June 11-30, 2024: Another European conference trip--Part 4: Baden-Baden Germany

From my Journal entry on Sunday, June 23rd:

We got up at 3:30 this morning to get ready for the day, to pack, and to take a taxi to the airport at 4:30am. I got a sore throat in the middle of the night and only slept a few hours. Needless to say, I’m very light headed and sleepy tired. 

People always ask what our favorite country is to visit. That’s hard to say because each country is beautiful and has its own charm and its own pros and cons. For this trip, it’s the English countryside, the Scottish Moores, the Italian Alps, and the Bulgarian Alps—but we actually didn’t see much of any of those!

We are in Zurich Switzerland now and will take a connecting flight to Stuttgart Germany!

The fight was very short! I’m glad Mike slept better and longer than me, because he always does all the driving and navigating. In the airport, I checked out the prices compared to the stores I ventured into at the Florence Airport. The prices are so much lower here!

Mike rented a car and drove us to the Mercedes Benz Museum. Mike said it’s the biggest tourist attraction in Stuttgart. Last year the museum was closed, so Mike really wanted to go this time. I was too tired and opted to sleep in the car. But loud men and smokers outside our rental car in the underground parking area ruined that for me. Then I needed to use the bathroom and had to walk a distance to the registration building, which unfortunately was closed. I went across the street to a bistro but found out that it was only for employees. Thank goodness the nice ladies gave me permission to use the restroom downstairs. When you gotta go, you gotta go! The line into the museum was terribly long, and it took Mike an hour to finally get in. I’m sure he’ll really enjoy seeing all the beautiful cars on each floor and will take a lot of pictures.

Germany is beautiful. Europe in general is pretty amazing.

The Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart Germany

From my Journal entry on Monday, June 24th:

Our first few days in Baden-Baden are in the same hotel we stayed at last year, and it’s the roomiest and nicest hotel of our trip. Guests here get to use a passageway from the hotel to the thermal pools behind us. You can even walk down there in your white robe and slippers provided by the hotel. We’ll do that later today. We also get to drink and eat everything in the mini bar for free the first day. That’s new to us!

Late this morning Mike and I went for a stroll through the stone streets in town looking for a place to eat lunch. We stopped at a pharmacy and a small store and bought some NyQuil, dental floss, and hair color for my graying roots. We did some window shopping, took pictures, and ate lunch at an Italian restaurant called Roma. We shared a meat, mushroom, and onion pizza and a mixed green salad. I wasn’t able to taste much of the food though.

Before heading back to our hotel, we walked along the creek near the park, a lovely walking path with lots of shade and many wooden park benches to rest. Rest has become more and more important to us as we’ve gotten older and as we get more aches and pains in our bodies! 

We rested and watched more of our TV series before going to the thermal pools behind our hotel. The hot pool felt good on my aching body, and the larger regular pool was very relaxing but a bit too warm. I used the strong jet sprays against my sore hips and did a bit of swimming. Mike and I took turns massaging each other’s toes in the water while floating—that was fun. We only stayed in the pools for about an hour, although it seemed longer. We showered at the thermal facility and rested up at the hotel. 

After a few hours, we left the hotel in search of a place to eat dinner. We finally settled on a traditional Turkish kebab eatery called Doner Kebabi. It’s basically shaved meat on a large rotating rotisserie that is served in a sandwich, in a tortilla, or on a plate with fries and salad. I had a plate, and Mike had a loaded sandwich. We enjoyed trying something new. I prefer the Brazilian rotisserie meats a lot more than the Turkish meat.

We came back to our hotel room to rest and unwind; and Mike worked on his presentation for Wednesday while I got caught up with my text messaging and sending photos to our family. I took my NyQuil, and we watched more of our series till bedtime. I hope the medicine helps me sleep!

We stayed in our hotel all day yesterday (Sunday) because I haven’t been feeling well for a few days now. My symptoms have been: a sore throat, body aches, headaches, a fever, chills, coughing, a runny nose, and having a hard time breathing in bed. Mike thinks I might have COVID because of the fever and body aches. If so, I probably caught it from someone on the plane. Same thing if it’s just a bad cold. It’s been hard being sick on our trip. I have aches all over my body and little to no energy.

