Baden-Baden, the Spa city of Germany

We'll start off with a piece of trivia:  Do you know where the word 'spa' comes from? No, it isn't Swedish or Finnish or Norwegian, but of Roman origin. The Romans loved their baths, and they of course conquered and settled much of Europe, including the town of Baden-Baden which they called Aqua because of the hot spring mineral waters they found here. The term 'spa' that they coined is actually an acronym for 'Sante Per Aqua' or health through water. So now you know!

We set out from Karlsruhe early on a cool and rainy day, hoping that our hour's bus ride would bring us better weather. Maybe it was because Monica's red raincoat stayed on the ship that the rain didn't let up until the afternoon - or maybe it was Mother Nature's way of making sure that we all experienced some kind of a 'bath' in Baden-Baden, even if we didn't go to the spa.

On arrival in the city one of the first buildings we passed was the Russian Orthodox Church.

There has been a large Russian presence here for a long time, and as more and more Russians with money are traveling in Europe nowadays they are once more making their mark here. Many of the restaurants include Russian translations in their menus, and a Faberge Museum has been established here that exhibits four out of the approximately fifty known remaining Faberge Eggs.

Other than that, the city is still known as the 'leisure capital of the Black Forest', due to both the spas and the casino. So these formed a major part of our city tour.

First to the spas:  There are two spas in Baden-Baden (no that's not why they named it twice), the Friedensbad which is the older one built on the original Roman baths, and the Caracalla Bad, which is the 'new' one.

This is part of the actual Roman bath ruin

The entrance to the Friedensbad

The Friedensbad is the no-clothes and sometimes co-ed bath where there is a whole spa course you can go through. This involves successively warmer, and then hotter, water, and some brushes, rubs and massages in between. The hottest spa water is something around 160 degrees Fahrenheit. If you can handle it, the whole course takes about 6 hours, but the cost is actually quite reasonable at around 60 Euros. Mind you, you're sharing the spa with about 500 of your new closest friends!

The Caracalla Bad

The Caracalla Bad is the newer one where you need to wear a bathing suit (good thing!) and can go to  'take the water' in the mineral baths, sauna or steam for a very reasonable 15 Euros or so for an all-day pass. This is where most of the locals go. One thing we also found out was that your family doctor may prescribe a day or a week at a spa for whatever might be ailing you, and that the spa visits would then be covered by your medical insurance.

It continued to rain on and off while we were touring outside the spas (some people were probably wondering if they could get inside to get warm), and the rain picked up a bit as we made our way over to the Baden-Baden Casino. The Casino doesn't open until 2:00 in the afternoon and stays open until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, so we had our own private tours of the inside with our city tour guides.

The Casino here was opened in the early 1800s but was closed for 'morality' reasons in the 1870s by the Emperor of Germany at the time because he, being a good Catholic, believed that gambling was a bad habit. The Casino was actually reopened in the mid-1930s by Adolf Hitler, who understood how much easier it would be to raise large amounts of money by voluntary means rather than taxation. It has been open ever since and is owned by the city.

The original Horse Race Roulette table. When the
wheel is spun, the horses go around the outside as
the ball spins around. Each jockey and horse
represents one of the numbers.

One of the gaming salons.

This is quite the place. We did notice, however, that there are very few
blackjack tables. The patrons here seem to favour French Roulette,
American Roulette, Craps and some slot machines....would
you believe 'Oodles of Poodles'??

After our casino tour, we were treated to a special little 'lagniappe' or surprise - a champagne reception with hors d'oeuvres in one of the casino bars. This is no chintzy place; the champagne was even Moët & Chandon!

We then had a couple of hours to explore on our own before the bus ride back to the ship. So, it being our anniversary, we decided to do what we had done 34 years before and have a nice German meal. We had consulted our Frommer's Guide to Germany for info on Baden-Baden, and there was a recommendation for the Löwenbräu Keller. Since our wedding reception had been in a restaurant called Zum Kloster Keller, that sounded like just the thing, so we decided to give it a go.

As we put on the facebook post: Larry lifting some
free weights as he prepares to eat his dinner.

The food was great; very authentic and delicious. Larry had the Zwiebelrostbraten mit Bratkartoffeln (Roast Beef with Onion and Fried Potatoes) , and Monica, who loves the fish from this part of the world, had Schwarzwaldforelle mit Pellkartoffeln (Whole Panfried Black Forest Trout with Boiled Potatoes). The only disappointment that we had was that the restaurant didn't serve Schwarzwälderkirschtorte, the famous Black Forest Cake. Even though Monica ate more than her fair share of it when she was small, we couldn't miss out on it this time, being in the ACTUAL Black Forest,  so we found a table at an outside bistro and had our dessert and coffee out there.

Once back on the ship we prepared for the evening. We haven't mentioned yet that the Compass Rose Dining Room is nicely laid out with tables mainly for four, six or eight. Breakfast buffet is great and includes healthy stuff like Muesli and Smoothies as well as typical German fare like cheese, cold cuts, brötchen (buns) and jams, and eggs however you like them. Their fresh made Belgian Waffles are really good, too! Lunch is also a buffet, but we've mainly had lunch off the ship when we've been on tour, but the lunches we've had have also been very good.

Dinners have been quite tasty and not an overly large portion. The soups have been great, but then Europeans, and especially the Dutch (and we have a Dutch woman as our executive chef) are very good at making soups. We've already had our White Spargel Dinner, which some of our fellow passengers thought was a bit of asparagus overkill, as it is currently white asparagus season in northern Europe. It was wonderfully delicious!

It hasn't been warm enough yet to spend any time on the upper decks after dinner, but, fingers crossed, we will start to get the temperatures that were forecast before we left. As soon as we get the opportunity to take more photos of the ship, we'll post them.