When last I blogged, I was about to go to the Spanish Riding School. It was OK as far as tours go. The group seemed to be filled with real 'horse' people so they were full of horsey questions. During the stable part of the tour everyone was bummed cuz we couldn't pet the horses and they were less than a foot away. I gotta say that for a stable it sure did smell nice. Those particular stables are cleaned about once an hour! Well, I wasn't gonna let a little bit of equine hygiene spoil my day which is why after my tour there I went on a tour related to The Third Man. Anyone know the movie? Remember the final chase scene and where it takes place? There are four different attractions throughout Vienna related to the film. One is the movie itself which plays weekly at the little theatre whose name I will put in here when I find it. The other is The Third Man Museum (not opened when I was there). The third is the Third Man Walking Tour available on Mondays. I wasn't there on Monday and the final attraction, the one the was opened when I was there was a tour of the facilities where the final scenes were filmed. I'm talking about, yes, the sewers of Vienna. They are quite proud of the advancements they have made in waste treatment since 1948 and use the movie as the hook to get folks like me to visit (and pay for the priviledge to do so). They even throw in a bit of Third Man trivia. And that was my finale in Vienna.
Onward to Baden-Baden via the night train. The idea of taking the night train is that you don't spend daytime touring hours just riding the train. Instead you sleep through the night and wake up at a new touring sight. Yeah, the seasoned traveler might do that. I'm not sure I slept much and arrived in Baden-Baden at 6:00am and it was raining. It's not a very big place. The train station is all above ground. I didn't think anyplace else would be opened at that time of morning so I just hung out in the coffee shop until I figured it would be OK to see if I could dump my stuff off at the hostel while I figured out the town. Around 7, I hopped on the bus to the hostel bus stop and then walked up the hill to the hostel. Most of the time, check-in is later in the day but they usually have a luggage storage room available for incoming guests. I asked and I was able to check-in. Woo Hoo, that was cool! I was so ready to have some fresh clothes especially since sleeping in my clothes on the train. So I was able to shower and unpack and get really prepped for the day. At the point I did have an appreciation for the overnight train trip.
Baden-Baden is a spa town. It's kinda like Bath, England but has been doing it longer. If you are into Roman history and archeology, visit Bath, England. If you want the Roman Bath spa treatment visit Baden-Baden. After walking around in the cold and rain for the last few hours, I headed to one of the spas. I just wanted to soak in the warm water. It was still a bit pricey for a swim but it was waaaay less expensive than Bath and there are several different temperatures. I think you're supposed to go through in some kind of order regarding the temps. I didn't do that. For just a few extra €s, I coulda had the soap brush and massage treatment AND that would still have been less than the dip in lukewarm water in Bath. The other spa in Baden-Baden has a 17 step-3 hour treatment that takes you through all the pools with various body scrubs and treatments along the way. That'll be next time.
So that was day one in B-B. Day two was gonna be a visit to the tower and then the castle ruins but I couldn't see either the tower or the castle ruins through the rain and fog so I bagged that and just wandered around town and had lunch at a seafood place that about 5 steps above the Skippers fast food place. The was some excitement when I returned to the hostel but the language barrier defeated me and I never found out what was going on but the cops were involved and one guy was really, really upset about something. All was quiet for the most part after that until the high school girls arrived. It was quite giggly for a loooonnngggg time. Fortunately, I had a 6 bed dorm room to myself for the entire stay.
I'm in a new country today-Switzerland and it snowed last night and I'm almost out of time so I'll tell you how unusual snow is even this close to the Alps at this time of year next time.
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