“Everyone knows me here.” The sentence came on Thursday, shortly after six, from a gentleman in Heilbronn. He said it the way others say “I don't have much time”: as an explanation for everything that follows. Wouldn't it be wiser to drive straight to Stuttgart? There, at least, you are nobody.
I didn't answer right away. Being nobody is a strange wish for an evening you are looking forward to.
Heilbronn from above: a Saturday on the Wartberg
This morning I drove up. No appointment, sturdy shoes. In November the Wartberg belongs to dog owners and winegrowers, the vines are bare, the little vineyard hut has been closed for weeks. From up there, Heilbronn looks like a town you could cross in ten minutes. The Neckar, the tower of St. Kilian's, the eye needs nothing more. I understand why someone would believe nothing goes unnoticed here.
Only it isn't true. A town this size doesn't look more closely than a big one. It looks in different places. That it can keep a secret, I have known since Pho – Heilbronns bestgehütetes Geheimnis.
What discretion in Heilbronn really means
What the ladies tell me about evenings in Heilbronn rarely sounds like hide-and-seek. It sounds like good planning. Book a table at the Wein Villa on Cäcilienstraße and you sit in a nineteenth-century villa between business dinners and people who take their Lemberger more seriously than their neighbours. Two people having dinner together catch no one's attention there. What does catch it is behaving as if you had to duck: the glance at the door, the table in the farthest corner.
It is the advice I give on the phone more often than any other, and it holds in every city. A PURE lady looks like the companion you would expect at that table. The rest is up to the gentleman. I have written about the attitude behind it in Meine Visitenkarte verrät nichts. Genau das ist der Punkt..
An evening in Heilbronn that stays quiet
For everything after dinner, the town has an advantage you search for a long time in Stuttgart: short distances. The Insel-Hotel really does sit on an island in the Neckar, a quick walk across the Willy-Mayer-Brücke, and at the bar nobody asks how you two met. If you prefer it quieter still, skip the restaurant and start the evening at the hotel. The Parkhotel on Gartenstraße is the second address I mention.
I called the gentleman back in the afternoon. He is staying in Heilbronn. A table for two, not by the window, but not in the corner either. And if someone greets him, he greets back. A man who greets looks like a man having a lovely evening. Nobody needs to know more than that.
Discreetly yours,
Lena