Baden-Baden,Germany

When we decided that we were going to stay in Germany instead of moving on to Spain it was a mere moment before we became very excited about our time here. We were here for Toms’ birthday last year and daydreamed about all the things we would do when we returned. We are taking advantage of this opportunity to do those things now. On our list was a visit to Baden-Baden. It made the list because this is the area where the Stoeckels lived before coming to the United States.

I have to admit I had some preconceptions of this area. When you tell fellow Germans you are going to Baden-Baden they say, “Oh, the spa town” or “You will love the casino”. It conjures up images of the Las Vegas strip with all  its bling and extravaganza. I can not tell you how wrong I was and how pleasantly surprised we are.

We stayed at a small place about 1km from the platz in the old town. It is once again fall and so the walk into town was stunning as we meandered through the multicolored trees with their array of fall colors. The streets are cobblestone and aligned with beautiful markets, shops and biergartens. A young man was playing the most beautiful music on his piano and it was magnificent. I stopped for a moment on the old city streets and watched Tom walk ahead and I thought these were the streets his family, his great-grandfather, might have walked on nearly 150 years ago. It was a beautiful thought to contemplate. We attempted to locate family records but that will take a bit of work. Perhaps the next time we are here.

This area houses some of the oldest Roman ruins and some of the most beautiful architecture we have seen. The casino was built-in the  early 1800’s and is a beautiful and regal place. As we walked in we noticed the concierge was dressed far better than we were. The outside cafes along the promenade were beautiful and the food, kleine warme mahizeiten ,or small warm meals are delightful.

The spas or thermes are something else. They are housed over the natural hot springs in this area and have been around since the Roman times. We are told that people come from all over the world to visit these thermes. There are a couple in the area and due to our time constraints we opted for an evening at the Caracalla Therme which is a renovated spa on a historic Roman site. It was exquisite as we enjoyed a variety of large  and small spas with hot/warm/cold natural spring mineral water which bubbled up from nearly 2000 meters below. There were aromatic therapeutic steam rooms in the old roman porticos with beautiful frescos on the tiles. We enjoyed the outdoor bath later in the evening when it was extremely cold and dark outside and incredibly warm under the water.

We toured the city and then walked into a local market/eatery where most of the locals were having their lunch. We got what they had, fleischkase mit weck, which was awesome. Not quite sure exactly what it was except it was pork, I think, and was warm and only one euro!  We lathered it in wonderful German mustard and we were content for hours!

We have found this to be a delightful place and have many thoughts for next time we pass this way. We will be heading back to Ramstein soon and will be watching for flights heading towards the east coast. We will be attending a conference in Kentucky before heading home to you.

Always thinking of you in these beautiful places knowing you would love it here…you are loved.