An Overnight in Baden-Baden

Be sure to scroll down for scintillating comments and more photos! 

I’ve already heard all the jokes; the town ain’t that bad-en, etc.  Give yourself a few more years before you try to hang with the Single Malt crowd.

No joking matter. We’re chatting about one of Germany’s most famous towns in one of Germany’s most beautiful regions, The Black Forest (Schwarzwald).  Why is it called The Black Forest?  You ask, I answer:  the Romans found the conifers in the forest so numerous and tightly packed they blocked out the light.

Heard of the famous eponymous cake and ham from The Black Forest?  The former’s a delicious meld of chocolate cake, cream, sour cherries, and cherry liquor.  Irresistible! Kinda like sex.  Indulge yourself!

Don’t stop there. The heavily cured ham, salty and smoky, is the perfectly sophisticated match for fresh, nutty bread, cheese, and grainy mustard.  Don’t forget a spicy, fruity gewürztraminer to wash it down. Fragrant and delicious, with a memory-maker flavor that makes you eschew machine generated ham and white air-bread.

Back to the Romans.  One of their settlements, both military and civilian, is now known as the city of Baden-Baden.  The Romans called it something else, but you wouldn’t remember anyway, so I’ll just say it had to do with water.  The waters of Baden-Baden (Bad in German means bath) have drawn visitors ever since.  Today, there are a couple of huge bath palaces; one offers a kiddie play venue and fun for the whole family, while the other (Friedrichsbad Roman-Irish Bath) is more for adults, with a barrage of different pools of different temperatures, hour long massages (brush scrubs, finishing lotions, etc), saunas, and even a room for napping.  After four hours of body-wilting pleasure, you may need it.  The packages range from about $30 to $55, depending on the amount of time and options you choose.  For you guilt ridden, sex obsessed Americans (I happily include myself in that group), yes the saunas are optionally nude.  That must surely be the subject for another blog entry.  To answer your second question, photos are not permitted in the bath palace.

Looking down on the pool from the top of the dome.

Don’t be deceived into thinking the Friedrichsbad Roman-Irish Bath is simply a splash-for-cash kinda place.   It stands as a temple to the art of bathing.  Architecturally amazing, it’s a wondrous array of carved stone and frescoes, with a huge and magnificent dome rising from the center.  Many have called it a sensory treat for body and soul. No wonder it’s been so popular for well over a century.

Besides the promise of knuckle biting titillation, what else does Baden-Baden offer?  Restaurants and bistros galore, most spilling out into the walking streets.  Friendly crowds.  Shopping that begs you to look in just one more window.  Museums, such as the Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund (dedicated to the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo), the Frieder Burda (with art that spans the spectrum from old to very modern), the Fabergé Museum (featuring the Russian artist), and the 19^th Century Art and Technology Museum.  All of these are conveniently only a short walk apart.

View from the Löwenbrau Bistro

Asparagus and strawberries are in season! 

Details make the difference

Down the street stands the famous Casino that’s attracted the well heeled since the 19^th Century.  Bring your passport and for men a coat and tie.  Think of David Niven in Monte Carlo and you’ll be on the right track.  Right from La Belle Époche, the Spielhaus has served the adventurous since 1821.  Don’t feel the urge to wager?  I’ve heard the restaurant is excellent.  With a little luck maybe one day I’ll find out!  Reservations!  Don’t miss The Theater.  Stage and Movies.

Then there are the Roman bath ruins.  No photography allowed, which puzzled me.  Old brick tiles, cement, crumbling walls, and a sophisticated heating system that would stand up to modern standards.  But why no photography?  My trigger finger itched.  At no extra charge, you’re given a listening tour that guides you from station to station and takes you back a couple of thousand years.

Even with all those things to do, what do you think constantly makes the top of the tourist list?  The incomparable Lichtentaler Allee.  Stretching for miles beside the Oos River, its bordered by grand, but tasteful hotels, decked out in flowers, towering trees, and flowing fountains. To walk here is to forget the cares of the world and indulge the human need to think and dream.  Stirring, yet restful, the gentle sound of gurgling water, the soft breeze through the treetops, and solitude of the greenery strewn path, always calms and soothes.

The rightfully famous Lichtentaler Allee

One of the grand hotels, The Atlantic sits unobtrusively on the banks of the Oos, a stone’s throw from the Lichtentaler Allee.  They offer weekend getaways that often include extras that help you to get to know this most interesting and beautiful German city.

Baden-Baden is less than two hours from most of the southern part of western Germany.  Don’t hesitate.  Just go!

