Around the Rhine. I had never given Baden-Baden much thought before this day. I spent a few months preparing for the trip as advertised, gathering information on the places we were slated to see along the Rhine β the key sights, their historical importance, places to eat, and good areas for shopping.
But the drought gripping Germany meant we would need to leave the Rhine and all those plans behind. We boarded a bus in the early morning and took it through farmland east of the Rhine, rising briefly as we reached the Black Forest, then descending into the little Oos River valley to Baden-Baden. We stopped at the Evangelical Church of Baden-Baden, built in , and started walking north toward the center of this 19th century city.
The Romans took in the hot springs at Baden-Baden, establishing a bath house 2, years ago on a hill above the eastern bank of the Oos river. There are 12 natural springs in town, whooshing up from wells nearly 6, feet deep at 90 gallons per minute. In , tales of these restorative waters reached the ear of Queen Louise of Prussia, who visited Baden-Baden to seek a cure for an ailment.
The government funded development projects aimed at making Baden-Baden a resort destination with rejuvenative powers. It worked. Baden-Baden boomed. Our group was headed for Kurhaus, home of the grand Casino Baden-Baden. We first passed through another Christmas market under construction, on the promenade in front of Kurhaus. We would see four half-built markets on this trip, all beckoning with seasonal and regional delights.
If you drift a bit, let your mind go, you can catch a glimmer of happy crowds moving through the stalls, young faces glowing under the lights, swirls of steam from hot drinks β a little corner of high spirits gathered together on a chilly December night. But this was November. So we had a quiet stroll through a ghost town of boarded-up decorations, a light mist now dampening our way.
