Baden Baden (and a fairy)

So, I have an old high school friend, Karolina, that might come visit here in January and, when we were chatting on email, she mentioned how she wanted to share Strasbourg and nearby Baden Baden with her beloved.  Well, I had never heard of Baden Baden before then so I decided to research it a bit since we were going to be in the area.  When I first looked, I thought perhaps we should skip it because, more than anything else, Baden Baden (or bathe bathe) is known for (you’ve guessed it, right?) its baths.

It has been known for its baths since the time of the Romans and even now many people come here to go bathe in the mineral waters.  It is fairly inexpensive to partake of this experience, but the fact is, with 3 small children, a spa day is just so not going to happen.  So, I thought maybe I would choose something else to do.  I did some more research, and found a few interesting castles etc… in the Strasbourg area, but just kept coming back to the idea of Baden Baden.  I looked a bit more closely and found there were many, many other things, besides the baths, to make this town worth visiting.  Plus, I really wanted to get into Germany!

So our plan was to leave the gite by around 8 am so we could have some quality time before heading back home.  Unfortunately, Zander got sick in the night.  Luckily, we always bring some ibuprofen with us when we travel, so we were able to get him through the night and the next day of touring – just keep on popping those pills, ok?  However, all the drama made us a bit late and we ended up not reaching Baden Baden until almost 11am.  As usual, there was no drama, or even a welcome sign, when we crossed the border from France to Germany.  We just started noticing the signs were in a different language…

Our first stop, just outside the city, was an information kiosk that gave us a map.  We often stop and get these when touring – to help us find our way around.   Andre used his rusty German to communicate and the helpful worker marked our hit spots on the map.  Armed with this, we headed up a nearby mountain to visit Altes Schloss (Old Castle), also known as Hohenbaden.  This is a giant ruin of a place.  It was built in the 11th century and has been abandoned since the 15th, when the margraves of Baden moved down to the New Castle.  If you are like me, and you have no clue what a margrave is, although you have heard the word before, read onward.  (Thanks, as always goes to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baden-Baden).  It turns out that a margrave is some sort of nobleman that has military responsibility.  The region of Baden, bordering France, has historically been full of conflict, so I guess the family that lived there had to not only take care of the people of the town but also defend them when enemies arose.  Since the king really wanted his border areas to remain secure, a successful margrave would have greater autonomy and more power than your average count.  Of course, they also had to deal with the whole ‘people are going to try to kill you’ thing.  Many, many enemies did arise against poor Baden – and most of them were French. (Turns out it wasn’t called Baden Baden until 1931 when people kept confusing it with Baden, Switzerland). In fact, among other conflicts, it was pillaged in 1643 and left in ashes in 1689. 

Picture the scene.  Hans and Frans, young men, are surveying the wreckage of their town.
Hans:  Hello Frans, I’m glad to see you survived.
Frans: You too my friend, but I’m not looking forward to rebuilding this disaster.
Hans:  I know,we were totally pillaged!
Fast forward 40 years to when they are old men…
Frans: Well Hans, it looks like this is the end of Baden.
Hans:  I know, 1643 was bad, but this time we were left in ashes.
Frans: Oh well, we’ll be dead soon anyway.

But, back to Altes Schloss.  We had a great time wandering around in the ruins.  The place was surrounded by forest and hiking trails and we  enjoyed, as usual, just hiking around it. There were lots of lizards skittering about and I managed to get a shot of one.  Also we saw some really interesting mushrooms.  In my French class, last week we were talking about French food and started discussing mushrooms.  Turns out that out of the 6 or so people in class, only the teacher and myself did not regularly go out and gather mushrooms to eat.  The African, Afghani, Cambodian, German and Algerian all expressed surprise we did not make this a regular  habit.  My entire life, I’ve been told to never, ever mess with mushrooms, you need, like, a PhD to even attempt this.  Many mushrooms look similar – and, if you eat the wrong one you can end up dead.  I habitually forbid my nature loving kids to even touch the things, I am so wary.  Who knew this does not hold true in other cultures? Live and learn, I suppose, unless you eat the wrong mushroom, and die.  We got to walk around through the castle and wander through where the great hall must have been.  Nestled in one of the window niches was the largest wind harp in Europe.  I had read about  the wind harp ahead of time and was disappointed it was not a windy day – no chance to hear the music!  I really appreciated, however, this artist.  He made  something modern and amazing, that fit with the feel of the castle – it seemed like it belonged there, somehow. Most of the time, the modern installations just annoy me!  I was very inspired to see, as we climbed a bit higher, the remains of a romantic dinner or breakfast for two perched on the edge of a crumbling walkway.  Romance lives on, people!  Soon afterward we watched an employee of some sort come and clear the table.  He simply tossed all the leftover wine and bread etc… over the side of the castle wall.  Hope there were no walkers!  The place was almost empty – although we did see 3 other people who turned out to be on a long vacation from Peru – see, we are not the only adventurers!  We then climbed up to the top of the ramparts to enjoy fantastic views over the Black Forest.  Totally awesome.

