Welcome Melanie!!

I'm not feeling well today. I think I'm coming down with a cold - just before Oktoberfest no less! And I have had this song stuck in my head since Sunday night. And while it is cute and funny, I've had just about enough.

I just saw my friends Melanie and Kelly off at the train station for their day-trip to Baden-Baden. Oh! Yes! I forgot to mention, my friend Melanie is here! She arrived on Sunday night from Canada and coincidentally arrived nearly at the same time that Kelly returned from Paris. We had a nice happy reunion at the train station.


Then it was back to the apartment to catch up on everyone's travel stories and devour the delectable French pastries that Kelly so generously brought back from Paris. Mmmmm....



Yesterday was simply lovely. The weather was beautiful and I couldn't have had a better time with my two friends. We started out with some lattes and käsespaetzle, a cheesy noodle dish, at the local hangout, Wolfbräu.


I showed the girls the back of our apartment building. That's our bedroom window I'm pointing to. Ours is the right half of the circle.


Then we were off on a guided (by me) bike tour of Karlsruhe's highlights. We utilized the Deutsche Bahn bikes again. We started at the Schloss, near the Kunsthalle, where they have this lovely garden:





Then it was off to my favorite spot - the duck pond.




And then off to the woods.


Go Mel!

Look Ma! No hands!


And of course what trip to Karlsruhe is not complete without a visit to the giant vending machine?


Karlsruhe streetscape.


Funny horse statue.


What better way is there to end a wonderful day of sight-seeing than at the Naked Spa?

You know I'm only pretending. I love the naked spa.


Before:


During:


After:


Ahhhh... ultra relaxation.

Tomorrow we are heading off to Oktoberfest and along the way we will be going to Neuschwanstein, the "Cinderlla" castle. Stay tuned for details of our adventures in Bavaria!