How well named a town! Jon’s chorus would be rehearsing with the Baden-Baden Orchestra, bussing there and back, thus taking a full day for a 4-hour rehearsal. Room on the bus meant I could tag along to see the town. What is Baden-Baden famous for? Baths, of course. Their old Friedrichsbad is the most traditional of all. http://www.carasana.de/en/friedrichsbad/home/
Some doctor figured out a system of bathing, with showers and saunas and plunges, each for a certain number of minutes at a specific degree for the perfect bathing experience. 17 steps! I had to do something while Jon was singing. So I ‘took the baths’. And they left me super clean and relaxed and invigorated. Three hours of watering my body. Plus a few minutes of being soaped up and scrubbed and ‘creamed’, a lotion application by a masseuse, definitely not a massage, but still pleasant. The building itself is wonderful, very ‘Belle Époque’ luxury. Soaking in fully-tiled rooms with domed ceilings, arched entries, and the occasional painting or Greek-style statue, I felt the experience was more about the ambience than the water!
The timing for the rehearsal was also fortunate as Baden-Baden’s Christkindlmarkt was in full swing right outside the rehearsal hall.
We found a very special Christmas gift for friends and tasted the German version of Gluhwein and Heisen Met (mulled wine and hot mead).
