I Forgot to Mention

I forgot to mention our brief excursion into France while on our trip to Baden-Baden.  On Sunday, the day we went to the horse races, we were very close to the French border.  Iffezheim is right on the Rhine, which is the border between Germany and France in that area. We decided to drive over to France for lunch before the horse races.

Here is a Google Maps link to see where we were.  If you look due west along D1063, you’ll eventually get to Haguenau, which is the town in France that we drove to.  However, once we got there, we realized everything except the Irish pubs and some pizza places were closed because it was Sunday.  Besides that, the French are crazy drivers, and it stressed us out, so we turned around and drove back to Iffezheim for lunch at the race track.  We had bratwurst and Fanta, yum!  Fanta is actually good here – it’s not as sweet (nor as bright orange) as it is in the States.

Since I linked that other map here, I figured I can also give you an aerial shot of where we stayed in Baden-Baden. Go here to see that map.  I have it zoomed in and on satellite view.  We stayed in the building on Solmsstraße that is set a little further back from the road. It’s closer to the big building (the casino).  What you can’t tell from the map is that the place we stayed was much higher up than the casino – we were on top of a hill.  If you zoom out, you’ll see a big green plaze just east of us, which is where the festival was.  And in the dense buildings just east of that is where we did the shopping.

This is a link to an aerial satellite view of the baths.  Caracalla, the one we went to, is the one where you can see the water and there’s a big round building.  The older bath house is the one just to the left of the red “pushpin” in the map.  Just north of the old bath, you can see one of Germany’s many castles/palaces.

And finally, I just found this article in the New York Times that was written about Baden-Baden. It’s worth checking out if you want to know more about where we stayed.

Oh yeah, have I mentioned that Baden-Baden is in the Black Forest? If not, then I have now!

That’s all for now.  I’ve been very busy with school this week.  Our professor doesn’t let us have any breaks…it’s ridiculous!  We are in class every day from 6-9:30 PM without a single 5-minute break.  As a result of not being able ot get up and stretch, I have gotten very sore.  The desks are less than comfortable, and they’ve made my back and legs ache.  Wow, I feel old.  Send me good thoughts this weekend, as I’m supposed to be in class with this professor Saturday and Sunday from 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM.  Yuck!