Baden-Baden is the city we stayed for 2 nights on this long weekend trip to the Black Forest. The city is well-known for its spa and casino. It is a fancy resort town, particularly popular among Russians, so much so that there is even a museum of Fabergé eggs here.
The ambiance reminds me of Evian just across the lake from us except this town seemed bigger (see our earliest posts about Evian here and here).
Caracalla spa is the biggest spa in town. Next to it was a traditional roman spa where absolute nudity is expected.
Bathing outdoors in the winter time must be nice. It was not exactly warm when we were visiting.
We did not go to either one of the above-mentioned spas because our hotel has a small outdoor spa of its own which is connected to an indoor swimming pool. We spent a couple of hours bathing before dinner.
The fountain of the hotel is fed by warm spa water as evidenced by the mist.
“Baden-Baden” means city of Bath in the state of Bath. Hence, there are lots of “Bad Hotel” (spa hotel) here in town.
We took a funicular up to the summit of Merkur which in theory should afford us a panormic view of Baden-Baden.
But the weather was not cooperating, unfortunately.
We had dinner at a touristy Bavarian bar and eatery – Gasthaus Löwenbräu – run by the Löwenbräu brewery.
The Gasthaus had a nice beer garden which was empty – it was too cold to sit outside.
The food was standard tavern fare but the dark beer was very tasty and not too heavy.
More to come on Baden-Baden.