July 28, 2008
Baden Baden and Strasbourg
Baden-Baden is a relaxing and quiet little town with one of the most beautiful little parks in the world: the Lichtentaler Allee with a paved waterway running beside it and many species of superb trees randomly scattered on the immaculate green lawn.
The casino where Dostoievsky lost his shirt is very low key and doesn't feel like a casino at all, a perfect image of teutonic restraint in face of Fate and Luck.
The baths are reason enough for a trip there. Friedrichbad is the one where you go through 15 stages, from saunas, soap massages, wet saunas, jacuzzis, warm water pools, cold water pools...and at the end you feel clean as you've never been. On Sundays both men and women are admitted - it's a textile free place, or else, you're naked as a baby - and we had fun spotting a japanese gentleman who seemed to be lost all the time and never seemed to stop more than 2 minutes at each station after checking out all the women in sight. Caracalla's ground floor is for families; pools at different temperatures, saunas, waterfalls and everyone wearing swimsuits. Now, the real fun is upstairs where there is a bridge to the mountain right beside it where there are log cabins with dry saunas inside and cold water showers for the brave. And it's all nude. It's like being back in San Francisco. Avoid evenings and nights because the towel clutching freaks show up. The type of people who don't understand it's a faux-pas to not be totally naked in a nudist place while staring at others.
Strasbourg was an unplanned visit. France was just around the corner and that's the place to go in search of a fine meal. The Cathedral is one of the most monumental buildings I've seen, stretching dramatically into the sky. The town is beautiful and lively, full of quaint streets and medieval looking buildings.
Posted by claudia
Comments
Posted by Theresa Lee at January 13, 2009 09:29 AM