Just a small portion of the walking streets

Everywhere you turn is a new adventure.

A City of Art, Gardens, Trees 

Even in the private corners, you find beauty

The heart of Baden-Baden: Art, Fashion, Architecture

Amsterdam, Part III: Impressions, Impressionists, and Scarlett O’Hara

In the main market area---scroll down for fascinating prose and more photos...

canal by night

just strollin' in the rain

During our week in Amsterdam, we spent most of our time in the bright halls and cafés of solidly built museums, gazing at classic and modern paintings, studying painters, and writing about color, form, vanishing points, and changing perceptions of art.  The topic was Vincent van Gogh, but the scope expanded like a married man’s waist.  Where did van Gogh get his inspirations, his techniques?  What was his background?  How did he live his life, and which painters influenced or were influenced by him?

Fueled by curiosity, discovery is a wonderful thing.  Leads to a certain depth of understanding and a warren of unknown trails.  The point is not whether you like a painter, or painting.  Personal likes and dislikes have to be cast aside like spent peanut shells.

Why did van Gogh paint the way he did?  Who were the Impressionists?  How did they vary from classical styles, color, and form?  Chances are, you’re asking yourself, who gives a damn, Scarlett?  Or, as Scarlett O’Hara herself famously said:  “I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow.”

I don’t have time to wait for you to catch up. I’m pressing on.  Something huge happened in the art world in the period 1836-40.  Photography.  Most historical art had been descriptive, capturing a moment, an event, a portrait.  Now a camera could do all that and better.  Artists were liberated to move on from their journalism in paint, to something entirely different.  But, can a camera also be a device for impressions?  I decided to go on my own voyage of discovery and seek out beer, pretty women, and the colors and shapes of Amsterdam.

In the world of art up to 1860, classicism held the field.  But, around this time, or a little before, painters like Manet, Monet, Degas, Cezanne, Renoir, and Toulouse-Lautrec, and many others, threw aside the trappings of classic art and began to paint common subjects, but with an uncommon touch.  A decade later, under the influence (he met and painted with many of the impressionists) van Gogh injected even more expressive techniques.  Depictions of landscapes became swatches of color, only suggesting individual stalks of wheat.  Skies roiled with smears of blues and greens and yellows.  Van Gogh wanted to make the viewer feel what he saw;  wanted to make the viewer a participant by expanding the boundaries.  Expressionism.

Heard the joikes (that’s Jersey for jokes) already.  “Makes me feel like I want to throw up!  I’ve seen that painting before --- in kindergarten.  Looks like the breakfast I saw twice.”  Or, my favorite:  “I could do that!”  Or, as Scarlett proclaimed:  “I never heard of such bad taste.”

Those are all judgment calls, which means against all odds, you’ve managed to miss every single point.  WHY, WHAT, and WHO?

Ever seen a game of craps?  To the initiated, it’s a group of people, standing around a table, throwing small cubes and screaming at the tops of their lungs for no particular reason.  Game’s been round since Roman times, but casinos haven’t.  Rules have changed.  Understanding takes work.  Otherwise you’re just looking, not seeing, or understanding.

I picture a chain of events.  Curiosity leading to discovery, leading to study, leading to knowledge, leading to more curiosity.  Doesn’t have to be art.  Can be anything, from cake decorating to motorcycle maintenance. Of course, you could disregard all that and stick with  the cuddly warmth of your personal comfort zone.   Of course, if you're not engaged,  that means, as Scarlett said, “My life is over. Nothing will ever happen to me anymore.”  At least nothing new.

Here’s a short course on the Impressionists.  They brought real subjects and real emotions to paint and canvas.  No longer stuck on historic figures, Biblical scenes, or moral lessons, they unglued the use of color, form, painting en plein air, and impressions of subjects rather than faithful reproductions.  As a result, controversy swirled around them. Museums bared their work.  But the paintings were real.  They resonated, and in Scarlett’s words, “He looks as if... as if he knows what I look like without my shimmy.”  Ah, Scarlett, if you only knew.

During my week in Amsterdam, I combined camera and Impressionism (intentionally and capriciously)  to offer a few of my impressions of Amsterdam.  I found that Black and White often provides more drama and texture, while night scenes lend impressionistic colors. Rain helps to expand the palate.  Should you find these photos objectionable, insane, or in bad taste, “Frankly my dear….etc.”

Near the market area 

In the tangle of restaurant streets... 

Amsterdam is a melting pot

bike lane