                      

We headed back down the stairs and got in the car, passing by the wonderful looking cafe that is in one part of the castle they must have restored- perhaps this is more what it looked like? (The wood doors, not the tables and chairs…). Our next stop was to be Trinkehalle – the town’s pump house. Here you can take a taste from the 17,000 year old Friedrichsbad spring.   We got more than a bit lost however, and ended up seeing a sign for Merkur mountain.  Since this was also on our hit list we went for it.  Merkur Mountain (named by the Romans for Mercury, the messenger god with winged feet) at 2200 meters, is the highest peak in the area and has a famous funicular that runs up it.  This was too good of a chance to miss since riding it, especially since, roundtrip cost for our whole family was only about 8 Euros.   Really, the Swiss should take some notes from the Germans on how to make fun things affordable.   The funicular, known as the Merkerburgbahn, heads up the hill every 15 minutes or so and has been around for over 100 years.  This makes it one of the oldest funiculars out there, but it seems to be working just great!  It is also the steepest funicular in Germany and has grades up to 54%.  That is very, very, steep – that makes you feel like you are going to topple backwards.  To put this into perspective, trucks have to use low gear when driving on hills that are 5% grade!  Try 10 times that, folks. I discovered, while researching, that the steepest funicular in Europe (located in Gelmerbahn, Switzerland) has up to 110% grade.  Ummm…. I think they are cheating on that number (unless they are actually going backwards).  Obviously this must go on my list of things to see….

We made it to the top in one piece and ate our picnic lunch at a thoughtfully provided picnic bench near the summit.  The view was awesome, of course, and we could even see the ruins of Altes Schloss, where we had just been, off in the distance.  Walking around a bit more, we  discovered a free water fountain (in german they say ‘trinkewasser’) to fill up our bottles and, happy day, a fun playground, with a particularly good slide. We spent many happy moments playing before climbing to the top of another tower to see an even grander view.  We headed  back down the funicular –  totally seemed like we were plunging off the edge of a cliff- and headed back to the car.   Trinkehalle, here we come! Or so we thought.  For those of you who take the traveling plunge, please know these facts about navigating Baden Baden. 1. The map they give out in the tourist help place is wrong 2. The map they give out in the tourist help place is wrong and 3. THE MAP THEY GIVE OUT IN THE TOURIST HELP PLACE IS WRONG!!!!  We were going absolutely crazy trying to navigate in this place.  I was driving, so André could direct, and I think I had the most terrifying driving experience of my life when we somehow got trapped in an old quartier where the roads were so narrow I had to inch along to avoid scraping Mr. Liberty (who is not a particularly large vehicle).  The streets were beautiful, but no photos, we were too focused on not dying.  It was so hard!  We would follow a road and get to the intersection, and it would turn, suddenly, into a dead end with a walking path – was this marked on the map?  No.  We would come to another intersection and  none of the roads would match the names written on the map. At another point, we got close and realized only pedestrians were allowed on these roads (also not marked on the map) It would have been funny, if it wasn’t so ridiculously frustrating!  At the end of the day, I’d say the downtown of Baden Baden is meant for walking, not  driving!  We finally got to a park that we thought was near Trinkehalle and parked the car.  I think it took over an hour to get there!  The park was absolutely beautiful.  We wandered through it passing gigantic cedar trees.  André used the timer to get this shot of us trying to give it a hug.  We often hug special trees we see on our travels and this one was the first that, even with the five of us reaching, we could not span. You can just see Zander’s hand reaching past the trunk – we needed one more body!

