Baden-Baden to French Parking Garage

Baden-Baden is located less than an hour from Heidelberg where we stopped in to enjoy a nice long afternoon in the Ancient Roman Baths that are found there. It doesn't look like much from the parking garage, but as you walk upstairs to the reception desk you know it's a good place by the half-smile, half-comatose look on everyone's face. I could only take so many pictures of foreigners in their swimsuits so I had to snag a few photos off the web so you could fully appreciate how incredible this place was. Take a look.


The grand room is a huge thermal bath that flows down this tiered pool that eventually continues outside. The center pool is a scorching temperature that eventually overflows into the next pool, and then the next, each cooling off gradually as they descend. You can pick whichever you want to start with or come back to.

There is a passageway that leads you into the outdoors where you can relax along the outside of the bath wall with your own waterfall or massage shower head that dumps hard-pressured water so you can just sit under it, close your eyes, and get your own massage. As we were sitting there, it started raining and the feeling of the warm thermal bath with the rain was a perfect harmonious combination. There are round spas located throughout the enormous outdoor bath where you can warm up and get another massage on your feet or lower back. They have a floating river and waterfalls everywhere. Here is an excerpt from the website that explains it a little more elegantly :o).

Relax between marble columns and immerse yourself in tempting turquoise blue pools. 12 natural springs rise from depths of around 6,500 feet and provide an unforgettable bathing experience in this 3,000 square foot glass temple. A romantic hot and cold rock grotto, bubbling whirlpools, waterfalls, counter-current pools and massaging water jets will guarantee a unique feeling of well-being.

Here is a few that I snapped from the inside looking out over the Caracalla Spa, you can see the tiered levels more clearly. Behind me to the left are rows of lounge chairs under heat lamps. The first time I have ever completely felt like a lizzard, basking under a heat lamp. Behind the chairs are several suanas, both dry and steam. The dry had eucalyptus oils, while the steam rooms had brine steam that helped with detoxifying.
I spent a lot of time in this place. This is the 'romantic hot/cold rock grotto' that was mentioned previously. On the right is a 55 deg (F) pool, and the left is a 100 deg (F) pool. Both had waterfalls that served as amazing massages for the head and neck. I loved jumping from one to the other and feeling the refreshing sting.We left Baden-Baden after a long, relaxing afternoon and decided to head over to France which was only another 50 minutes away. We made it there and found a downtown garage, parked, and couldn't move! The warm baths and massaged soft skin left us practically paralyzed. I almost fell asleep behind the wheel! Here I am finally in France and I couldn't even make it out of the parking garage, let alone the car! We eventually pried ourselves out of the car and made it up this incredibly narrow staircase that brought us to this amazing downtown square. Welcome to Strasbourg, France.
Jessica, me & Sonila infront of the Cathedral. Jessica had been here many times and had a favorite place to get French biscuits which was this adorable little store with fresh biscuits, caramels, candies, and chocolate covered olives.

Then, right next door to our Biscuit place was, of course, Creme glacee. Or Eis, Akullore, Gelato... This place was the most unique place I have been to in all of Europe. It was an artistic little store that creates individual flowers with your ice cream flavors.

We took our glace and headed towards the famous Cathedrale Notre-Dame, which was once the world's tallest building from the 1600s to the late 1800s. It is, no question, the most intricate cathedral I have seen so far. Every single inch of this place was created with such thought and consideration. Gothic and beautiful with amazing stained glass windows!
This is the 'Column of Angels'.

This was rather interesting. It was an Astrological tower that had all the signs placed on a circular disk, like the face of a clock. A maze of gears worked together to rotate this disk that was meant to be interpreted.

I love Shoes. Most of you know this about me, or at least have learned it from the last few posts. I love seeing all the new styles and it makes me all giggly and excited to try them on! We went into a shoe boutique and I saw this on display. The most adorable little girl designer shoes. Starting price 170 Euros. Going once... twice....

On the way back home, a most excellent event occurred. I FLEW past my last Autobanh speed. Sonila was trying to snag a photo of TOMTOM, but it was slightly difficult due to our excitement. Right after this was taken, we reached 135 mph (notice bottom right corner). Mike, Sonila's husband, is still at 120 mph. Mua ha ha!

Now, this doesn't look that amazing but it actually was pretty good. It was recommended as the house specialty. A stuffed Schnitzel with veggies and feta cheese. I barely polished off 1/4 of this puppy. It was pretty dense and heavy. All in all though, a perfect finish to another fun filled day in the life of me... in Europe.