Can you give me an idea as to what places, sights to go to in Heidleberg, germany?

I am a first time tourist in Germany.

Well, having lived near Heidelberg for two years, I think I should make an attempt at giving an answer!

You will need to go see the castle up on the hill of course. It is quite beautiful up there, and there is a nice view over the Rhine river valley. For an even better view, go all the way up the funicular to the Koenigstuhl Mountain. There is also the Altstadt (the old town) where you have your choice of very old buildings and lots of shopping and restaurants along the Hauptstrasse. The university is famous and is almost 500 years old, with a beautiful botanical garden. The Museum of the Palatinate has the amongst other things the jawbone of a human discovered in the area from 60,000 years ago.

If you have time, you can drive down the "castle road", which is the highway that follows the Neckar river eastwards from Heidelberg. There is castle after castle there, culminating in the gorgeous city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which the allies avoided bombing in WWII and consequently is still a very beautifully preserved walled city.

Included below is a link to their tourist info site that contains a lot of good information.

Vielen spass mit ihren Reise!

visits all the universities one by one.

Edwin (above) gave a great answer, but I will add that you should also eat at "Schoenmehl's" gourmet restaurant inside the castle if you are there, or if you prefer something less formal, Schoenmehl's also has a bistro with excellent fare. Homepage: http://www.schoenmehl.de
If you bring a leggy, single gal along not older than 35, you could also arrange for a guided tour in the "City of Romance" (it really is called that) by ME!

I live by Heidelberg. Yes, see the castle. Also find the student jail and see that. Shop on the Haupstrasse, lots of great stores and great places to eat too. Walk up Philosopher's Weg, see the Thingstatte. It's on the mountain opposite the castle, Hitler had it built with slave labor, it's like an amphitheatre, it has great acoustics, you can stand at one end of it and talk to someone at the other end without raising your voice, no lie, my husband and I tried it. Go down the Neckar, there are some more great little towns. We like Dilsberg, only about 20 minutes away if even that. The city is still encircled by the original castle walls. Don't forget to go on the Old Bridge while in Heidelberg, you can get great shots of the castle from here. What dates will you be here? They will be having the castle illuminations once a month, the next one is this Saturday. We've gone to at least one of these each year. Also, up the river they have a 4 castle illumination during the Summer too. Heidelberg is beautiful, see as much as you can, bring extra memory sticks if you're bringing a digitial camera!

Here's the travelogue of one of our visits: http://www.thetravelzine.com/fall99freib... and the official web site of the city: http://www.heidelberg.de/servlet/PB/menu...