Day 4:
A blissfully uneventful train ride to Baden-Baden later we made it to check in and get an awesome lunch at the Lowenbrou Restaurant before heading to the Caracalla Spa.
Although check in was less than relaxing and the staff seemed very confused and disorganized, the pools and treatments we all got were very nice. Since we'd just been to Bath England in the spring, I was able to compare the two. I'd say the organization and efficiency of the spa in England put it higher on my list for future visits.
Day 5 Baden-Baden
A missed bus meant we spent more time in town changing money and getting snacks for our outing. Instead of the 11:23 we were supposed to take, we mooked about the walking district, got gelato and caught the 1:45 bus. On arrival we decided that famous Lake Mummelsee of the Black Forest would now be downgraded to pond status. We spent all of 10 minutes mosey circumnavigating said wonder of the area before taking the bus back to town. The ride however has been very pretty with lots of green trees and low mountain views.
I am looking forward to later as we are going to the other bathhouse in town...the one that was the original roman baths. It has 17 stations of Irish airbaths and roman pools combined in a healing sequence. Should be fun. And since it's been high 90's again..any water sounds good!
OMG...Friedrichsbad my new favorite spa of all time...just bumped the Hanoi tea bath/steam/massage to second favorite!
We went for the full shebang with food, 3 hours time to do the 17stations, an 8 min brushing soaping massageish thing and even a 5 min lotioning up near the end. It was awesome and we were in there from 6:30 until after 9:30! The building itself is so gorgeous and has been in service continously for over 130 years. The steam room is the only one in the world solely heated by geothermal water. I can't say enough about how nice it was and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys soaking/swimming/relaxing/pampering.
So after all that healthy detoxification of our systems...off we went for ice cream. To make the evening even more blissful the temperature dropped to 79...whoooeee!
Day 6 Baden-Baden and on to Freiburg
Spent the morning at the oldest Casino, going on the lamest tour ever. It is very ostentatious and over the top and our English tour turned out to be completely in German. So we looked around.. Took a few pictures and left early... I did catch one of the other tour guides explaining that this one particular room was an exact replica of a woman's dressing room in Versailles... Very gaudy and gold covered.
We killed some time before the train by getting full eye exams for free and they even checked my glasses to see how close they were to what I needed. A little lunch then onto our next city.
Freiburg is a good sized city with a huge Gothic Cathedral at the center. We tried to go inside several times but they seemed to have services a lot on Saturday and Sundays. So we got to enjoy the exterior plenty. Lots of walking around the pretty cobbled streets enjoying the architecture and teeny tiny open waterways. I parked a faded overheated and hungry Kat and Kim at a cafe/restaurant and circled the big square snapping pics of the menus for us to compare. One of them stood out for me and since it was going to be our last night in Germany I wanted to have a nice German dinner. Well I got my wish and had a fantastic meal. We all had chanterelles in various ways... One crepe, one with dumplings and one with meat and spaetzle .
Still dealing with the overwhelming heat, even though it is improving slightly, we were all pleased to find out that the swimming pool stayed open until 11. That helped quite a bit...as well as the air conditioned room.
Tomorrow off to Paris by the TGV train (Tres Grand Vitesse)
No comments:
Post a Comment