2 Nights in Baden-Baden

My partner Bonnie loves spas and Baden-Baden has been on her travel wish-list for a while. A UNESCO historic site, Baden-Baden is just one hour north of Strasbourg and definitely a worthy tourist destination. Although we had to cross over to Germany to visit Baden-Baden, we hardly noticed. Sure the language changed from French to German, but almost everyone spoke English so it didn't make much difference to us. The most notable difference was the speed limit on the Autobahn -- there was none! It's obvious that Germans enjoy driving fast and cars zoomed by us so fast we didn't dare enter the left lane. 

We're here for the baths, so we booked Hotel Römerhof which was two blocks from the spa. It just so happened that our hotel was also a few blocks from the town center, so we were surrounded by restaurants of all types. We had a really nice dinner at a Vinami Kitchen, a Vietnamese restaurant that went pan-Asian just to keep the tourists happy. 

The real surprise was finding a Georgian restaurant called Nani just around the corner. We had fond memories of eating at a Georgian restaurant 20 years ago when we were in Moscow, so we couldn't turn down this opportunity to refresh our memory. Like most tourist restaurants, Nani had a bilingual menu, but it was in Russian and German. No problem, I thought -- I have Google Translate on my phone and I can handle German/English translations. Except that the names of the dishes were German phonetic spellings of Russian words and Google didn't know what to do with that. Fortunately, the table next to us ordered well and I wanted what they were eating. Turns out they were Russian, loved Georgian cuisine, and spoke English. They reviewed the menu with us and made recommendations. Once again, we lucked out and had a lovely meal of Pkhali (Georgian salads), Chkmeruli (chicken in garlic cream sauce), and Khinkali (dumplings filled with minced meat). 

We came to Baden-Baden for the thermal waters and soon it was spa time. The thermal waters in Baden-Baden come from a natural source over a mile below the ground and emerges from 12 springs at over 150°F. This healing water is rich with minerals like sodium, chloride, fluoride, lithium, silica, and baron which are absorbed through the skin. The same waters are also available to drink out of fountains throughout the spas. You can bath in this thermal water at two spas in Baden-Baden -- the Caracalla or Friedrichsbad, a "historic bathing temple" established in 1877. 

We chose Friedrichsbad, the quiet "Roman-Irish bathing experience" for adults. With a total of 17 rooms (not all were open during our visit), the spa features dry sauna rooms, steam rooms, pools of various temperatures, massage rooms, a tea room, and more. This was a "textile-free" co-ed spa which is quite the norm in Germany. Yes, that meant bathing in the nude, showering in the nude, and even drinking tea in the nude. Since we've been to the renowned thermal baths at Esalen Institute in California, this was nothing new. Everyone had towels, but the exhibitionists carried their towels and went full frontal while the more modest chose to wrap their towel around themselves as they moved from room to room. Guess which sex did what. But no social pressure here, everyone was just naturally being comfortable with their own bodies in their own way.

Baden-Baden is also a very walkable town with hilly paths and great views. So we spent the rest of the time wandering around randomly and stumbling across scenic paths and public art. Two nights in Baden-Baden felt like the perfect amount of time. Now it's back to Paris for some urban adventures next.

(see more pictures of Baden-Baden)