The Spa town of Baden-Baden
Trip Start
May 14, 2007
1
14
23
Trip End
Aug 25, 2007
Baden-Baden, Germany
Sunday, June 24, 2007
student who works with Julia). Baden-Baden is THE ritzy, spa town
in Germany and has hot therme springs beneath the town! It is
also where some of my ancestors (on my Mom's side) are originally
from!!
After arriving at the train station, we had to take a bus into the city
center. We found ourselves at Leopoldplatz, a large square.
I was very surprised, the town seemed to be nicer and cleaner than
other cities I've been in
Baden-Baden
. It could've been because of the nicestores and well-dressed people or the white stone and marble everywhere
(most German cities have darker or red stone). We walked to
Lichtental Strasse- a beautiful street along the Oos River with spas on
one side of the river and a spacious park with trees, fountains, and
statues on the other. We
sat on a bench at the end of the park and watch all of the 'well-to-do'
people of Germany stroll by. It was very relaxing (in fact all of
the travel sites say to visit Baden-Baden for a relaxing time but they
normally mean the spas).
We walked to the church but didn't get to explore much because there
was a gathering outside for the members (a catered event with crafts
for the kids-looked like fun)
Church in Baden-Baden
. We got some lunch from a smallbistro and got to sit in the special, painted chairs (we thought it was
a specially reserved table at first, but the waitress told us we could
sit there). She asked us if we wanted our picture and as she was
taking it, and older man came up and said that it would be a great
picture because we were all beautiful : ) Our meal was great and
we ate it slowly and enjoyed just sitting and talking to each other.
Afterwords, we hunted down the ancient Roman Baths. These ruins
are from around 70 A.D. and are still very well preserved!! We
paid the admission and got to have an audio tour through the complex-it
was very interesting. The floors and walls were heated by a fire
underneath the building and there was a special heating system for the
pools!! As an engineering student, I found it all very
interesting (I know, I'm a geek for getting excited about the heating
system, but it was really advanced for being 2000 years ago)!!
Back then, bathing was a daily ritual for everyone and the bath house
was often funded by the city
Flowers
. They said that after the RomanEmpire fell, it took over 1500 years for regular bathing to return to
Western Europe!! The baths were on top of the therme springs and
all of the spas are still located in the area. The next time I
visit the city, I definitely want to spend a few hours in one
of the spas!!
We found a garden with a bunch of odd cement chairs/structures and took
some fun pictures. We also went into another very old and
beautiful church-there are just so many of them EVERYWHERE in
Germany!! After having some ice cream and sitting in the city
square, we headed home. I was very exhausted from two full days
of traveling but I really had a great time. I am very proud
to have ancestors from Baden-Baden as it is a VERY beautiful city.
Next weekend, I am going to visit Hanni and Peter (my Grandparent's
friends). I am very excited to see them and can't wait to see
their town!!
