Living the Baden-Baden high life

This morning we dipped our toes into the lifestyle of late 19th century aristocrats and visited the Friederichsbad. 


Feeling bashful, mom had requested a Saturday when swimsuits are required so we skipped the traditional nudity - which meant that we didn't get the soap and brush treatment after the saunas. It was still a unique experience. 

After a three minute mineral water shower we settled our sheets onto the wooden recliners and enjoyed the heated air for ten minutes, then moved to the hot room. (Mom decided it was too hot for her liking and want back a station to wait for us.) After five minutes, and feeling lightly toasted, we walked past the vacant soap stations to the steam baths - the only remaining steam baths in the world heated by the earth itself, apparently.

The herb-scented steam enveloped us but was difficult for my daughter whose lungs have struggled since she had COVID. She stuck it out for as long as she could, then tried the even hotter room briefly. She and my mom the  moved on while I steamed a little longer; I caught up with them at a series of pools. We floated for a while, enjoying the weightlessness of the first pool before heading to a shallow pool with bubbles for another soak.

Excited to finally float under the grand dome I accidentally skipped a step and plunged into the cool water. After enjoying the view for a while, I joined the others in the warmer pool. Then I returned to the dome for another dip, joined the others in another, hotter pool and returned a third time - can't get enough dome viewing! - when my mom got up the gumption to join me.

Imagine every variation on a face you might make while entering cold water. My mom made every one of them. Take it from me - it is tricky to float while snort-laughing at your mother's "suffering".

We returned to the mineral water showers for a final rinse. And at this point I realised that I had skipped the cold plunge, so that's how I finished up.

Tingling all over, I joined the others in the reading room for some fruit tea and a quiet rest before heading to the train station.

Picking up a lunch to go, we were entertained by a family group of rooks building the nests for their rookery.

We travelled together to Karlsruhe where my daughter ran in one direction to catch the first of two trains to the Frankfurt airport. We will catch up with her again in Warsaw after our journey through Austria.

Mom and I had our own dash to make to catch our connection to Stuttgart. On arrival we trundled quickly from gate 12 to 16, learned that our train had moved to track 1 and all but ran there - only to be told our ticket wasn't valid and to find a German train. Which turned out to be on track 15. My mom was thrilled.

We are now on a beautiful ICE train to Munich where we will transfer - again - to the last leg of our journey to Garmisch-Partenkirken, where we will arrive at almost 10 p.m. All this so my mom can take a cogwheel train up the Zugspitze. We are hoping that the forecast rain doesn't materialize. Stay tuned!

P.S. I read this to my mom and she said that I made it sound like she was having a miserable time. She wanted it made clear that she's enjoying the trip!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On the road again

Image
I no longer have access to my family's original travel blog so The World As I See It will pick up where I left off. I am jostling my way along the track toward Montreal where my mom - who is 80 this year! - and we will board a flight to Frankfurt for a 25 day adventure through Germany, Austria and Poland. Stay tuned!
Read more

Sleepwalking through Frankfurt

Image
Our flight was smooth but not sleep-inducing. We arrived in Frankfurt just before 7 a.m. exhausted and hoping our hotel had a room available for early check in.  After clearing customs and snagging our luggage, we made our way to the airport's train station and grabbed the RE 2 train into the city core. Discovering that there was no room at the inn we checked our luggage, secured an offer to ask again about our room at noon, and wandered down Kaiserstrasse to find a restoring breakfast. Fortified by an Americano and rhubarb coffee cake, Mom had enough energy to stroll to the Romerberg - Frankfurt's historic marketsquare. We discovered later that the heritage buildings were 1983-rebuilds following the destruction of World War 2, but it still has a classical ambience. And it's a great place to people watch, especially to spot newly married couples exiting city hall to cheering well wishers. Increasingly tired but with a couple hours yet to spend we climbed aboard the Gray Lin...
Read more

First impressions

Image
 Dakar is a city of stark contrasts.  It is the dusty season, so the air is gritty and redolent with exhaust from passing cars. Yet walking by the busy port you get a fresh breeze.  The sky is blue over the city. Birds sing cheerfully while stray dogs and cats roam and look for food or affection. Crumbling buildings and vacant lots are intermingled with more well-kept structures. The Presidential Palace glistens a luxurious white at the end of the street, while down the block in the other direction street-side vendors sell their wares out of ramshackle sheds built from corrugated metal.   The roads are pocked with holes and there are few sidewalks, yet when you leave the street to enter a cafe or shop they appear newly renovated. In one case, the shelves one one side of the epicerie were literally receiving a coat of varnish as we browsed produce across the floor.  The ocean is a deep blue and where there are trees they are lush. Flowers pour over walls that nee...
Read more