Then we made it to Trinkehalle.  It was a beautiful building with 14 frescoes depicting legends  about Baden-Baden – but the explanations of the legends were only in German.  I was sad since I wanted to learn a Baden Baden legend. I had trouble finding any even online  - though I found this link http://www.websters.net/blackforest/legends.html to Black Forest legends and on a hotel website I found a legend about the founding of the town - “According to legend Baden Baden's beautiful, spacious and liberal townscape came into being thanks to a mishap of the gods. Long ago, while playing with their `historical building bricks`, the gods seem to have got a bit mixed up with their architectural epochs. At a loss, they then finally each chose their favorite building and put them together on this delightful spot. And that is how Baden-Baden came into being, in the valley of the Oos River, just west of the Black Forest”

We headed inside and, sure enough, there was the fountain of water  streaming down, free  for the taking.  It was fun to fill a water bottle and taste a sip of the same water people have been drinking for healthiness since at least the time of the Romans.  We all tasted it – Zander actually really liked it.  I can’t really describe how it tasted, except by saying it was strange, almost thick tasting.  I kept a small bottle of it to  bring back home.  We headed back through the park to get to the car, passing some confused crocuses, an amazing waterfall, and a fairy.  Yes, people, that’s right, for real live life, a fairy.  We were walking along innocently enough when suddenly Callie started jumping up and down yelling – “Look, a fairy, a fairy! Quick, take a picture Mom!” Always eager to nurture their amazing imagination, (and see fairies) I shot quickly at the spot she was gesturing towards.  But, here’s the amazing part, this is the photo I got….   I will also show all of you an extreme close up on the white blob…  All I can say is I don’t know what it is, but I do believe there are more things in heaven and earth that can be explained by our feeble brains and also that I have 2 long time friends who 100% believe that fairies are real so, I say, why not?  I think it is a fairy – and one of the coolest things we’ve seen on our travels.  It even glows!

We headed back home – way behind schedule of course and got to drive along on the Autobahn.  André pushed Mr. Liberty to 100 miles an hour (that would be about 160KM per hour), but it felt crazy and Mr. Liberty started to shake a bit so we slowed back down!  Most of the cars were going between 80 and 120 mph on the highway – some were definitely racing.  It is definitely true that the Germans, as a whole, drive completely differently than the French.  Frankly, I’m glad we are in France.  The Germans drive very, very fast, they are not afraid to cut you off and follow so closely from behind there is no way an accident could be avoided if you stop short.  I have even noticed this to hold true when Germans drive in France.  When I see a German license plate, I get out of their way!  We made it home in one piece, stopping at McDonalds for dinner and fell into our beds. 

Zander ended up sick for the rest of the week with the grippe and Griffin, after puking all over his classroom Tuesday morning, joined him.  After that, Daddie also got sick and Zander actually got sick again for a few days.  I am wondering, since Callie and I have remained unscathed, if this is some sort of testosterone-targeting germ?   This is a main part of the reason I am so behind on blogging (besides planning for Ireland, of course).  But I am determined to catch up before we leave since I anticipate a cornucopia of blogging material starting at the end of next week.

Strasbourg

OK – it’s been some time for me and I’m having major start up issues, for whatever reason.  Thanks to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strasbourg for panoramic photo, above, and facts.  

We spent a lovely night in Schnersheim.  This gite was perfect, plenty of room for us and included a yard that the kids had a great time playing around in.  They had some riding toys (a tractor and a car) that the kids spent hours pushing up and down the slight hill of the yard.   The town was very small, perhaps less than 100 houses, but had an absolutely beautiful little town square and church we drove by.   We had our breakfast and then headed over to Olivier’s house. 

The non-Dhondt kids were to stay with Grandma (Mami) for the day (Z,C&G were totally heartbroken) but Olivier and Nadine accompanied us to Strasbourg.  They both grew up in the area and attended university in the city.  Strasbourg is a large city – and the capital of the Alsace region (much as Besancon is the capital of the Franche Comte).  It is very well known for its excellent universities and for being the seat of several European institutions.   The first one listed was the Council of Europe – it sounds important, but really, what impressed me, is that it is also one of the capitals for the European Union – now that, I’ve even heard of!

It took us a while to get out the door and then finding parking was an issue.  Then we had fun taking the tram into the center of town.  We wandered around a bit past beautiful red stone and timbered buildings.  I know Olivier told us a story about the one photographed at left – but I can’t remember it!   This area has had lots of disputes, being right near the German-French border and we saw one sculpture with a mother holding 2 dying sons.  One had fought for Germany and one for France – and they ended up killing each other.  It reminded me of stories about our own Civil War – when brother was sometimes against brother.  We also wandered by some fountains and the opera house, all the time heading towards the main event – the cathedral!

