After a lovely night of sleep, waking up at 8:30 am, we had a humble breakfast of muesli, half an apple, and a banana. We have decided to go to Geroldsau wasserfalle today! It is about a 25 minute bus journey south, then a 25 minute walk, and looks easy enough! We pack our sandwiches from Netto that we got yesterday, a bottle of water, half a tube of fake Pringles, and some sour apple gummy rings. We know how to live it up! It’s a 10 minute walk to the bus stop and we wait for the X45 that is due at 10:50am. It is another glorious day and not to stifling… yet! This is the view from the bus stop.
Once we get to Geroldsau, we walked through an incredibly arid, dusty car park, past some bee hives which have signs telling you not to steal the honey I think, leading to a little forest trail. We hear a rushing river, swelling and splashing over huge granite circular smooth rocks. The trees offer some dappled shade and there is definitely a welcome cool breeze coming off of the water. Apart from the gnats, which I suppose you expect next to a body of water, it is really very pleasant! I love seeing the little moss ecosystems that grow on the felled tree stumps or the rocks that flank either side of the river… they do look exquisite, like little emerald cities.
There are lots of handrails and bridges across the more treacherous areas, so I managed to walk all the way to the main waterfall without twisting my ankle, bonus! Leon offer to take the photo of a German older couple that are attempting to partake in a selfie and they offered us one back. The man was leaning so far back on the railings I was slightly where he was going to top all over so if there is a slight apprehension behind my smile in that photo, that is why!
We found a little wooden hut that was beside the waterfall with a picnic bench in it and it felt so special, honestly we couldn’t have had any more satisfying grub from a Michelin star restaurant. We enjoyed our Netto lunch far more than we should’ve! They like a lot of mayonnaise in their sandwiches in Germany, so I had Gouda cheese with gherkins and lashings of mayonnaise, and Leon had some kind of chicken and vegetable mixup drowned in mayonnaise! We of course swapped half-and-half so that we could both experience each other’s as well. We like to have the variety.
After a lovely pause, we meandered back along the river, and found a bus stop that went back into the centre of Baden Baden. We got off a few stops early at the bottom of Lichtentaler Allee to stop and look at the advertised dahlia and rose Gardens, still in search of the red squirrels. I think they are doing the sensible thing and staying inside on this extremely hot day though.
The Dalia garden was just about to bloom so we saw a couple of flowers, but there were many hundreds that still were green buds. I don’t know what was scenting the air in the area, but it smelt divine. Warm, fresh grass with notes of rose and jasmine, even though there were none to be seen. We kept going and found the rose garden. A very orderly beauty. We have seen it many times before, but it never fails to take my breath away. There’s a maze that goes around the seats at the back, and it was very dark and dense this time due to the amount of foliage where it is in the winter it’s very light in there.
After about 14,000 steps in 30° heat, my ankles are now complaining, so I have come back to our apartment for a bit of respite while it is the hottest part of the day. Leon has gone to cook himself in the Caracella saunas, and I will probably have a little indulgent read in the cool serenity of our apartment. I say serenity but there appears to be some kind of building work going on opposite so it is slightly destroyed by the sound of drilling. But it’s all good. I will just pretend it’s some kind of binaural beat.