Glockenspieling: Good Friday in Baden-Baden

The long Easter weekend was upon us. Since B had a full 4 1/2 days off, we knew that we were going to travel, but the question was where did we want to go. Nana and Grampa had also lived in Europe at one point in time, so we were looking for places that we hadn't all been to. No one wanted to fly, so that narrowed it down a bit more. When we added in the fact that nothing would be open for the holiday weekend, we realized that the scenery had better be outstanding because there wasn't going to be much to do in the way of shopping or seeing landmarks, it narrowed it down even further. At some time during the discussion, Nana had mentioned that she would really like to revisit Baden-Baden as their first time there had been very short. B and I have never been. Finally, we had a starting point, and from there it was easy to plan a leisurely driving route that we were all looking forward to.

We left late afternoon on Thursday and what should have been a quick 3 1/2 hour drive stretched into about 4 1/2. We should have learned by now that all of Germany gets on the road for long weekends. But we made it and had a fantastic dinner in town before heading back to the hotel for some shut eye. We only had one full day here, so we wanted to make sure we made the most of it.

We were up and ready to go bright and early(ish). My girls put the final touches on their lips (they are so obsessed with tinted lipglosses at this age!) and were ready to do what sight seeing we could on Good Friday.

We walked up and up and up until we hit our first stop - the Faberge Museum. The world's only museum entirely devoted to the jeweler to the czars (get it? Czars; Stars..) Carl Peter Fabergé. He is famously known for his Easter Eggs (they were created for the Czar to present to his wife each Easter and, after his death, for his son to give to his wife and his mother). But aside from those 50 eggs, there is a much larger spectrum of work that Fabergé dedicated his life, and his craftsmanship, to. From the miniature animals (copied by Cartier later in the century) to the supplies he made for the Russian to help fight WWI (so that they would not take his master workers to war) the museum has an impressive set of artifacts and jewels. But if you are coming to see the Imperial Eggs alone you will be disappointed as they only have a handful...but what a handful. They have the very first egg ever created and the very last (unfinished) egg. It's enough to just see these two. Sadly, no pictures are allowed inside, so you will just have to take my word for their exquisiteness.

A picture in the museum garden. Fitting for the Easter weekend.

Baden-Baden is mainly known as a spa town. People flock here to partake of the healing waters and to relax and enjoy the beauty that surrounds them. As we had no agenda for the day and we were not sure what would even be open, we took a page out of that book and just meandered the streets of this small town and enjoyed the freedom to explore...

As we wandered, I spied purple. So many purple blossoms! I just had to know what was inside the small square that housed them.

The plant that drew me in...

It turns out that I was attracted to the Global Stone Garden in an open courtyard near a church and some federal buildings. I wish I could tell you where we found it exactly, but as we were not consulting a map, I truly don't know. I do know that the kids were fascinated with all of the painted rocks in the "garden." Started by the Ministry of Finance as a project for showing the wide variety of topics and participants in the G20 it is now on display for all to enjoy and even stop to paint a rock if you wish. We just marveled at the talent...

Stinkerbell and the stone garden.

We left the garden behind and looked up to see this...

The New Castle. Built in 1479, I would hardly call it new. It was bought in 2003 by a Kuwaiti group and is now being turned into a luxury hotel so no tours. Which was ok as it looked like quite the uphill hike and we had already done a bunch of that.

Our stomachs were no reminding us that it was almost lunch time. There didn't seem to be many places to eat up this high on the hill and it looked like our best bets on this holiday would be to get closer to town and the tourist route, aka the Riverwalk. We started down and got sidetracked by our surroundings at times (at least I did).

Oh, how I love a good Collanade...

The Neoclassical Kurhaus spa and event center.

And these crazy people who indulge my need to document with photographs...though they aren't quite sure how to pose for their own :)

Gorgeous Riverwalk, right?

We found lunch at a small cafe (the picture below on the right has the restaurant in the background). Once we finished, the girls were quick to remind me that I had promised they could jump on the stones in the fountain pond, so we crossed the street and let them go at it, hoping no one slipped.

They also pointed out two of their favorite places on the large tile medallion in the walkway...

We then tried to tour the Russia Church but had forgotten that it was a high Holy day and we would not be able to get in...ooops...

We were relatively close to the bus stop that we would need to catch to take us up Merkur mountain. I had read that if you take the cable car to the top, the views of the Black Forest were unprecedented. We waited 35 minutes for the bus (it only comes every hour) and then we waited for another 15 minutes past when it was supposed to arrive. Finally, we decided to cut our losses and left. Of course, the bus went by us when we were about 300 meters from the stop. He didn't see anyone waiting, so he kept right on going. It just wasn't our day. It all turned out ok though because we headed for the riverwalk where the girls got to play on the playground as we sipped our drinks on the terrace of a nearby restaurant.

After a bit of downtime, we went back to the hotel to refresh and relax a bit before heading out to dinner. Stinkerbell partook of her relaxing out on the deck in our hotel room...

We had found our dinner spot when we were looking for our lunch spot. I had mentioned the night before that I could actually go for an Asparagus risotto. Lo and behold, we found it, but the restaurant did not open until dinner time. On our way back to the hotel for a small siesta, B stopped in and talked the owners into a table (at a fully reserved restaurant) we just had to be done by 8 pm. No problem!

The restaurant turned out to be fabulous, and the owner took care of us personally for most of the night. The atmosphere was charming, the food delicious and the waitstaff very helpful but I think my favorite part was the signs hanging on the bathroom doors to distinguish between men's and women's.