There are just so many things that are awesome about the Strasbourg Cathedral.  For a complete run down, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strasbourg_Cathedral.  First off, it’s simply  huge.  Turns out it was the tallest building in the world for 227 years (1647-1874) and, even now, it is the 6th tallest church in the world.  It was designed to have 2 parallel towers but Olivier informed us that the original ground was quite mucky and swampy.  They sunk posts (like in Venice) to build the foundation on but, by the time they finished the first tower, the ground was shifting.  They decided not to press on – to avoid collapse.  I did not find this story on Wikipedia and, when I looked further, searching google, I came up empty.  I suspect it might just be because they ran out of money – but hey, the sinking church theory is much, much cooler.  I did find this legend about the cathedral on Wikipedia, which implies there was some  sort of watery base to the church… “the building rests on immense piles of oak sinking into the waters of an underground lake. A boat would roam around the lake, without anyone inside, though the noise of the oars could be heard nevertheless. According to the legend, the entry to the underground lake could be found in the cellar of a house just opposite the cathedral. It would have been walled up a few centuries ago.”    So very Phantom of the Opera!

This place is actually rife with legends and rumors. It is located smack dab in the middle of the city center, with only a fairly small place separating it from the souvenir shops naturally located just across the way.  This was a bit frustrating, photographically speaking, since we    couldn’t even come close to fitting the whole thing into our photo.  The facade is considered a masterpiece of Gothic art – and the same architects and artisans who worked on Chartes came down to work on this cathedral as well.  The wind was not noticeably strong outside, or inside the day we arrived, but, apparently, this must not always be the case, since there is also a legend about wind. “In olden days, the Devil flew over the ground, riding the wind. Thus he caught a glimpse of his portrait carved onto the cathedral: the Tempter, courting the foolish virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), in the guise of a seductive young man. It is true that his back opens up and toads and snakes come out of it, but none of the naïve girls notices that — nor do many tourists for that matter. Very flattered and curious, the Devil had the idea to enter to see whether there were other sculptures representing him on the inside of the cathedral. Taken captive inside the holy place, he could not come back out. The wind always waits in the square and still howls today from impatience on the places outside the cathedral. The Devil, furious, makes air currents from the bottom of the church to the height of the pillar of angels.”  So, I guess you could say, this is the house of the Devil – how ironic! The sculptures and stained glass in this location – much of it original back from the 12th century, are breathtaking. I read that, during WWII, the town removed 74 of the windows to be stored for safekeeping.  They are now back and absolutely glorious (thanks to Wikipedia for rose window photo!).  This was quite a treat for us, since most of the old glass seems to have been broken out in other places we have visited.

Two final mentions for the interior.  One is the Astronomical clock – it is the largest I have ever seen, and indeed, at 13 meters, is one of the largest in the world.  There was a clock here from the earliest days of the cathedral.  The first one was built in the 1300’s and this one was completed in 1842, and has been working ever since.  Olivier told us that the creator, after he was done, was jailed so he would never be able to make another clock so magnificent.  The wiki site claims the legend is that his eyes were gouged out.  Either way, the dude was totally screwed.  It was a cool clock, but almost too big – we all agreed we prefer our own astronomical clock of Besancon.     The care of the clock has been in the hands of one company’s employees since its completion.  No one knows how to reproduce the mechanism that makes it function, so keeping it working is essential.  Also in this area of the transept was yet another giant grate.  Of course, the kids headed right over but I was intrigued.  This time it appeared adults were also gazing in wonder at the grate.  Well, it turns out that people have tossed money down the holes of this particular grate for maybe 50 years or so.  Looking down, it seemed as if someone had dumped a gold-laden treasure chest down there.  Of course, the kids were fascinated and had me try to take many photos (none of which turned out!)

When writing about grates last week, I got an email from my sister M – M is paranoid about electronic privacy – so we will not reveal her true identity. (Plus she likes James Bond – isn’t M the name of his boss?)  M is one of my most faithful followers and always comments on my blogs.  She is 9 years older than I am and has different memories than I do about our childhood.  When I mentioned grates to her, she immediately thought of the fabulous grate located at our grandmother’s house.  I really do need to dedicate a whole blog to my grandma one of these days, but, for now, I’ll just tell you about the grate.