Mike went out to a nearby Thai place called Zamui and bought us some decent Thai food to bring back to our room. We snarfed it down and watched episodes of “Outlander,” which we started rewatching recently. 

Driving in Germany is always delightful

A familiar hotel near the famous indoor/outdoor mineral pools

Our fanciest hotel room at the Aqua Aurelia Hotel

Asian take-out for dinner our first night in Baden-Baden

From my Journal entry on Tuesday, June 25th:

Another lazy day in our hotel, but we did go out and enjoy a tasty lunch at Zamui Thai restaurant. The food is really fresh and pretty! We stopped at a health food store afterwards and bought some fruit juices/drinks and a few healthy snacks.

Our plan is to rest and watch our shows again till it’s time to find a place to have dinner. Sure hope Mike doesn’t catch my cold. 

It’s bedtime, and I just finished texting everyone (7 separate texts including our family group chat) our photos from tonight. We went back to the Zamui Thai restaurant and had more delicious foods. I could eat there every day. The food is so fresh and tasty.

Mike is driving to Karlsruhe tomorrow for his conference and is giving his presentation after lunch. It’s on Explosives, as usual. He gets to introduce the presenters on Friday when he chairs a session.  

Fun walking area of Baden-Baden, full of restaurants and shopping

From my Journal entry on Wednesday, June 26th:

When we get back home, I will be in search of a good chiropractor to align my back, shoulders, neck, and hips. My body really got messed up on this trip somehow. I can hardly lift my head without discomfort. 

My sinuses cleared up yesterday though, and my sense of taste and smell comes and goes. I also still have the deep, painful cough that comes from way down in my chest. NyQuil has been a lifesaver when it comes to my sleep!

I colored my roots today and did some stretching exercises. My plan was to have lunch at Zamui and then walk all over town. It was sunny out, but all of a sudden the sky got cloudy and it started to rain hard. Now I must wait till the weather clears up.

Mike is at the conference in Karlsruhe today. He drove there early this morning. He’s scheduled to give his presentation after lunch, the third speaker. I hope he does an exceptional job!  

It’s close to 4pm now, and I’m sitting inside Le Bistro restaurant awaiting my mixed salad with fried turkey. I probably won’t be hungry for dinner when Mike returns—oops.

I bought a few Italian made linen dresses from a shop called Joni  Accessoires; a variety of chocolate bark with various nuts from a Swiss family chocolate shop; and a pair of pink crystal earrings in rose gold from a Swarovski shop. 

I’m so glad I did that shopping today because I found out later that we were leaving Baden-Baden first thing in the morning.

When Mike returned to the hotel, we went out to find some dinner for him. I had had such a late lunch that I wasn’t hungry for a meal. I had a bite of his sandwich from the Turkish Doner Kebabi place, and we finally got some real ice cream on the way back to our hotel—three scoops on a sugar cone for each of us!

Pastry shops galore

The outdoor flower shops, fresh produce markets, and food trucks were fun to see everyday during our walks through Baden-Baden

We love this beautiful park along a creek in Baden-Baden

The awesomest indoor and outdoor mineral baths/pools

Gotta have clean underwear

For my sickness, and then Mike's!

My honey is always working

Love this guy!

We found another Thai restaurant

This health food store had everything and high prices

From my Journal entry on Thursday, June 27th:

We checked out of our hotel in Baden-Baden and drove to Karlsruhe where we will be staying overnight. I am sitting in the lobby of our Novotel hotel waiting for our room to be ready, and feeling sleepy tired. I read a handful of interesting articles from The NY Times. Mike was running late for the conference, which is across the street and down the road from here. 

We’re supposed to attend a banquet at the conference later, and I wish we could do something by ourselves instead. I never look forward to those large group banquets full of people I don’t know. But they’re meant to celebrate and strengthen the associations and friendships established at the conference. Naturally, the conference attendees get a lot more out of these gatherings than their spouses. Looking back on past banquets, most have offered some great cultural entertainment, interesting food, and even fireworks at the end of the night. I just need to cultivate a more positive attitude and more gratitude for such events and opportunities. I think my main complaint is how long and tiring these events usually are, especially surrounded by so many people. Nearly everyone drinks alcohol, and a big portion of time is spent drinking—before and after dinner.

