail a whole lot of walking. So, let’s get to it. [Music] Before we get to H Highleberg itself, let’s talk a bit about where this beautiful city is within Germany. H Highleberg is located in the southwest German state of Botm Vutenberg about 50 mi south of Frankfurt which if you ever fly into Germany from abroad is probably where you’re going to land. But that doesn’t mean it’s a suburb of Frankfurt. Instead, the city is surrounded by nature between the Odin Forest and the Little Odin Forest with the Neker River running through its heart. And within it, about 163,000 people call H Highleberg home. About a quarter of which are university students. Alexa and I have made it to Ha Strasa here in the middle of H Highleberg. And first impressions, it’s super cute. [Music] It is super duper cute. This might be Germany’s most beautiful city. And of course, we’ll talk about why it might be Germany’s most beautiful city in a little bit, but for now, we’re just going to kind of explore this old part of the town, at least before it gets too hot. [Music] One of my favorite things to do while I’m traveling is just to walk around the city and especially find cute little alleyways like this to get lost in and to walk around and explore. But what makes H Highleberg really interesting is that when you’re walking around Oldtown, it looks like it did 100 years ago. And that’s not the case for the rest of Germany. When you’re walking around Berlin, Hamburgg, other major cities, it’s a much newer feel because the buildings are a lot newer. H Highleberg is unique because during World War II, they were one of the few cities that was actually preserved and not bombed. So, walking around here, you get a sense of what Germany was like over 100 years ago. [Music] [Music] As Alex and I continue to explore sort of this old town part of H Highleberg, you know, there are very few European cities that I would say are just naturally beautiful. You can’t take a bad picture. Florence, Italy for one. Edinburgh in the UK, another one. I think H Highleberg is up there. It’s like all these little alleyways. You just walk down them. Everything’s so beautiful. There’s different colors. There’s a lot of like ivy growing over things. We’ve just been wandering through taking pictures. And again, you can’t take a bad picture of this place. All right. Well, they do still have portaotties. I don’t think we can hold that against them, though. Alexa and I just finished walking the pedestrian street here in H Highleberg, but we have another thing to show you guys and it is right this way. We’re heading to the castle. That looks like quite the climb. So, we got some more walking to do. A few moments later, we were on our way to walk up to the castle and I saw a finicular. What? Which is basically an uphill train. So, I mean, if we can just take a train, we might as well, right? [Music] [Music] I’ll be honest, as much as I love a good finicular cuz they can be quite fun, that one was kind of boring. You couldn’t really see very much. So, it just kind of gave us a nice little easy pathway up to the castle. [Music] [Applause] Over the last few months, Alexa and I have visited a number of temples and castles. Autaya and Cororwat, the Grand Palace in Bangkok, of course, Osaka Castle in Osaka, Japan. But there’s just nothing quite like a European castle. Very ornate. Again, I just can’t stress enough that this kind of thing that we see right behind us is not all that common in Germany anymore because most of these things were blown up during World War II. [Music] [Music] From just about anywhere in Oldtown, you can see H Highleberg Castle and feel its overwhelming presence. Located on the Koixel Hillside right above Oldtown, the castle dates back to the year 1214 and was expanded several times over the next 500 years. Then in 1764, the castle was hit by lightning twice during a massive thunderstorm. This ultimately led to its ruin. Today, the castle is considered one of the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps and was even featured in one of Mark Twain’s essays humorously titled the awful German language. And of course, it brings in tourists from around the world and offers sweeping views of Oldtown H Highleberg. This is why you make the journey right here. Look at this view. So pretty. See Oldtown, see across from Oldtown, which we will be exploring soon. I do love to make us walk. Oh yeah. [Music] This is one massive barrel. This might be the mother of all barrels right here. I wish I had more information for why they have a giant barrel here. Aside from just this was probably a brewery at some point. Might still be. I had no idea. All of a sudden, it is very busy, very crowded, and very loud in here. Some people might say that this area has gotten barreled. [Music] When Alexa and I were traveling all throughout Asia and Australia, New Zealand, became well known as somebody who loves trains. trains. Look at these cute little trains. We’re on a train car on the rails again. So, I think it’s well established by now that I’m a big train nerd. But in Europe, trains are just an everyday thing. It’s just not as exciting to see or be on one. So, for the Europe leg, the