Entry No. 2 From Sophomore Precious Akanyirige -- Heidelberg, the beautiful city by the river. Driving in, I was amazed by the scenery of the houses lining the river. The first activity of the day was to explore the city. Our hilarious and eccentric tour guide, Isabel, dressed in a red overcoat and parrot hat, made sure to give us a great tour of the city while also making us laugh.

We started off driving around the main areas of the city. Heidelberg is a college town which houses the University of Heidelberg. Isabel shared with us that the university's library is the largest one in Europe; it contains 3.6 million books. The part of the city on one side of the river mostly consists of shops and a few university buildings while the other side of the city houses the majority of the university buildings, including classrooms and faculty offices.

Once we got off the bus, we made our way to the funicular, a small tram that took us up the hill to a castle. The castle sat atop the hill overlooking the rest of the town. It was an immense and beautiful castle, perfect for picture taking, and also had a lot of great stories about its history. One interesting story was that a prince built a gate as a birthday present for his wife. He ordered the stone masons to add sculptures of 10 small animals on the columns and for every animal that the princess found, she was rewarded with an extra kiss.

After touring the castle, we took the funicular back down the hill and continued to make our way through the town. We passed shops and restaurants, and took in the colors, architecture, and cobblestone roads of the city. Our tour ended next to a massive church. We then had a couple of hours to explore on our own.

A few of us were able to go up the 208 steps to the top of the church's tower and get a 360 degree view of the city. It was a wonderful view of red rooftops, streets, the surrounding hills, and the river. I decided to be adventurous and try a donner kebap for lunch, tiramisu gelato for dessert, and about five more pastries for my second dessert of the day. All of my food was delicious and different than anything I've had before. I spent the rest of my free time taking pictures on the town's "Old Bridge."

After our time in Heidelberg was over, we headed back to our hotel for about an hour and then left again for practice. We had the opportunity to train with the girls and staff of the Hoffenheim club. There was a bit of a language barrier because amongst the girls/staff. There was a range of completely non-English speakers to fluent English speakers.

Even though it was a little bit strange to be out of our comfort zone, I enjoyed getting to do some different warm ups and drills. The girls are also great soccer players so it'll be an exciting but definitely challenging game tomorrow.

We're all so thankful and excited for this opportunity and I can't wait for what's next!

Precious