A day in Baden-Baden

July 6, 2024

We had no agenda today except catch up on the journal; on this trip we have struggled to keep up. After a leisurely breakfast we took a walk around the town, saw the famous baths at Friedrichsbad and the Caracalla Spa and gawked at all the shops. Baden-Baden became famous in the 19th century as a spa retreat and that has continued today. Rick Steves describes it as the most famous spa town in Europe. It looks very affluent.

My travel deodorant was exhausted so we bought a replacement in a pharmacy; for some reason it cost 13.50 euros. We’re really not sure what that was about.

It started to pour at noon so we scurried back to the hotel and spent the afternoon working on the journal. We made progress but we’re still behind.

That evening we ventured out at 6 pm with no set plans for dinner; after stopping in at the classic German place down the street, Schneider’s, we learned they would let us eat there if we could be finished in one hour. Obviously they were booked for the evening. We quickly settled on splitting a schnitzel with aperol spritzes- of which we have consumed many this summer-and had a fun, if fast paced dinner. It’s a family place and the older mom and dad were roaming around talking to the guests. The food was excellent, including our blood orange ice cream with grand marnier.

A few late afternoon shots of Baden-Baden.

That evening we settled in the lobby for a cup of tea (Jill) and met one of the more interesting people of the trip. Her name was Wiltrude, and she was travelling home to the Munich area after a family vacation on the Brittany coast. Her husband had passed away two years ago. Her daughter had been the press secretary for Otto von Hapsburg, the last Crown Prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. We had a very interesting conversation about the state of the world - Europeans are hungry to talk to us about Trump/Biden - and as Wiltrude said; it affects them too. Of course, the political scene is crazy all over Europe. While in France we witnessed two elections and there will be a change in government there. And the same in the UK.

Wiltrude was a most charming person. She conversed with us in a mixture of German, English and French.

We had an early turn in - we have a full agenda tomorrow.

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