Day trip to Baden-Baden

My husband flew out on July 18, so July 19 I decided to take a day trip to Baden-Baden because it is only 2-3 hours away by train.

so I hate to complain, but let me just say that Baden-Baden has one of the least tourist-friendly train stations I've seen so far. Most cities that are big enough to have a tourist information office (and this one has two) have it either right when you exit the train station, or it is somewhere in the city center. This one was neither. Well, the "main" tourist info office was neither, which has better hours than the office in the park by the Kurhaus (which ended up being much easier to find, just go to that one off the bat). But I went on a Sunday, so the main office was open and the other one wasn't when I got there. From the map it looked like it was on the way to the city center, but it really wasn't. The further you go down the street it is supposed to be on, the emptier it gets. You pass a fire station, a home inporvment store, some industrial buildings, then you get to an apartment complex, which would have looked cute and pleasant, except it was Sunday, so the place was empty, and there was just enough of a breeze to rustle the leaves, so it was a little creepy. The further you walk, the more you wonder if someone changed the maps as some sort of trap for stupid tourists. eventually when I looked down the road I could see nothing but hedges, so I turned around and went to the nearest bus stop and got on a bus that I thought was going to Merkur mountain, but was only doing half its route because Sunday. Who knows, maybe it would have just been around the next corner, but I did not find out. but there was a lovely babbling brook on the way, so I took a picture.

So now that my complaining is done, let's skip ahead to wear I eat lunch while waiting for the other tourist info office to open. I saw a sign for Lowenbrau and headed that way because a good beer with my lunch sounded good after the rough start to the trip. This is what I found.

The animatronic piano player kind of put me off, so I just went to the place across the way. which happened to sell Lownbrau beer anyway, so win for me!

There was a little city-train tourist bus thing. Normally, depending on the city, I try to avoid those types of things and hop-on hop-off buses, mostly just because they are a waste of money if you are in a walkable city where most of the main sights are pretty close together. I remember Dublin being pretty spread out, so it seemed worth it then. This one was only worth it because it went to Merkur Mountain, one of the sights I definitely wanted to see. And I did see city buses stop there too, but I had already failed at that once, so I didn't really care at that point.

Trinkhalle, cool old building where the other tourist info office is

Casino

Theatre

Merkur Mountain was really cool, probably the highlight of my trip. What did I say before climbing tall things and taking pictures?

The funicular that takes you up to the top of the mountain is the steepest in Europe. 

The view when you get to the top

The observation tower at the top (yes I climbed that too)

The Roman relief of Mercury that gave the mountain its name

view from the observation tower

There was also Leopold Platz, the protestant church, several spas (one of which had a museum of the ruins of the roman baths, but it was closed, not sure if it was because it was Sunday or because it was after 5). One of the coolest parts of the city (in my opinion) was Lichtenaler Allee (allee translates to boulevard in the audio program on the tourist train), which is a long and narrow park that runs along the river. It contains within it one of two rose gardens in the city, Goenerlage. It was very pretty.

Leopold Platz

I think this was the Faberge museum, but I didn't go in, so I am not sure

Stadtkirche

The next couple are Spa buildings, both modern and Roman. 

Stiftskirche

A shot from Lichtentaller Alle

The bridge to the Rose Garden

At some point I also tried to see the New Palace (Neues Schloss). I read that it is privately owned, but I figured I would be able to find somewhere to take a cool picture, right? well, not so much. There is a garden behind the Market Square that looks up at it, but the part visible from there was being restored or remodeled, so I couldn't really see it.

Then I saw that there were stairs leading up to the street the palace is on. I figured I'd go up them and see if I could get a better view. I did eventually get a somewhat better view, but it really wasn't worth all the stairs - especially not on such a hot day after climbing so many stairs at the mountain already. So don't bother, that's my advice.

So with the mess at the beginning of the trip, the rain, half the bus routes not running on Sunday, and wasting time with the Palace, I didn't get home until pretty late and was rather tired when I got home. But despite all the crazy mishaps, it was still a pretty cool trip.