Baden-Baden: More than Bathing-Bathing

Augustaplatz, across the street from our hotel

Baden-Baden enjoyed its heyday in the late 1800's, drawing visitors from England (the English are responsible for the lovely riverside promenades), Russia (Russians still own many hotels here), and France (where gambling was illegal, making Baden-Baden's casino a hot spot). Back then, there were three times as many rooms for rent in the city as there are today. It is still a polished resort, but not overwhelmingly "touristy:" We could barely find souvenir shops as we hunted for a cuckoo clock (unsuccessful).            

As soon as we checked into our hotel, we set the kids loose in a sprawling park with plenty of fountains, playground equipment, and horse-drawn carriages. Daisy had so much fun playing with Jack. I believe that Jenny and I collectively have a thousand pictures of the pair.

 For dinner, we went to a traditional Biergarten, where Luke had his first Wienerschnitzel. I'm pretty sure that's a bigger a deal to me than it is to him. The lederhosen-clad servers were really attentive to Daisy and Jack, bringing them rounds of new toys every thirty minutes, even replacing Jack's balloon when he popped it.

 You've already heard about the baths. After that, we walked along the Oos river, seeing the beautiful old Trinkhalle, casino, and rose gardens. We achieved nap time and seized the moment by parking the buggies at Cafe König and ordering some predictably delicious Black Forest cake.

More hugs

The kids thought this a perfect place to run laps.

 The ruins of the old Roman bath and steam rooms are still preserved. It is so hard for me to believe that the thermal water that we see pumping out of a spigot in the wall today -->
is drawing from the same source as 2,000 years ago. Sometimes, change doesn't surprise me as much as continuity.

Another remnant of Roman times is this church, which has been modified in stages since then. We came at a perfect time of day and I tried to capture the rich kaleidoscope of color streaming in through the windows.

With our remaining time, we took a bus ride and funicular up to Mount Merkur, providing us with great views over Baden-Baden and the Black Forest. We could see Alsace in the distance, old castle ruins from the 1100's, and tons of paragliders taking advantage of the sunny Sunday afternoon. A nice local couple enjoyed pointing out the landmarks, their house, and where they had ridden their bikes that morning. Their grown daughter lives in Atlanta with her family, and they just recently brought their grandson a cuckoo clock. We stayed for lunch at one of the restaurant's picnic tables perched on the edge of the peak.

Important to have reading material for bus rides, no?

It was hard to leave after such a relaxing, sunny, and friend-filled weekend. We never ran out of things to talk about with Luke and Jenny, and we hope to see them again soon! Maybe to get the kids on skis...you can bet that we'd come away with two thousand pictures if that happens :)