Eating My Way through Germany: You Don't Know What A Sweet Tooth Is Until You Come Here

The streets of Heidelberg's old city (Altstadt) are all cobblestone and pedestrians only (Fußgängerzone), full of little shops that are teeming with goodies.

That's the cathedral in the background, standing in the middle of a square that also has markets on weekends.

It's absolutely lovely. And, for part of the summer and the whole next academic year, I get to live in an apartment right at the heart of all this loveliness! It's one of those apartments with dormer windows and sloping ceilings, above restaurants and stores.

The problem will be keeping from eating at the luscious bakeries and chocolateries that line the blocks every day! In the space of 2 blocks I counted 1 bakery, 2 chocolateries, and 2 gummy bear stores. Stores that are devoted only to selling gummy bears! I'll let the pictures do the talking. All I'm saying is, you only have to walk 2 blocks to see everything I've posted below. You might need to get a glass of milk to cut the sweetness.

In the window of our favorite bakery. Those cube things are called
Pflasterstein, meaning "cobblestone." They're filled with cake and marzipan.
Those globes in dark and white chocolate - scroll down for further detail.
The first resolution I made upon seeing this is: I have to try
every one of these outrageous looking sweets.

Remember Augustus Gloop from the new "Charlies and the Chocolate Factory"?

I think the caricature of him as a German chocolate eating machine
is not too far from the truth...

Okay, this was photographed with a hand to give a sense of size. It is enormous.

It's filled with cake and cream and more chocolate. It's decadence, in ball form.