Most visitors see Heidelberg from below, looking up at the castle. This walk takes you to the other side of the river, where the whole town lays itself out in front of you like a stage set. It starts on the Old Bridge over the Neckar, climbs the steep stone stairway of the Snake Path to the Philosophers' Walk, a hillside path where professors, students and poets have come for two centuries to think and to stare, then drops through the quiet villa streets of Neuenheim and crosses back over the river to Bismarckplatz. It is about two and a half kilometers, roughly a mile and a half, and among the most scenic self-guided walking tours in Germany for the effort it asks.

Before you set off

Give yourself an hour and a half, longer if you linger at the viewpoints, and you will want to. Be honest with yourself about the climb. The Snake Path, the Schlangenweg, is a steep zigzag of stone steps and cobbled ramps that climbs hard for ten to fifteen minutes. The steps are uneven and can be slippery after rain or with fallen leaves, there is little to hold on to, and it is not suitable for strollers or wheelchairs. Go at your own pace and rest at the bends. If stairs are hard for you, you can reach the Philosophers' Walk on gentler lanes from Neuenheim, the way this walk comes down, and see the stops in reverse. Once you are up, the path is easy, mostly level and then gently downhill. The hillside faces south and has little shade, so on a hot day go early in the morning or in the late afternoon, which is also when the light on the old town and the castle is at its best. Carry water, since there is nowhere to buy any on the hill.

Old Bridge

Stand in the middle of the Old Bridge, the Alte Brücke, and take a moment. Upstream, to the east, the river bends away between wooded hills. Back toward the old town, the castle sits on its ledge above the roofs. The bridge's proper name is the Karl Theodor Bridge, after the elector who had it built in stone in the 1780s, after earlier wooden bridges on this spot kept being wrecked by ice and floods. His statue stands on the bridge, and so does one of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, a nod to the university. At the old town end rises the bridge gate, two round towers with white Baroque caps, once part of the town walls. On its side, look for marks showing how high the Neckar has risen in great floods, some of them startlingly high. Beside the gate sits a bronze monkey holding up a mirror. A stone monkey stood on the old bridge tower in the Middle Ages, mocking passers by, and the bronze one recalls it. People say that touching the mirror brings wealth, touching his fingers means you will return to Heidelberg, and touching the mice beside him brings children. In March 1945 retreating German troops blew up the bridge to slow the advancing Americans. Townspeople raised money to rebuild it, and it reopened within a couple of years. Now walk north to the far end of the bridge, about three minutes, cross the busy riverside road at the lights, and look for the sign for the Schlangenweg straight ahead.

Snake Path

The Neckar riverbank below the Old Bridge, Heidelberg You are on the Snake Path, and its name explains itself. The stone stairs twist back and forth between high walls, turning sharply every few dozen steps as they work their way up the slope of the Heiligenberg, the Holy Mountain. Those walls once held up the terraces of vineyards. This side of the river faces south, and it catches the sun from morning to evening, while the castle side, facing north, gets far less sun. For centuries that warmth made the slope a place for growing grapes, and you can still see gardens, fruit trees and the odd vine poking over the walls. Take the climb slowly. Every bend gives you a slightly higher view back over the roofs of the old town, and it is worth pausing at each one, both for the view and for your legs. The village down at the bottom, Neuenheim, was its own place until the end of the nineteenth century, when Heidelberg absorbed it, and it is older than it looks: the Romans kept a fort on this bank long before there was a castle across the water. Up above you, the Heiligenberg holds traces of almost every age, from the earth ramparts of a Celtic hill fort to the ruins of two medieval monasteries and a stone open air theater built in the 1930s. When the steps finally end at a crossing path, turn left onto the Philosophenweg, the Philosophers' Walk, and follow it west for about eight minutes, past several viewpoints, to a small garden beside the path.

Philosophers' Walk

Find a spot at the railing, and look. The whole of old Heidelberg is in front of you: the river, the Old Bridge you crossed, the steeples of the old town, the castle against the dark green hill behind it, and the hills rolling away up the valley. This is the view that has been painted, engraved and photographed more than any other in the city. Along the way you may have passed a board showing an engraving by Matthäus Merian, made around 1620 from this hillside, when the castle was still whole. The path got its name, the usual story goes, from the university's teachers, who came up here to walk and think away from the noise of the town, though students and courting couples always used it at least as much. The Romantic poets loved it. Friedrich Hölderlin wrote an ode to Heidelberg around 1800, describing the bridge swinging over the river, and Joseph von Eichendorff, who studied law here as a young man, is remembered by a memorial stone close to this spot. The little garden beside you is the Philosophengärtchen, the Philosophers' Garden. Because this slope is so sunny and sheltered, plants grow here that you would expect much farther south, and in spring the blossom comes out early. Sit on a bench for a while. Then continue west along the path as it slopes gently down, and follow the lanes down through Neuenheim to the river and the big bridge, about fifteen minutes.