Heidelberg
I was last in Heidelberg 31 years ago, right after I finished my four years at Hope College and was wondering how to begin my planned career in journalism. I needed three more credit hours to graduate, the result of an unfortunate encounter with a statistics class while spending night after night working on the college newspaper. Hope offered a three-week May Term course in England that would put me over the top. After three weeks in England, I still had some time, and decided to go to Germany for a long weekend.
To certain young Americans of that period, especially those who studied German in high school, Heidelberg resonated as an impossibly romantic place. One imagined students still dueling with swords in the street (I had done well in a fencing course in college and felt myself fully prepared). There is a large university here and has been for hundreds of years. There was even a student jail, last used in 1914. Mark Twain spent several happy months in Heidelberg getting over writer's block and penning "A Tramp Abroad" about his travels through Germany. Erica Jong used Heidelberg scenes in her famous novel, "Fear of Flying," although that came out shortly after my visit.
I had forgotten how truly beautiful this city is. Heidelberg belongs on a short list with Paris, San Francisco, and a few other places as one of the more beautiful cities in the world. It sits snug in a tight valley of the Neckar River, flanked on either side by forested mountains. Yesterday, I strolled the "Philosopher's Walk" on the other side of the river, gazing back upon the city, its castle, and the leafy trees. This was one of the first really warm days of spring here. Students were everywhere, lazing in the sun and necking on the Neckar.
And of course, I ran into someone I knew. Or rather, who knew someone I knew. I was in a shop in Heidelberg completing a purchase and mentioned Pennsylvania to the store clerk. A woman standing nearby, an American, asked where in Pennsylvania? Harrisburg, I said. Oh, she said, my brother lives in Mechanicsburg. It turned out she was from Mount Carmel, Pa., just down the road from Centralia, was a Bucknell University graduate and the daughter of Joe Swatski, the former superintendent of Shamokin Area School District. I knew Joe well when I was a reporter at The News-Item in Shamokin. Another woman in the store chimed in that she lived in New Castle, Pa. Much more of this and Heidelberg will be a campaign stop for the candidates for governor of Pennsylvania.
I got that job at the Shamokin News-Item a few months after returning from Heidelberg. I suppose you could say things have come full circle.