new train is going to be castles, cuz we’re going to see a lot of castles. Really fun exploring the castle here. Alexa, on a scale of one to 10 towers, what would you rank this castle? That’s pretty cool. It’s like a eight, seven and a half. Seven and a half out of 10 towers for this castle. Keep that in mind cuz every time we visit a new castle, we’re going to grade it on its castles. I’m going to give this one a solid 9 out of 10. It’s very castly. [Music] [Music] Alex and I have made it to one of our last stops here in the old part of H Highleberg and that is the University of H Highleberg. Now, if you picture some of the great educational cities of the world, Boston with Harvard, Oxford University and Oxford, the closest thing that Germany has would be H Highleberg. This university, the library right behind me, is the oldest university here in Germany. This university has been operating since 1386, which makes it basically one of the oldest universities in the entire world. And so because of this university, H Highleberg has become very well known throughout Germany and Europe as a place for innovation, as a place for education, as generally one of the most learned places in the entire world. And it’s all here in one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, the most beautiful city in Germany in my opinion, and an otherwise pretty small city. There’s only about 130,000 people in H Highidleberg. So I don’t know. I mean, it’s pretty cool. Onward to food. Of course, when in Germany for lunch, I kind of made Alexa come to a German place where we can get some sausages. I got this lovely vice and a pretzel with some mustard. And then Alexa has a uh a broughtwurst. More traditional, not as adventurous. Sweet. I wasn’t expecting that. I thought it was meat and mustard. One eternity later. It’s a little embarrassing, but I’m used to it by now. So good. You just can’t beat German sausage, you know. Oh, and of course a beer. All right, we just finished a delicious German lunch and had the opportunity to walk around the university. But now it’s time to participate in something that dates back all the way to the 1300s. We are doing the Philosophers Walk. Now, in case you were unaware, the Philosophers Walk is not part of Oldtown Hidleberg. We actually have to cross the river to get to it, which means more steps. Before [Music] we get to the philosophers’s walk, Alexa and I are walking across the old bridge here in H Highleberg, also known as Otabuka. Alexa, why do you think it’s called the old bridge? Uh, it’s old. It kind of It’s a little old. How old do you think it is? Oh, man. like a few hundred years. Close enough. It’s actually not as old as H Highleberg, which is hundreds and hundreds of years. It’s called the old bridge simply because it was older than a newer bridge that was built in the 1800s. Some fun uh history facts for you. But it’s a very pretty bridge. Yeah, it’s pretty. Yeah. The old bridge is one of H Highleberg’s best known landmarks. Built in 1788, it’s surprisingly young compared to the rest of H Highleberg. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t bridges located there before. In fact, since the 13th century, there have been eight bridges on the site. And the current bridge is actually built on those original foundations. But this bridge is especially important because of its impact during World War II. While H Highleberg was mainly untouched during the war, retreating Nazi forces attempted to blow up the bridge to stall the Allies, but they ultimately failed. This gave Allied troops direct access into the heart of Germany while being able to use H Highleberg as a German base of operation. Today, the bridge has been lovingly restored and is a beautiful landmark in H Highidleberg. [Applause] They’re not really steps, but this is a steep uphill path. very surrounded by these brick walls. Feel very uh cloistered in here. Onward and upward. We found the steps. So many steps. Oh my god. This might beat Taiwan. We are I think most of the way up. Although maybe famous last words there, but one of the reasons why we wanted to do the philosophers’s walk is because this is a timehonored tradition. This is something that professors at the university have been doing for literally hundreds of years. And you can kind of see why. Because if you look behind me, that’s a gorgeous view of the city. Really allows you to think and ponder over life’s great mysteries, I guess. I mean, right now I’m just really tired, but maybe it’s about breaking down the body to activate the mind. What you talking about? Big brain stuff right there. You guys didn’t see it, but Alexa’s eyes. Huge roll. All right. Well, we still have a ways to climb before we’re actually, I think, on the philosophers’s walk. So, we’re still on our way up to the philosophers’s walk, and of course, we’re treated with another beautiful view, and all of a sudden, it just clicks. Einstein’s theory of relativity. I get it. It all just snapped together. No, I’m just joking. I don’t actually understand any of it, but I like to think that those are the kind of breakthroughs people were having when they were on this walk. I’m just not having them. I’m