Heidelberg in winter time

Basically, winter does not exist in Heidelberg. At least, there’s no real winter with snow and ice and temperatures in the twenties or lower. Each winter it snows, sooner or later. Everyone is happy, just to discover the next morning that the snow has changed into a wet and muddy liquid or is already gone. Nonetheless, in the house where I live, the list of which party has to remove the snow on which day is hanging right next to the cleaning schedule – German planning and efficiency…. Each year hundreds of people visit the Christmas Market and have their mulled wines at sunny 50°F, or 40°F and light rain. More than once people have tried to order ice tea.

Another great thing during Christmas time is the charming Christmas decoration in Neuenheim, the neighborhood I live in. While other neighborhoods and other cities embellish themselves with luminescent stars, Christmas trees, angels and other season’s motifs, year after year Neuenheim strikes back with undefinable objects. Those who dispose of a lot of good will and even more imagination or are under the influence of some psychotropic substance might see half stars, I always see underwear. And it’s all over Neuenheim. Every single year.

But this year everything changed. No, of course the decoration stayed the same, that would have been too much to ask for…. In December it was cold, and we had snow for almost two days. Mulled wine was high up on everyone’s list, as was the Friesian tea punch. Tea punch is a healthy mixture of black tea, fruits (with lots of tasty vitamins), sugar and traces of alcohol in the form of red wine and rum. As a matter of fact, the punch contains so many traces of alcohol that one feels comfortably drunk just after starting the second cup. Tea punch is my personal all-time favorite Christmas Market beverage and the second best invention after sour gummi bears.

In January, temperatures dropped constantly and it snowed for several days. My roommate was so happy she stored a snow ball in our freezer (it’s still there). On my way to work, I read -1°C (30°F) on a thermometer and wondered how -1°C could make by bike’s brakes and gear shift freeze. A second glance revealed that the temperature was instead -13°C (8°F), random pieces of ice were floating down the Neckar. A couple of days later temperatures reached -17°C (0°F), and the river froze completely. Very brave persons even dared to walk on the ice. Some of my elder colleagues reported, the last time they had crossed the Neckar on foot was in the severe winter of 1963, since then even they had rarely seen ice on it. This historic moment had, of course, to be captured with my camera. But as far as I am concerned, it does not have to repeat itself next winter. Tea punch tastes equally great at 35°F and with an ice-free river.