I went for a short walk along the main road and saw a cafe, a salon, and an ice cream shop. I had forgotten how little this area has! But I took some pictures of the pretty flower gardens in front of the hotel and went back to the lobby. I tried to sleep in one of the semi cozy chairs, when my name was called. Yay! Our room was ready. I got our card and went to the garage to bring up our bags from the trunk of our rental car. I made two trips. Mike will be happy that I brought ALL of our things up to the room. 

For lunch, I ate the free snacks in our mini bar—BBQ chips, a good sized milk chocolate bar, and a small bottle of apple juice. 

I watched some world news on TV and washed my hair. I want to take a nap, but there’s loud construction noise outside our window. So I’ll turn brown noise on my iPhone and see if that helps.

I may have dozed off for fifteen minutes when Mike started sending me texts. He wasn’t feeling well and wanted to skip the banquet and have a quiet evening instead. I’m always happy to avoid the crowds and the long, often boring events.

We ate dinner outside at Thai Lotus. It was pretty warm out still. We walked a longer distance than I had anticipated, so we were sweaty when we returned to the hotel. We stopped at our favorite food market first and bought a lot of snacks for later and for my breakfast. It’s the BEST grocery store in Karlsruhe! Every section—from produce, to cheeses, to breads, to pastas, to meats—are fresh and beautifully displayed.

We bought fresh fruit, cherry yogurt, cherry sorbet, shelled peanuts, chocolates, and gummy candy. We should have bought pastries for the morning and Vitamin C drops for Mike’s sore throat (and mine). He has all the yucky symptoms I had a few days ago—poor guy.

The gorgeous breakfast buffet at our hotel (not free)

The hotel even had outdoor seating

An Italian lingerie store

A Gelato shop below: so many flavors to choose from!

These pink crystal earrings were a splurge from Swarovski

I bought that red dress and a few other Italian linen dresses

The children's school across the street from the front of our hotel

From my Journal entry on Friday, June 28th:

I made the big mistake of drinking the two small bottles of Coke from our mini bar last night while watching our show. Even though we stayed up till about 11pm, I could not for the life of me fall asleep. I tossed and turned all night and through the wee hours of the morning, rearranged my pillows a dozen times, made trips to the bathroom, changed the temperature on our thermostat a few times, checked my messages often, and poured myself some water and then some juice a few times. Honestly, I exhausted myself in bed! Mike was the one who was at the height of his sickness, yet he slept through most of the night without taking any NyQuil.

At 3:30am, I received a text message from Jacquie informing me and Cathy that our mom had been rushed to the UNMH ER by ambulance after she threw up blood and fainted. She had also not been eating. My poor mama!

That text kept me up the rest of the morning. I cried my heart out and prayed for my mom to be comforted, strengthened, and to feel our love and concern for her.

Jessica was in the area and decided to visit her grandma. When Rosy answered the door, she told Jess what had happened. Then Jess called Jacquie. Jacquie told her that my mom had just thrown up blood again in the bathroom there. Jess hurried and met Jacquie and Terry at the hospital. But sadly, she did not get to see our mother.

I’m so very grateful for my little sister Jacquie and for her tireless love and support for our mom and Vernon! I’m also very grateful for a daughter who takes the time and effort to show love and affection to her grandmothers. She is our mom’s FAVORITE grandchild, and she was special and beloved by Mike’s mother, Joy Hobbs.

The last I heard, my mom was taken back for tests, and they were not permitted to be with her, which I feel is WRONG. After a long wait and a walk through the hospital with Jacquie, Jess went home. It was getting late, after 11pm, and she had classes this morning.

I’m anxious to hear how my mamasan is feeling and what is going on with her body. Jacquie and Jess think that my mom’s stomach cancer is tearing its ugly head. She may have been having blood in her stools too but thought that her iron supplements were causing her stools to be black.

Jess told me that Jacquie talked about possibly building a guesthouse for Vernon. I tried to reassure Jacquie that we could convert our clubhouse into a little home for him temporarily.