The Heidelberg Castle built in the 13th century is one of the most important Renaissance structures in Europe. The castle also houses the world’s largest wine vat called the Heidelberg Fass.
After Heidelberg we took a short train to Stuttgart. It is home of Mercedes and definitely a more metropolitan city than Heidelberg. Stuttgart is referred to as “The Cradle of the Automobile” because both the motorbike and four-wheeled automobile were invented here. This spinning Mercedes Benz logo stands on top of the town hall.
This is the “New Castle” in the central square of Stuttgart. This castle was almost completely destroyed in WW2 and was rebuilt in the late 50s and then used by parliament.
Below is the State Opera House. It was one of the few buildings not damaged by the air raids of WW2. It’s one of the largest of its kind in Europe.
Here we are hanging out on the lawn in the City Centre.
Translated Baden-Baden means ‘Bath-Bath’ and that was exactly what we were in search of. The small town along the French border is home to Friedrichsbad, a Roman thermal bath & spa. With no guide book or German speaking abilities this was one of the hardest times we had getting around. There was no place to store our backpacks and train station we had arrived from was a little far from where we were heading. We did manage to find this Casino which also housed the Visitor’s Centre who then directed us to the baths. The casino was a surprisingly beautiful building and at first I thought we had reached the baths.
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This is where my fascination with windows and shutters began.
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Here is the entrance to Friedrichsbad:
We weren’t able to take images inside but I found this image online that shows what the interior was like.
The bathing experience was really wonderful. It is a 16-step process including hot air & steam rooms, a soap & brush massage, different temperatures of water pools, then a cold plunge (which I avoided). The process ends with a 30-minute nap where they wrap you tightly in a blanket inside a large peaceful rotunda. Here we are afterwards – very rested and relaxed.
Next we were on the train and on our way to Switzerland.
Germany
August 5, 2008 - 5:56 am
Just wanted to say that I love the new look of your blog. You seemed to have a LOT of fun during your trip in Europe. I would love to go to those german baths. It’s high I get relaxing time without the kids and with hubby. I wonder how far from Brussels, Belgium they are.
I’m interested to see what else you visited.
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