My grandmother’s house was small, tiny really, and had a railroad style set up.   The front door opened up to the kitchen and, walking back, we went through the dining room and then the living room.  In-between the dining and living room was a giant heating grate.  It was probably about 16 square feet and it provided the heat for the house.  I have not a clue how this worked – and I’ve never, ever, ever seen this in any other location but, somehow, the heat got pumped up from the basement through this giant thing.  It would blow this wonderfully warm air out and I absolutely loved to just sit on the grate and feel the warm air rush by me, pushing my hair off my face and leaving me feeling pleasantly toasty.  I particularly remember when I was wearing a skirt, how great it would feel for the warm air to rush up my legs. André, who only knew my grandma for about 3 years and probably only went to her house a handful of times, remembers the fabulous grate as well – especially when it was blowing up my skirt (wink).  One of the other things that was awesome about it is that you never knew when it would blow or not.  Grandma always hung little wind chimes over the top of it so, when the air started pumping, we could hear them – this was our cue to walk over there.  After she died, I kept the last set of wind chimes she had hung up there.  I wish she was still alive, and I could bring my kids over her tiny house, so full of love, to play on the heating grate and get a squishy warm hug.  I miss her.

Then it was time to hike to the top of the tower. We always enjoy these hikes and this one was no exception.  I love this shot  of the flying buttresses with the carved flowery things – incredible.  It was also cool to be able to see how the gutters run right into the sculptures – so beautiful and functional.  When we reached the top, we were rewarded with lovely views over Strasbourg and the surrounding countryside.  The kids were having a great time – except Griffin who was just about starving to death.  The entire cathedral, as well as many of the buildings in Strasbourg, were build out of the red sandstone of the Vosges mountains.  I read on a placard in the church that they employ 5 artisans, full time, to keep up with maintaining the Gothic sculptures.  Up at the top, we saw we could purchase red sandstone rosettes, hand made by these artisans, that matched the very ones on the cathedral.  What’s more, they were only 10 Euros!  André and I usually avoid souvenirs for many reasons.  1. They cost money 2. They take up space in suitcases when one is moving home and 3. We can never agree on what we like.  4. The kids always want some piece of junk 5. Everything is made in china – probably by some poor oppressed sweat shop worker! This time, though, we were both sold – it was as close as we could get to owning a piece of a cathedral.  We looked in the tourist trap shops at the base of the cathedral and found out they were only sold at the museum.  Upon further investigation (and walking) we finally found we could only get them by going to another location – which is only open on weekdays.  Hmmm…. but the tourists come on weekends!  Total sadness!  Any stone masons out there?

Then we headed for lunch. I got choucroute which is another local specialty consisting of a boiled potato and a giant pile of fresh sauerkraut with about 6 different pork products on top of it (bacon, two kinds of sausage, brisket, etc…) and served with hot mustard.  It was good – but I would have guessed Polish, not French!  André got spaetzle – one of our favorite German treats, and it was awesome. 

After lunch we headed towards the older section of town, called the Grand Ile, to see a famous bridge built by our main man – Vauban!  We spent a good half an hour wandering along the beautiful Ill (pronounced EEL) River.  As usual I enjoyed the willow (my favorite tree) and just appreciating the beauty of the houses lining the banks.  The biggest highlight of all, however, was getting a chance to see a tour boat go through an actual lock.  We’ve seen lots of locks on our travels, and explained them in words to the kids, but never actually got a chance to see one in action before.  I really appreciated all of Olivier and Nadine’s patience as they showed us around their town – I’m sure watching a lock work was not the top priority on their list but they were gracious to the end.  We would never have gotten such a great tour without their company. It was about 4pm and they headed back towards Marlenheim to pick up the kids and head to Besancon.  Meanwhile, we wandered further along the island to ultimately reach the Vauban bridge and see a real calliope player.   We also took a minute to walk through the park near our car and discovered it to be a vibrant place, full of children, families, lovers and circus performers!  What a fun place to play.  Finally we headed back to Schnersheim for a homemade dinner of pasta and sauce accompanied by the final traditional Alsatian food of our trip, a Kougelhopf cake we had picked up from a street vendor.  In all, though I like the shape, it is a pretty boring and dry little dessert – although, of course, it may have just been not delivered well.   As a bit of a baker myself, I know it all depends on the recipe and how the baker executes it!

A final mystery…  As we were driving around between Marlenheim and Schnershiem we passed many farmers’ fields and even piles of sugar beets.  We also saw several fields with these telephone wire spider-webbie things floating over top of them.  There are a lot of farms in France, and we’ve driven tons and I’ve never seen anything like it before. There were no crops growing underneath them.  What are these things?  Anyone?

Tomorrow we hit Germany and Baden Baden for the first time….