Signs of Spring in Heidelberg

Throughout my life, some signs of spring have been fairly constant no matter where I have lived.

Those early daffodils:

birds singing, trees and bushes breaking into bloom:

I love them all.  

Here in Heidelberg we have a couple of other things that signal the advent of warmer weather and sunshine. 

The first indicator of warmth to come is the return of the ice cream.  Just as the crocus are pushing through the snow, the local ice cream windows reopen for that first, tantalizing taste of spring.  Sure, there are a few Eiscafes which sell the cool treat year round, but the many little coffee shops which also have a to-go ice cream cone window generally stop selling ice cream around mid November, and bring it back around mid March.  The cafe down the street from us always puts a sign on that window informing us that the ice cream has "gone on vacation" during those months.

To give you an idea of how ubiquitous these ice cream windows are, there are THREE of them within a 5 minute walk of my front door.  All do a booming business throughout the summer--selling a scoop of ice cream for the standard price of 80 Euro cents.  These 80 cent scoops are not the huge cones often seen in the US.  They are just enough to satisfy a sweet tooth without causing major damage to the waistline.  

Here is my favourite little shop by the house, with all its ice cream back from vacation:

And finally, today, the last and most definitive sign that spring is truly here to stay:  our local fountain was turned back on.  No longer is the corner down the street in its desolate, winter state:

The water is flowing.  By mid afternoon there will almost certainly be people sitting on the benches, watching the water while they lick their ice cream cones.  And on the next truly HOT day, the fountain will be filled with children of all ages, cooling off in this land of very little air conditioning.

I wish the happiest of springs and sunniest of days to you all.

--Hadley