I won’t write in detail about the entire day because most of it was spent travelling. We left the house at 9 am. Got to the airport at 11 am. The flight was at 1 pm and we arrived at security at 3:30 pm German time, an hour ahead. When we got off the plane, the queue through security was horrendous and it took about 45 minutes to get through, snakes of irritated people and remarkably calm children, going all the way through to the outdoor runway area. It was scorching at about 32° and even more in the conservatory style glass covered area. Though this bit to start off with made me really appreciate getting into the main airport building, though it was tiny and I don’t think air conditioned, but I’m not grumbling. Just a fact!
I had managed to pre-book our bus tickets for the first time on the KVV app, which made for a very smooth journey instead of having to queue up at one ticket machine behind tens of confused tourists not knowing which ticket to get…
The 215 bus from the airport to Baden bahnhof only goes once an hour at 43 minutes past the hour during the week, so by the time we got through the security queue, we only had to wait 10 minutes for the bus which was a blessing. 25 min later, we made it to the train station, and within 5 min, had swapped onto the 201 or 244 into the zentrum (centre). Landing into Leopoldplatz, which was a 5min walk from our apartment next to the Caracalla spa. It was 6pm by the time we had got into the apartment, and we were ready to take an amble.
First stop, of course, our beloved DM store (which is a bit like Holland and Barrett crossed with Superdrug), which is a few mins walk away. We found some breakfast bits (muesli and tea), and some shampoo & conditioner for 65 cents each. And some cold drinks.
We were just heading back to drop off our haul from DM and noticed a Vietnamese restaurant. I was getting rather hungry since the airport sandwich, so we decided to stop there to grab some dinner. They had really funky lighting inside! We shared a prawn Cali sushi roll to start, which was so fresh the rice was still warm, and then for mains I had a vegetable mango curry which was very mild and Leon had a chicken Kung pao, the sauce had more of a hoisin flavour with a kick of chilli.
Afterwards, we went back to the apartment to drop off our bag finally, and I made the mistake of laying down. So we stopped for half an hour to let my heavy legs recover a tad, and watched the Portugal/Congo game for a bit and saw Congo equalise. Then I mustered the strength to get back up again, and we took a walk towards Netto, which is only 10 minutes away. We picked up some more bits for the apartment and for tonight’s England game, and decided to take a peek at Lichtentaler Allee to see what it looks like at this time of year in such wonderful weather. It was as magical as ever, but instead of haw frost outlining branches, it was full of lush leaves and foliage. Some children were trying to catch fish in a little hand net paddling in the cool water.
On our way back, just tucked behind the Lowenbrau restaurant (decorated with hundreds of flowers rather than the usual Christmas decs that we are used to!), I spotted a huge stone looming figure that I had never noticed before somehow! It was almost as if he was guarding a set of steep stairs that no one should attempt to ascend. When we got back to the apartment, I looked him up and he is some kind of statue of a Victorian politician who had this made of himself in mediaeval style, just because he liked to visit Baden Baden. Maybe I should have one the other side! The steps are called the Jesuit steps, joining up to a market square. We will have to explore that tomorrow.
At 10 pm, we settled down to watch the England versus Croatia World Cup game with the Netto version of Pringles, and some delicious macarons (or presidents, as I like to call them). We made it through halftime, but we both fell asleep before the end of the game when it was 4:2 to England. One point that we were quite surprised by: the hydration breaks, and our friend Mr Keyes told us that this is because the Americans need to put adverts every 15 minutes! The Americans are not giving us very good reasons to support their World Cup this year!!