Another Swap

With our trip to Germany being only 6 weeks away, it's high time to tell you about our second swap this year.
We'll be driving from pretty much the most north-eastern part of Germany (Baltic Sea) to the most southern-west on the border to France and nearby Switzerland: Baden-Baden. We'll be doing a couple of pit stops to see family and to break up the trip that would take about 10 hours. I did these marathons when I lived in Ireland and did purchasing trips to Germany via England, France, Belgium and the Netherlands: I did those in 2 days at 13 hours a day and one overnight in England. Well, these days are over, I don't enjoy driving long distances that much anymore.

Baden Baden is a renowned spa resort, one of the more high end ones with beautiful thermal baths and a casino. We hope to fill up our coffers there for the rest of the vacation....:) only kidding!
Baden Baden is a famous tourist resort nestling against the foothills of the Black Forest and a mere hop over to Alsace in France. Our exchange partners are a family of three who have been to Florida several times and don't seem to mind the heat that they will encounter. This time our abode is a little smaller, a duplex as we say in Ireland--or rather half a house with  a tiny walled-in garden. In a high end area real estate prices are of a premium and it's still big enough for us. I had sworn to myself after last year's experience that I won't run a B&B anymore m, meaning I won't invite several sets of family and friends and be busy playing the hostess.
What does the town offer? 2 castles :

• Old Castle "Hohenbaden", built in 1102, a ruin since the 15th century
• New Castle (Neues Schloss), 15th century
• Lots of Roman ruins and sights : Caracalla Spa. A thermal bath is so soothing on the ole bones...
• SHOPPING, restaurants, ice cafes (if you read last year's blog you know about my love for Italian icecreams -gelaterias.

                             Here's another pic that I got from Wikipedia: The Kurhaus/ Spa Centrum

That's the Life

Have you got your head around the idea of Home Swapping yet? It has a lot of advantages once you jump the mental hurdle of having strangers in your house. Don't forget they will want to have their house treated in an equally respectful fashion: a variation on the Golden Rule.You're trading house of similar standards, not with low lives who want the chance of a lifetime to holiday in a nice villa and trash it while at it....:)
We spent the last 2-3 weeks on finding an extra spot that we could add on or visit before our stint in Meck-Pomm..This spa resort is one of the most prestigious At long last, we found it! A beautiful second home of a family in Baden-Baden.Lovely scenery, a Casino to satisfy all our gambling needs, shopping!!!All of this in walking distance. Pretty cafes  to watch the world go by ( and it will be a nice world in that town...),
great restaurants and food ( and it will be an expensive one at that). Oh I know why I miss my home country!

A Historic Spa: Bad Nauheim

We went to a neighboring town called Bad Nauheiim, 22mls north of Frankfurt.It's one of the age old spas renowned for taking "the waters'. A fashion that developed over a hundred years ago in towns that had mineral wells, hot or cold which were deemed to have remedial qualities for many an ailment. The resort is noted for its salt springs, which are used to treat heart and nerve diseases. Here's one of the public water fountains.
Elvis Presley lived here during his stint with the army and he used the gate of the castle ("Burgpforte") as the motif for a record cover in 1959.
It's also renowned for another historical factor: General Patton was assigned to command the Fifteenth Army with its headquarters in Bad Nauheim. While Frankfurt was heavily bombed, this little resort was spared because the general loved it so much that the uS headquarters were moved there. On December 9, 1945 General Patton left Bad Nauheim for a hunting trip near Mannheim, which resulted in a fatal car crash that took General Patton's life. Happy 4 July!