Day 59 (August 6th): Baden Baden

We woke up at 9:00 AM, showered and went downstairs for breakfast. Breakfast was served buffet style in the dining room and there was a nice selection of rolls, meats, cheeses, juices, eggs, lox and other assorted goodies. The kids ate cereal, hard boiled eggs and croissants. I focused in on the lox on pretzel bread (great combo!). Now that we had a solid breakfast we were ready to hit the town. Baden Baden is one of the oldest spa towns in the world and our plan was to find a spa and relax for the day. We asked the concierge about the spas and found out that there are two of them. One separated the men and women and had nudity, the other one allowed men and women together. It was clear which one was more family oriented. We got our gear and walked to the Caravelle Therme Spa. We went inside and bought a 4 hour block of spa time and reserved a few massages. This spa was built upon thermal springs so the water you swim in is naturally heated water. Within the complex is a number of different pools. There is a huge indoor pool that connects to an outdoor pool with 96 degree water. Then there are a couple of other pools with 103 degree water. In addition they have a cold pool (65 degrees), a very hot pool (105+), a couple of aromatherapy steam rooms, and a relaxing room with reclining chairs and heat lamps. You can't beat it. The water is wonderful and the kids had a great time going from one room/pool to another. Our favorites were the aromatherapy steam room where you sit and sweat while breathing in fragranced air, and the outside pool that had a circular jet propulsion system that shot you around the pool. When we were walking around we found an upstairs area called the Roman room and went to check it out. It was a nudist outdoor hang out area and "things" were definitely "hanging out". The people there were older and I made sure not to focus in on anything so I could sleep at night, but Allison and Hannah saw an old guy that they soon will not forget (sorry, no pictures). We went back downstairs and hit the pools again. Our four hours went by pretty quickly and we needed to head out so we could make our massage time (4:00 PM). Zach didn't want a massage so we got him a hydro massage instead. We went up to the Hydro room which was very odd looking with various metal and water contraptions. The picture on the left of Hannah standing in one of the pools gives you a basic sense of the room. First you soak in a big tub (see picture on top) and a big German woman cleans your body with a brush. Then you stand against a wall and she takes a high powered hose and sprays your body with a combination of hot and cold water. Although this sounds rather strange Zach actually liked it. Hannah had a hydro massage also. It was now 5:00PM and we had 30 minutes before our real massages so we walked around the block and got some food. I had a salami sandwich and the kids had pretzels and croissants. I took the first massage time slot and walked back to the building. The massage focused on the back only. Hannah took the next one and then Al took the last one. It was now 7:00 PM and we walked around town looking for a restaurant to eat dinner at. The kids found a little playground next to a restaurant near the water so we decided this was a good place to eat. While Al stayed with the kids, I made a side trip to the world famous Baden Baden casino (see picture on right) a couple of blocks away to get my last casino chip of the summer. I did pretty well gathering a total of 9 chips for my collection. Back at the restaurant, Zach ordered mozzarella sticks, Hannah had buffalo wings, Al had a Thai pasta with a white wine and I had a chicken club with a beer. After dinner we walked around looking for our ice cream night cap but had a difficult time finding any. We ended up going back to the hotel and getting some. They wouldn't allow us to bring it to the room, but instead they needed to provide us room service "for insurance purposes". 3 scoops of ice cream cost us 10 Euros ($14 dollars) and then they charged us 5 Euros ($7) for room service. This was definitely the most expensive ice cream of the trip. We all showered up and laid in bed watching a French game show on TV that was actually pretty enjoyable even though we didn't understand what they were saying. It was our most relaxing day of the summer and we all had no problem falling asleep.

