Here’s what travelling looks like, in case you’ve forgotten

As the sun crept higher and shone brighter on a promising Saturday morning, we buckled up, input our intended destination on Google maps and drove to Heidelberg. This was our first bit of travelling after almost three months, albeit, just a minor road trip, with domestic flights and rails still limited, and international flights unquestionable.

At this stage, hotels and holiday accommodation were still unopened, however, towards the end May, most accommodation in all provinces will be open to welcome guests. Germans will, thus, be able to return to their favourite tourist spots in time for the European summer months of June to August.

THE DESTINATION

Located idyllically on the Neckar River, Heidelberg looks a little surreal and as if it were fashioned after a fictional town in a fairytale. Home to a small community and also centered around a university, there’s more to see here than one would think.

Littered with aesthetic cafes and boutique stores on cobblestoned roads, featuring a pristine bridge set perfectly over the river, and which hosts a castle like entrance to the shopping street, and a palace which rather resembles breathtaking castle ruins, Heidelberg has a bit of everything.

An effortless and affordable bike-share app allows tourists to rent out bikes to ride along the river and explore the scenery, which can be returned to any bike station in the vicinity.

AND the pandemic?

For the most part, the only evidence of the now global and deadly pandemic was face masks, which are still only required to be worn in stores and restaurants. At that point, restaurants were not permitted to allow in-house dining, and only offered take-aways.

Restaurants, as of 18 May, have now re-opened in most areas within Germany. Crowds of people swarmed the streets, taking in the sights the city has to offer and tanning along the river banks, shopping animatedly and waiting in long lines outside gelato stores. Social distancing was still omnipresent, and is a legal enforcement within public spaces, but groups of people seemed to mingle on the streets closer than ever before.

FUTURE TRAVEL

As things slowly return to normal on this end, with accommodation set to open by the end of the week, we’re already planning to book longer weekend trips in the coming weeks, to more distant cities. Most of Germany’s tourist attractions are scheduled to be open by the end of the first week in June, and domestic travel is to be resumed in full swing. Although there are fears of a second wave of infections, travel has resumed with refreshed vigour and tourists, including myself, eagerly await the coming weeks.

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