As I mentioned in part one, after we had lunch at the Wintergarten Restaurant at Brenners Park Hotel and Spa, we decided to take our first of many walks through ritzy Baden-Baden. If you like high end shopping, this is definitely the place to be. I was amazed by all of the very expensive clothing, shoes, and jewelry for sale there.
The gorgeous Lutheran church near the hotel. I would have liked to have walked through here. I noticed how beautiful the stained glass windows were last night as they were lit up from inside.
The park next to the hotel and spa. Brenners Park also offers medical treatments, most of which seemed to be for cosmetic purposes.
They were preparing the ice skating rink for opening night, which was on Saturday.
This outfit could easily set you back about 3000 euros. It’s at times like these I’m glad I don’t have a figure for high fashion.
A testament to all of the Russians in town… This travel bureau specializes in trips to Sochi, which is in Russia near the Black Sea coast.
The world famous Friedrichsbad.
The Roman Bath ruins. These closed for the season on November 15th. If we’d been a little more on the ball, we could have taken a tour, but we were passing by just as the lady was locking up until March 15, 2019. Oh well.
If you like Segways, you can take a Segway tour in Baden-Baden. Bill and I did that in Antigua and that was enough for me, especially since I fell off and nearly busted my head. Fortunately, I was wearing a helmet.
The Aqua Aurelia Hotel, where I almost booked a room.
The entrance to the Caracalla Spa, which is the more modern of the mineral baths in Baden-Baden. At the Caracalla, you can wear your bathing suit. At Friedrichsbad, you have to be nude. More on that in a subsequent post.
I took a picture of this yarn shop in homage to my mother, who used to own and operate a knitting and needlepoint shop in Gloucester, Virginia. I did not inherit her gift or patience for needle crafts. Instead, I got her gift for music. 😉
A lovely Turkish market near the baths.
We probably should have bought this artwork in honor of our anniversary. I was a little afraid of how much it would cost, though.
Like… check out the prices of the outfit pictured below…
It’s not even real fur!
The Christmas market will open next weekend, so they’re setting up. I bet if we’d visited next weekend, we wouldn’t have gotten an upgrade. Sometimes it pays to have your anniversary during the “off season”.
A look at a map of the Baden-Baden area.
And a few shots of the river, as well as a club of male mallards. The river was looking a bit low. We need some rain.
I was impressed by the playground, which allows kids 14 years old or younger and closes at 8:00pm.
After our walk, we decided to visit the bar and its accompanying lounge and have a few drinks. I really enjoyed the lounge area, which was pleasantly lit and had books, a fireplace, comfortable couches, and after 5:00pm, a pianist playing jazz. Prior to 5:00pm, they play pre-recorded jazz, mostly sung by sultry torch singers like Jane Monheit and Diana Krall.
A view from near the bar.
Bill waits for his Negroni.
They brought out some “free” lavish snacks for us while we waited for our drinks. I noticed they did this on Thursday night, but not on Saturday. Maybe it’s because we came later on Saturday. I put “free” in quotes because although we weren’t charged for the nibbles, the drinks were very expensive. But then, you only live once, right?
The hotel was kind of lightly populated on Thursday night. Consequently, there weren’t too many people in the lounge. The piano player didn’t seem too enthused as he played for the half dozen of us in the lounge, but brightened up when I reacted to a couple of the songs he played that I especially liked. I noticed he was more animated on Saturday, when there were more people to entertain.
We were too full to eat dinner, so we decided to head back to the room. By 9:00pm, Bill’s eyes were fluttering and I was turning off the light. It’s surprising how exhausting relaxing can be…
We drew the curtains the first night. Fancy!