When we awoke this morning, the River Queen was back at its mooring in Frankfurt where we’d boarded it ten days ago. We said goodbye to our new friends and set out with Dave Natale for his old home town of Braumfels, about an hour from Frankfurt. We stopped a few miles short of Braumfels for a first look at Schloss Braumfels.

We continued into town and took a little walk through the Herrengarten and paid our respects to Kaiser Friedrich III who had visited Braunfels during his brief reign in 1888.

We had a full tour of the castle scheduled for the afternoon, but we did go into the outer sections of the castle premises and looked at some of the nice houses (all leased from the Count of Solms-Braunfels).

I found it interesting that some (but not all) of the houses displayed an emblem signifying that they have fire insurance!

The town has its own well, with copious regulations on its use.

We had a light lunch and not-so-light dessert at Cafe Vogel to fortify us for the castle tour.

Dave had arranged for his friend Andrea to lead us on a special tour of the castle; he promised surprises, and Andrea delivered. She had a new practicum (student intern) who was on his first day of his assignment; I wonder what he thought about how the day went.

Andrea told us a lot about the history of the castle and the family. It was first built in the 13th Century and has been in the same family since then. There has been a lot of construction and reconstruction, and it continues today.

Photography is not permitted inside the castle itself; our tour included 14 rooms, each beautifully furnished. One of Andrea’s special additions for our tour was having us wear costumes; we were allowed to photograph that!

Andrea shared many stories with us – so many, that Dave had to ask her to let us leave so we could get back to Frankfurt at a reasonable hour!

It was a very interesting visit indeed.

We returned to Frankfurt and the Flemings Selection Hotel Frankfurt City. We were lazy and had a simple dinner across the street at the Eschenheimer Turm Restaurant – both of us had the salmon Flammkueche. It was inexpensive, tasty, and fast – perfect for the end of a long day.

Today is our last full day on the River Queen. We docked near Ratstatt, just across the Rhine from France, and took a 30-minute bus ride to Baden-Baden (according to our guide, it’s a city so nice, they named it twice). It was Sunday, so shops (and the Casino) were closed and the city center was quiet. We started with a stroll past the Stadtkirche just before they started sounding the bells for Sunday services.

We continued past the Augustaplatz and the memorial to Pierre de Coubertin before crossing the Oos River and reaching Lichtenaler Allee, a 2.3km-long English landscape garden filled with various lawns, trees, flowers, and statuery, as well as museums, theaters, and hotels.

This weeping beech tree is about 130 years old; it suffered storm damage and they’ve propped it to try to save it, but our guide doesn’t think it has much longer to live.

We continued walking, passing Theatre Baden-Baden, which was originally built by the owners of the Casino (as were many of Baden-Baden’s civic landmarks).

Our guide pointed out the Old Baden-Baden Castle, which was abandoned in the 16th Century after a fire caused by lightning.

We walked by the Kurhaus, where the late 19th Century’s A-listers went to see, be seen, and converse. The Casino takes up the right third of the building.

We continued onward to the Trinkhallen, where people used to drink the spa waters – there’s still a fountain there, but it’s marked “not potable water”. The façade has a scene showing old people being given spa waters and becoming young and healthy.

We left the Allee and went into the city centre to pay our respects to Otto von Bismarck.

Our next stop was outside the building where Dostoyevski lived while he was writing “The Gambler” (and losing enormous sums of money at the Casino).

And then it was onward to see Frederichsbad, opened in 1877.

We got a brief glimpse of the “New” Baden-Baden Castle (built in the 15th Century); it’s in private hands, so tourists can’t visit.

Our guide took us past Caracalla, the new bath house in town, and the ruins of one of the original Roman baths.

Our tour finished on one of Baden-Baden’s shopping streets; since it was Sunday, all the shops were closed. Diane and I stopped at Café König for some hot drinks with chocolate (Diane had coffee in her mocha, but I was a purist and only accepted schlag as an addition).

We are en route to Frankfurt for the next part of our trip; it’ll be hard to top this cruise, though!