Day 60 (August 7th): Baden Baden, Heidelberg & Frankfurt

We woke up at 8:30 AM, showered and packed up our stuff before heading downstairs for the nice buffet breakfast. Everybody ate the same things as yesterday. Kids had croissants and cereal and I had the lox on pretzel bread. After breakfast we went back to the room and finished packing. We then had the bags brought down and the car brought around front. Our goal for the day was to drive to Heidelberg and then to stay over in Frankfurt so we could catch our plane tomorrow. Since we didn't have a hotel room in Frankfurt, Al used the hotel Internet connection and booked us a room at the Holiday Inn near the airport. She finished up and we walked around the corner in the rain and checked out a couple of children clothing stores. The kids couldn't find anything they wanted so we walked down the block to the supermarket and picked up some drinks and snacks for the drive. The drive to Heidelberg was only 55 miles but it took us around 1.5 hrs because of the rain and traffic. Our first stop in Heidelberg was the famous castle at the top of the mountain. The kids were not very interested in walking around the castle, so we drove right up to it and took some pictures of the outside (see picture on left). We then took the windy road down the mountain and parked the car in a parking lot right next to the main street. Our first stop was lunch at a Turkish pizza place. We all got pizzas that everybody enjoyed. We continued walking around town after lunch and stopped in a number of stores looking for souvenirs. All the stores sold pretty much the same stuff. The rain did not let up and not everybody was happy (see middle picture. Yes, that is a "bird"). We walked down to the river and got a nice view of the surrounding area and of the castle on the mountain (see picture on right). Our next stop was the Rathaus and then we bought some souvenirs for the kids friends; doll, big gummi bear, wood toy. It was getting late so we headed back to the car and drove 1.25 hrs to the Holiday Inn at Frankfurt. We unloaded our stuff and brought it up to the room. The room was fine especially since it had two large beds and breakfast was included. Speaking of food, it was time for dinner so we walked a couple of blocks down the road and ate at an Italian restaurant. Hannah had salad, Zach had a pizza and I had a pasta with a nice beer. Dinner was ok and we walked back to the room, showered the kids and hit the sack.

Day 61 (August 8th): Frankfurt & Atlanta

We woke up at 6:15 AM for our last day in Germany. It was tough to motivate but we showered, packed up and went downstairs for the buffet breakfast. This buffet was not as good as some of the other places we had been to, but you can't complain when it's "free". We packed up the car and hit the road around 7:00 AM. It was a 15 minute drive to the Avis rental return at the airport and we said goodbye to our BMW X3 that clocked over 2700 KM during the last 12 days. We checked our luggage and went to the Lufthansa Business Lounge at 9:15 AM. Our flight was 10:40 AM so we had sometime to enjoy some snacks and I had my last German beer in Germany (Becks). We boarded the plane around 10:00 AM and got settled in our comfortable reclining chairs. I watched Shrek 3 on the plane and ate Herring (not good), chicken and pasta, rolls and a few little desserts along with a couple of Warsteiner beers. All throughout Germany I had seen advertisements for Campari and soda and never tried one, so I decided to sample it on the plane (why not? free drinks). It was very bitter and I didn't like it at all so I ordered another beer to wash the bad taste from my mouth. The kids were great on the plane and ended up watching 4 movies each. We landed at 2:45 PM EST and went through customs pretty quickly. By the time we re-checked our luggage and got through the crazy security at Atlanta we exited the terminal at 4:30 PM where the Turners (and Fuzzy Dog) were there to pick us up. It was brutal outside (close to 100 degrees) and we were not used to the hot weather but happy to be home. We made it back to our house a little after 5:00 PM and then went to Houstons for dinner. Al and I shared a cheeseburger and a Thai jungle steak salad. After dinner we drove back home and settled in. It was strange to be home and lying in our own bed watching 300 channels of English speaking tv.
As I look back on our trip and the last 61 days, I was extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to live abroad and travel as extensively as I did. I saw more of Germany than most Germans do in a life time. The kids experienced Europe for the first time and learned a lot about the culture and its history. I am happy that I motivated to maintain this Blog and take thousands of pictures to properly document the trip and help remind us of the wonderful sites we experienced. I know the kids will not remember everything and hopefully this Blog will be a good reference for them in the future. For those of you that have kept up with the Blog, I hope it has been a fun experience for you too, even though you had to hear about every meal we ate in detail. It is at this point that my 2007 O'Saff's European Adventure ends and reality begins again.
Sincerely,
O'Saff