Good Times in Baden Baden

Last Saturday morning we woke up to a beautiful day. Unlike the past month, there were no clouds and very little humidity. So we decided to go visit a city at the foot of the Black Forest that we have heard good things about - Baden Baden. On the way there, we stopped for lunch in Heidelberg. It was the first city in Germany we fell in love with when we visited way back in 1981. The castle is still there but there are a whole lot more people.

After bees attacked our croissants and jam, we headed to Baden Baden. It had been settled in Roman times and was well known for it's mineral baths and Roman spas (Baden is "bath" in German). There were still ruins of an original Roman bath that we toured. The technology they used to heat the rooms and bath were amazing for the time.

Since it was Saturday, there were weddings in every church. This one was ready to go and we even caught a glimpse of the bride and her getaway car. Vintage VW of course.










A stream runs through the middle of the town and is bordered by a long park designed by some famous German. We came upon a beautiful open air building built in 1840 (Trinkhalle) with tall Corinthian pillars and large murals on the walls.


When we got inside, we realized they were holding a chess tournament with hundreds of players and a few professionals. Each pro walked around making one move on each board. Hard to imagine this game ever ending... we didn't wait. We hadn't had any wine yet.

So we stopped at the flower-covered Lowenbrau - a traditional Bavarian restaurant. Mary had fried goat cheese salad and Pete had pork loin with gravy and fried potatoes. Both were awesome. We headed back home before dark and realized we could visit a few towns in a day.

Our girls are visiting next week and we are planning to visit Switzerland for a few days - Matterhorn in Zermatt, and the swans in Luzern.
Tschus!