Few of the old buildings in BB are air-conditioned, so like the natives we slept with the window open. Bells from the Stiftskirche on Markplatz rang 7 times and stirred me from a sound sleep on Monday morning. Not wanting to sleep the day away, I dragged out of bed, into the shower, and down to the street to have a look around.
The Inner City of Baden Baden is built into the hills on the western edge of the Black Forest, and basalt cobblestone streets and sidewalks wind around between houses and municipal buildings, past churches and museums, all completely silent this morning.
Starbucks has not yet mushroomed up in this burg, and the locals have the good sense not to be open for business at this hour, so I returned to the Rathausgloeckel for coffee and to check on Judith. We are thrilled to have found the RatHG. Renovated in early 2009, owned by Oliver and his wife, both of whom are international business persons and speak excellent English, the hotel has a grand total of 15 rooms, ours on the top floor adjacent to a roof-top terrace and the bell tower. At 110 Euros / night ($165 at today's rate), the hotel is a bargain in this part of the town where rooms easily go for $300 and up.
Monday morning after breakfast we took the plunge - literally. Suffering a bit from the activities of the late night before, we staggered down the street just a block to the Friedrichsbad, the 130-year old bathhouse built over the ruins of the original Roman baths.
Unlike the newcomer Caracalla baths next door, this one is done all in the nude, and two days a week the experience can be had in a co-ed setting. Needless to say today isn't one of them or we would have found another pastime. Continental Europeans are generally uninhibited by carnal matters, but my joie de vivre comes up a little short in that department.
You go in, put your clothes in a locker, and with the exception of a wristband, you head for the showers as naked as the day you're born. The process includes 17 steps through progressively warmer dry heat, two steam rooms, whirlpool baths, and ends with a plunge into a cold water pool. A-shiver, you then enter the "resting room" where an attendant wraps you in a hot sheet and towel. Like a mummy you then lie at peace, finally dry and warm again, until you're ready to go back to the real world.
Many of the rooms are domed, painted tiles adorn the walls, and it is entirely possible to close your eyes and imagine the scene 2000 years ago when Romans first fell under the spell of the benefits of steeping in hot mineral water. Nevertheless, for a couple of 21st-century Americans the setting is not without its moments of self-consciousness, and I was pleased to emerge clean and clothed and ready to move on.
As a penance for our sybaritic morning, we decided on some fresh air. On the outskirts of Baden-Baden, Mount Merkur rises to a stunning view of the surroundings and is capped by a communications tower with observation area. Accessible to the public by foot or funicular, we decided on the little train, and up the hill we went.
The views were astounding there on the edge of the Black Forest, with little hamlets tucked into clearings between ridges and of the town of Baden-Baden itself. It was cold and windy, but we passed an hour at the summit before taking the funicular back down to town.
One never knows to what extent the locals tolerate visitors, but the Badeners have been more friendly and helpful that we would have imagined. We never floundered for more than a minute before someone approached us with assistance - from the tower workers who showed us to the elevator to the retired woman who told us that we had to push a button on the funicular to signal that we were ready to descend. Though I started all our encounters in German, everyone everywhere spoke English. I think my listeners appreciated the comic relief supplied by my stunning command of the Berlitz version of high German.
Genuinely heavy-hearted on our last night in our new favorite town, we enjoyed a lengthy dinner at a restaurant down a back alley that we had discovered exploring the day before. Judy had schnitzel and I had a home-made sausage that had been boiled in a pig's stomach and then fried and served with spaetzle - stomach discarded! It was rich and delicious.
By 10 we were back at the hotel and zipping up the suitcases for an early departure Tuesday morning.
By 10 we were back at the hotel and zipping up the suitcases for an early departure Tuesday morning.
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