I’m not going to tell you to rush and visit Mannheim – it’s not that kind of place. But if you do find yourself there for any reason, there are some true local gems that are well worth appreciating. My choice of Mannheim for a quick getaway was because dear friend A, who lives in France, and I decided that we wanted to have a good long chat and we needed a place that was: halfway between our respective abodes; not a tourist paradise and hence reasonably priced; and only required one train transfer each. Bingo, Mannheim.

Mannheim, with its current 310,000 inhabitants, is and has always been a place where things get done. It’s an industrial and commercial city, a university city, and a transportation hub, including Germany’s largest inland port. Its notable citizens invented the automobile, and bicycle, and the tractor (Karl Benz is from there, as is, cough cough, Albert Speer). It’s also a city of music and culture, with a long rich history that dates back to the Roman era.

What it isn’t, alas, is very pretty these days. Allied raids completely destroyed the city center and aside from a few carefully rebuilt relics, there is very little of the lovely Baroque city that stood for centuries. And in addition, even by their own admission, Mannheimers have a very strange German dialect which even they enjoy poking fun at.

A and I booked ourselves into a cheery little B&B near the train station where we found charming folks and inexpensive digs that made us feel right at home. Here’s my cozy rack at the Hotel Kurpfalzstuben:

After a long train ride, A an I were both starving and we headed out for dinner. We stumbled onto the best Japanese noodle house I’ve found this side of Tokyo and we dug into tremendously good bowls of ramen and a side of edamame, which A had never tried. HiKoo, I really wish you would franchise to Berlin:

Stretching our legs after dinner in the balmy evening air, we first strolled the main commercial drag, the Planken, which is lined with lights and allows pedestrians to mingle with the occasional tram. At the end of the Planken, we enjoyed a lovely moonlit view of Mannheim’s iconic Water Tower:

Next morning we awakened ready for busy sight-seeing but not before we had a breakfast feast, of which you only see the beginning below. A, a Brit, needed a lot of tea to get going, and, of course, the whole reason for the trip was chatting, and here’s a great place to do all of it.

One of the most curious and interesting facts about Mannheim is the layout of the central city. A huge Baroque palace was built near the Rhine River by Electoral Prince Frederick IV of the Pfalz in the early part of the 17th century. His architect, the Dutch fortification expert Bartel Janson, then laid out a city that consisted of a large circle containing a carefully numbered grid pattern which remains to this day:

But those streets, while busy and full of life are, well, just a bit…dull…

…which made the discoveries of charm, curiosity, and beauty all the more worthwhile. We visited the Jesuitenkirche, which was green and golden Baroque restored loveliness, but I was most attracted by this most striking sculpture near the votives:

Delp was a Jesuit Catholic priest who was a member of the German Resistance against the Nazi movement. He was falsely accused of being part of a plot to assassinate Hitler and was therefore imprisoned and hung in a Berlin prison. A quote of his that touched me was “God does not need great pathos or great works. He needs greatness of hearts.”

After that somber moment, we needed a break. Not far away, A spotted a charming little cafe and we settled in to do our best imitation of Sartreans enjoying an espresso and Gaulois (absent the Gaulois, of course) in Cafe Prag:

Fortified, we sheaded back near the Water Tower to Mannheim’s justly well-known Kunsthalle (art museum). This museum was reputed to have a large collection of the work of Anselm Kiefer, one of my favorites, but of course that wing was closed in preparation for a new exhibit. ^%$#. We really enjoyed the place anyway, and here’s A doing a little photo art of her own:

At least there was one Kiefer to console me:

One now enters the museum through the new wing, where A is standing above, but the older wing is connected and is a marvel of Art Nouveau architecture:

After the museum we walked around the area nearby and enjoyed seeing a few remainders of pre-WWII architecture, some which appears to form an arcade (see the green space at 3:00 o’clock on the Quadrate map above). There were more cafes and some high-end shops to enjoy and then melt at the sight of the prices. But one window stood out to me, and A and I decided it won the day:

Carpe diem, dear ones, and catch you on the next round.