A Georgia Girl in Germany

The day before the kids returned from their visit to the states, I treated myself to a day in Baden-Baden. Baden-Baden was known as the “summer capital of Europe” during the 19th century and is the most elegant spa town in Germany.

I started my stroll through the town at the Trinkhalle (the Pump Room), an elegant 19th century building whose colonnade features frescoes of Black Forest legends, as seen in this photo.

Inside the Trinkhalle is Baden-Baden’s visitor’s center, with a fountain dispensing natural, healing water. Everyone was sampling the water, so I filled up a small cup and took a sip -- of very salty water!

From there I walked along the Oosbach (Oos Stream) to the white colonnade Kurhaus. It was built in 1821 and houses a casino, ballrooms and a luxury restaurant. It looked like they were gearing up for an outdoor concert when I was there -- lots of people and tents set up in front of the building.

Further down the Oosbach, on the Lichtentaler Allee, is the Kunsthalle (Art Museum).

Fortunately, I had called ahead and made a reservation for a massage at one of Baden-Baden's spas. Germans can be very liberal when it comes to attire in the spas, so I opted for the spa where bathing suits were optional (vice prohibited) since I didn’t feel like going au natural! Luckily, everyone else there that day was equally as conservative (or either it was a mandatory bathing suit day). Whew! The quaint-looking Catholic Spitalkirche was just outside the Caracalla Therme.

The contemporary Caracalla Therme gets its name from Rome's ancient Baths of Caracalla. While there, I enjoyed a wonderful hour-long massage, followed by time in the indoor pool, therapeutic pool, outdoor pools, whirlpools, and rock grotto sauna. All the pools maintain different water temperatures, from very chilly (designed to dip into before entering a sauna), to the sauna-like rock grotto area. Two hours in the pools was very relaxing, but I could have easily stayed longer.

I liked this sculpture down the walkway behind the Spitalkirche.

This was an interesting building on a hill entering the town.

The Stiftskirche (Collegieate Church), just up from the market square, dates partly from the early 13th century.

After a short walk, I found some steps through the palace gardens of the 15th century Neues Schloss (New Palace) for a wonderful view of the Stiftskirche.

After looking around the Neues Schloss hillside palace gardens, I headed past the Rathaus (town hall), back down toward the market place.

During my trek, I enjoyed seeing the variety of fountains. I suppose that's to be expected in a Roman spa town with natural spring water. This long one is near the Stiftskirche.

This fountain is in the market place.

And this pelican fountain is on the tree-lined Sophienstrasse.

After all my wandering, I finally found the Römische Badruinen, covered by more modern buildings. The underground ruins of the 2nd century Roman vapor baths were discovered in 1847 during construction work on a church aboveground. I thought they were difficult to find, even though they were right there near the Caracalla Therme…I simply wasn’t expecting to have to search underground to find them. The ruins of the Roman baths include two basins for cooling the thermal water, two pools and a hot-air area.

The Romans used floor and wall heating techniques. This first photo (above) shows the wall-heating technique. The rectangular stone bricks in the walls were hollow, thus allowing the heat to travel through the space and heat the adjacent spaces.

This next photo (right) shows more of the design structure. The bottom two feet or so is the “underground” section. The floor was raised onto stacks of bricks (most clearly visible on the far left of the photo) to allow heat from a heating plant room to travel under the floor.

This next view is of the underground structure -- the entire floor is raised on the brick pillars to allow the heat to travel under the flooring.

After exploring the Römische Badruinen, I strolled back along the Oosbach toward the Brenner’s Park Hotel. It’s a very elegant-looking hotel that is almost universally regarded as one of Europe’s poshest hotels. Since it has managed to retain the quiet elegance of an age long vanished, some consider it the very symbol of Baden-Baden.

Then I took one last walk along the peaceful Oosbach before heading back to my van, and home…completely relaxed, refreshed and ready for the kids to return the next morning.

Labels: Germany, Travel