Day 3, 30 5 2014, Karlsruhe to Baden Baden
Last night we arrived in Karlsruhe late, around 6.30, so used the TomTom database to locate a hotel. This database tells us nothing but location. It was a four-star hotel, but we decided to stay anyway, and it was excellent. The breakfast alone was worth much of the difference.
Tonight we are again in a sort of four-star hotel, as we were told it is possibly the last bed in town. Baden Baden is full, as it is for all intents and purposes a holiday weekend, a big horse racing event and the first summer weekend. Of course there were more rooms available. There always are.
You pay around 35E more for a four-star hotel than a three-star hotel, but there is a significant difference, particularly in the breakfast. This matters to us as a good breakfast sets us up for a day’s riding.
If we were to stay in four-star accommodation every night of this trip, the difference in cost would be less than the cost of a business-class upgrade. So, 40 nights of upgraded accommodation seems like a better deal than two nights of slightly better sleep, and for less money. I used to enjoy the romance of airline travel, but those days are long gone. It is now just something to endure for a greater purpose.
We had issues leaving Karlsruhe. The signage at a few crucial places was missing. It didn’t matter. We still did not have to mix it with the traffic. Just slightly frustrating. We used a combination of the free city map, TomTom and a Rhine cycle guide.
We decided this morning to divert from the Rhine route to go to Baden Baden as we thought it might be a nice town. It is only an extra 40 or so Km for the complete diversion.
It was a very easy and short day’s ride. Along a dyke of the Rhine for a while and for most of the rest of the day we were on bike paths paralleling a road. Some, but not a lot of the day was on the Rhine cycle route.
So, Baden Baden was worth the diversion. It is a tourist town, but enchanting nevertheless. It has a lot of Victorian era (whatever that is in Germany) buildings, put up when rich people did that sort of thing. We wandered around the town for three very enjoyable hours, before settling in for a snag and beer.
The weather has been holding out, cold in the morning warming to peasant afternoons.
57kms for the day.
Roz says people were so attentive today asking us if we needed help and we did! Two museums in record time, Faberge and JR, both amazing. Baden Baden is very beautiful and a big spa town but we did sparing yesterday, don't need to overdo spas!!
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