glad Jeff gets it because I’m over here thinking, how did these professors have that great a cardio ability? This is a steep walk. [Applause] We did it. We made it to the philosophers’s walk. Now it just starts. I cannot believe that all of that uphill was not even the philosophers walk. You have to do all of that just to get to the philosopher’s walk. we track on. So, there’s just a couple more things that we want to show you, which is why we’re continuing on with the Philosophers Walk right now. But a few years ago, I was hiking in the German Alps. And if that taught me one thing, it’s that any hike in Germany tends to end with a bar at the top of the hike in the middle of wherever you’re going. And if my German intuition is correct, there’s going to be a beer garden waiting for us. Fingers crossed. [Music] I’m like 95% sure this is the right path. We’re getting closer. St. Michael’s Footf. This is so much uphill. Oh boy. You know, I say this often, but it bears repeating. We do this so you guys don’t have to. This is a hike. As we were walking up to St. Michael’s, we stumbled upon this pretty big stadium. After doing a little bit of research, looking at the signs, this stadium was built in the 1930s by the students at H Highleberg University for the Nazi party. It can fit about 8,000 people sitting, up to 20,000 people standing. As you can tell, it’s not really used anymore, but it’s really interesting just to walk around and look at it. I mean, this place is huge. Everything behind me right now, all seats all the way up to the top. I couldn’t imagine 8,000 people being here a minute ago, but then we walk through the doors and plow. It’s really impressive. Even if it comes from a very dark part of Germany’s history, I will say if you’re willing to put in the effort to these kinds of things, you will mostly have the place to yourself. There was only three other people there. I don’t know, just feels a little more magical that way. [Music] We’ve done it. We made it to the monastery of St. Michael. It’s these ancient ruins. Not a whole lot left. Just enough that you can kind of make the outline of what it used to be. You have the towers. This been the church of sorts right here. You can kind of see where maybe like there would have been like a podium right here. Sermons. Towers being where people would have eaten and lived maybe with various floors. I don’t know. All I can tell you is that it’s pretty cool. And we can go up. [Music] So you get a view of all the ruins. Pretty neat. In most other countries in the world, this kind of thing would be swarmed with tourists as people cling to any sort of history they have. I think it just goes to show how much better preserved Europe is because we’re the only ones here. It took a hike to get up here, but I don’t know. You would expect there to be at least some other tourists or people who want to see this. This would make for a fantastic ending to the episode, but my intuition is still telling me there’s a beer garden around here somewhere. And I think I know where it might be. Look at it. It’s a beer garden. Before we go in, do they have smaller beers or do I have to drink a big beer? Might have to drink a big beer. So, I drink part of the beer and you drink two beers. Exactly. All right, we made it. We got our beers. Cheers. Notice the size difference here. Got the Alexa size. It has been so much fun exploring such a culturally rich city in Germany. I really love Hidleberg. I think it’s such a beautiful city. It’s easily one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever been to in Europe. I also love coming back to Germany because so it’s always fun to come back and sort of talk a little bit. Of course, if you want to know my true feelings on H Highleberg in Germany, then be sure to go over to our Substack, that’s gol.ssubstack.com and subscribe. Next week, we are heading to a city that can’t figure out if it is the Netherlands or in Belgium. We’re going to borrow her. So, come back next week for another adventure. See you then. My It’s It’s on. Come on, Alexa. You know how to speak German. Nine.

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Germany is an amazing country! But if you’ve ever visited, you’ll find that it’s quite unique amongst many other European countries. Mostly because it looks and feels so much newer (especially if you stick to the big cities). This is because the country was mostly leveled during the first and second World Wars. But there are a few cities that are different and one of those might just be the most beautiful city in ALL of Germany. Welcome to Heidelberg!

In this video, Geoff and Alexa hit the small city of Heidelberg to find out what makes it so special. They’ll explore the old town and its large pedestrian district, before heading up the famous castle that overlooks the city. Finally, they’ll head across the old bridge to partake in a age-old tradition: the Philosopher’s Walk.

So is Heidelberg Germany’s most beautiful city? Watch to find out!

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This video was filmed on a DJI Pocket 3, GoPro 13 and Pixel 9 Pro in June, 2025.

No part of the video was sponsored in any way.