Hotel Merkur Baden-Baden

Featured Excursion: Strasbourg canal cruise
Optional Tour: Haute Königsburg

"See Strasbourg the way it has been seen through the centuries—on a canal cruise. In addition to viewing the town's covered bridges, medieval watchtowers and modern building that houses the European Parliament, you will see "Petite France," a picturesque district that seems as if it has been lifted from the pages of a fairy tale"

(To be continued)

... hotel is a big picture of the little prince AND apparently the rooms are decorated after different themes from the book. I didn't get to go in but someday I will definitely stay there.
I also saw my first movie in a German theatre which was really cool...I saw Up, I liked it but obviously didn't understand much. Anyway, I definitely recommend it...even just for a few hours!

... sample the therapeutic waters..well Lauren did, she fell in the public fountain..alittle too enthusiastically reaching for a twig.

Then back to the caravan for pasta in a pan and of course Black Forest Gateaux...Frankfurt 5 star Hotel for Stu's birthday is on the cards next..hurrah!

One observation, Germans tend to decorate the gardens of their static caravans with gnomes and model deers, while the Italians opt for a yappy dog on a piece of string.

All right, so we did the naked frolicking in the baths, went cuckoo over cuckoo clocks, drove all over the not so black, Black Forest and visited an open air cultural museum near Gutach, which was weird because it was suppose to be a museum about how life was back in yesteryear for Germans. And it was for the most part.

As I walked through a typical period ...

... to sleeping. And the scrub brush massage will leave you feeling cleaner than you could ever imagine.


But that's not what makes the Friedrichsbad unique. What makes it unique is you do all of this butt naked. Yes as in remove all your clothes and mingle with the other naked bathers for about three hours. And it's mixed. Men and women, old and young. All are welcomed. I would say in the very beginning, you're completely aware that your nude and ...

... restaurant also wasn’t open on Sundays, so we’d have no access at all to it during our stay. It appeared to us that they were doing construction in what probably was normally their banquet room, so they simply shut down all the facilities (we came to use) to all guests outside the wedding party. Marisa was having none of it. She had the desk send out the manager and she read him the riot act over the situation. This was easily the most ...

... and got lost trying to find others. Our feet were tired and our minds were overflowing with information. The Zevisit audiotours were interesting and informative, but we all agreed two in one day was too many. We decided to take a tram back to the centre and browsed in a few shops on our way back to the car. Then we spotted an ice cream cafe and decided it would be nice to sit and relax with a deliciously decadent ice cream dessert.

... cathedral. What I found most wonderful about this city is that they have tiny streams, Bachle, running down each street. In medieval times, this was used as fire protection, cattle refreshment and a constantly flushing disposal system. Dodging our fair share of them, we walked off our dessert, found our car (whew) and headed out once again. Chris wanted to make sure that we saw Lake Konstanz before complete darkness so that we could take in a bit of Switzerland too. We did manage to ...

... are lots of tourist shops surrounding the Mummelsee and not much else there. At the end of the drive, in Freundenstadt, we were surprised to find a very quiet town with absolutely nothing happening! The town has a beautiful large market square and lots of cafes, but there didn't seem to be any people out and about - and this was a Friday night! After wandering around the square admiring the lovely flower plantings we decided to head ...

... good show, and it was nice to see some live music.

Bernard and Michelle (Sandra's aunt and uncle) drove me down to Strasbourg the next day, dropping me off at the hostel and everything. This was where I was asked for the 3rd time if I was quebecoise. Of course, they never think that for long....as soon as they think that they start talking really fast and then I have to ask them to slow down.

Anyway, going to rent a bike now. Caio!