Baden-Baden, Germany, part 1

Baden-Baden is the city we stayed for 2 nights on this long weekend trip to the Black Forest. The city is well-known for its spa and casino. It is a fancy resort town, particularly popular among Russians, so much so that there is even a museum of Fabergé eggs here.

The ambiance reminds me of Evian just across the lake from us except this town seemed bigger (see our earliest posts about Evian here and here).

Caracalla spa is the biggest spa in town. Next to it was a traditional roman spa where absolute nudity is expected.

Bathing outdoors in the winter time must be nice. It was not exactly warm when we were visiting.

We did not go to either one of the above-mentioned spas because our hotel has a small outdoor spa of its own which is connected to an indoor swimming pool. We spent a couple of hours bathing before dinner.

The fountain of the hotel is fed by warm spa water as evidenced by the mist.

“Baden-Baden” means city of Bath in the state of Bath. Hence, there are lots of “Bad Hotel” (spa hotel) here in town.

We took a funicular up to the summit of Merkur which in theory should afford us a panormic view of Baden-Baden.

But the weather was not cooperating, unfortunately.

We had dinner at a touristy Bavarian bar and eatery – Gasthaus Löwenbräu – run by the Löwenbräu brewery.

The Gasthaus had a nice beer garden which was empty – it was too cold to sit outside.

The food was standard tavern fare but the dark beer was very tasty and not too heavy.

More to come on Baden-Baden.

Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, part 2

Wars throughout the 16th, 17th and 18th century resulted in Freiburg being occupied by the Austrians, the French, the Swedish, the Spanish, and various German states. Much of the city, except the cathedral (the Muenster) was destroyed by bombing during World War II.

After the war, the city was rebuilt according to its medieval plan. There were a few canals in town which created nice small neighborhoods for exploring on foot. This is Gerberau along the Gewerbekanal.

No idea why there is a stone crocodile in the middle of the canal.

Freiburg is famous for little streams (Bächle) that run through the pedestrianized parts of the town. See also the town hall photo in the previous post, here. This bächle leads from the main street to the cathedral square (Münsterplatz).

The water from the bäcle was supposed to help quickly put out any fire that broke out in the city. We saw some similar water channels serving the same purpose in Takayama, Japan. Freiberg kept these bäcle when the city was rebuilt after World War II。

The Whale-House (Haus zum Walfisch)- a gothic town house built in 1500’s in the city center with a long story if you care to follow it on Wikipedia in German. This is the back of it – we have not yet figured out the origin and meaning of such a psychedelic pattern as was used here and in many other doors or window shutters in Switzerland and these parts of Europe.

Notice the pattern in the lower half of this gate, it was cleverly designed to give the illusion of extra depth in perspective and a recessed smaller gate.

Examples of decorative metal bits near the top of a nearby window.

Our guide book mentioned this figurine on the Whale house. Notice the goitre (caused by iodine deficiency) on the neck which was quite common in the Middle Ages.

Nice shopping street (Konvikstrasse) with hanging wisteria – imagine when it is blooming – must be very pretty.

The main theatre of the city – ” HEART OF THE CITY”. We wondered if the two letters were malfunctioning or switched off by design.

Freiburg is a pleasant city – we enjoyed our stay except that it was freezing cold on both days. It was supposed to be Spring.

Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, part 1

Over the four-days Easter weekend, we went on a road trip from Lausanne up to the Black Forest area (Schwarzwald) of Germany. We took the A12, A1, A2 then cross into Germany onto the A5. Our first stop was Freiburg where we stayed overnight.

Freiburg is located in the southwest of the state of Baden-Württemberg on the southeastern edge of the Upper Rhine Valley and the western foothills of the Black Forest.

Freiburg was founded in 1120 as a free market town (hence its name, “free borough”).

The history of the city is a fascinating read, if you have time. I glanced at it on Wikipedia and noted that it was a commercial center (silver mining, richest in Europe in the 1300’s), a learning center (founded in 1457 with the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, it is one of the classic German university towns), a Catholic stronghold against the protestants, and an environmentally-friendly city.

Freiburg has a number of sister cities (university town mostly), as shown on the cobble-stoned town hall sqaure (Rathausplatz)

Begun in the Romanesque style, the cathedral was continued and completed in 1513 for the most part as a Gothic cathedral.

 Due to the soft nature of the stones used in its construction, the church is constantly under repair. See the gargoyles ?

When we walked into the church, it was packed due to Good Friday service.

Not only there were three statutes in front of the church, the entrance and its walls were studded with numerous figurines depicting various events from the bible.

More about Freiburg to come later this week.

Porto Airport, Portugal (OPO)

We think all air travelers can agree on one thing and that is – Fly non-stop to your final destination whenever you can.

Unfortunately for those who are travelling to Madeira, there are very few non-stop flights to Madeira from outside of Portugal. Last year, our trip to Madeira from Geneva required us to stop at Porto for almost four hours. On our return trip via Lisboa, we had to wait almost 5 hours for our connecting flight! Enough time for us to visit the aquarium nearby and see the penguins and the otters.

Thankfully, the Porto airport (also known as Francisco de Sá Carneiro airport or OPO) is one of the better airports I(Chris) have visited. It is named after a Portuguese Prime Minister, Francisco de Sá Carneiro who was killed in an airplane crash as he was heading to this airport.

For six years in a row, it received Airport Service Quality awards as one of the best in Europe. In 2011, it was placed 3rd Best Airport in Europe after Malta (1st) and Edinburgh (2nd). In the same year, the best airports in the world are all in Asia: Seoul Incheon (1st), Singapore Changi (2nd), and Beijing Capital (3rd).

In the departure hall, these two musicians played non-stop almost an hour of flamenco and fado style music. The tempo was just right – not too fast to hurry the travelers and not too slow to retard their paces. There were chairs strewn about with a small audience for the performance.

Look at these “recliners” ! – while they seem a bit too aerodynamic to suggest a cushy rest, they were actually quite comfy although they do not recline.

Free wifi and charging station.

They also offer computer terminals.  ! Accesso gratuito. Obrigado.

As for shopping, not just duty free shops or the same international brands (like all airports these days), they also have something different.

I like the modern and playful bright green icon-like graphics that are used on all the signs. They are particularly effective as a frieze to decorate the huge panes of  otherwise boring plain glass around the airport.

See the graphics printed on the glass wall (top left of the photo below) …  and the cut I-beam and columns was an interesting decorative object.

Here’s a self-check-in sign in Lisbon airport – it appears that the “ANA Aeroportos” graphics are deployed nationally. Upon some googling, the signage and brand identity was done by Brandia Central.

About three hours after this picture was taken, we boarded our flight to Madeira which departed on time at 18:40.