{"id":547,"date":"2023-08-04T05:14:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-04T05:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/?p=547"},"modified":"2023-08-01T17:21:36","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T17:21:36","slug":"ilona-cole-guest-author-story-141","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/04\/ilona-cole-guest-author-story-141\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilona Cole, Guest Author, Story 141"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A Trip to Baden Baden: World Famous City of Spas<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baden Baden: A beautiful, picturesque city in the Black Forest. Twelve natural springs well up from a depth of 2000 metres, supplying thermal spas with 68C hot spring water to pamper visitors from around the world clear back to Roman times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Hal and I had waited with anticipation for this year\u2019s vacation. We are flying to Germany and planning to take a trip with my sister Friedl and her husband Georg to the Black Forest, the beautiful city of Baden Baden. We will meet our dear friends, while there, Kurt and Ruth Pieper, who lived in the United States for over forty years, working for Boeing airplane manufacturing company in Seattle, Washington. After Kurt retired, they came back to Germany to live. They now live outside the city of Karlsruhe not far from Baden Baden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had purchased tickets for all six of us for a concert at the Festival Hall, with a capacity of 2500 seats, one of the largest classical music venues in Europe. Guest conductor will be Claudio Abbado, the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, who has died in 2013 at the age of 80. Sounds exhilarating and food for the soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Speaking of food: After we arrived and met with Kurt and Ruth, we had reservations in a wonderful restaurant. There was an attractive and picturesque courtyard outside all glass front of the dining room. In the center was a large fountain, white crushed rock around it with numerous flowerpots, that showed off all different color, beautiful Rhododendrons and blooming Azaelia\u2019s and garden art. Tables were set very festive, music playing softly in the background and the guests could choose to be served inside or in this paradise outside. We were seated by the fountain and the lovely music made this very idyllic and relaxing. We started our lunch with lively conversation and a bottle of bubbly. The Pieper\u2019s, of course, wanted to know anything new about Seattle and the State of Washington and I thought for a moment I recognized some longing and nostalgia, at least from Kurt, regretting a little that they left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The waiter came to our table to discuss the chef\u2019s delicious choices for today. Very intrigued we were about one of the appetizers: The chef, from fresh foie gras had prepared a smooth, like velvet, warm mousse and served with little wedges of brioche bread. The mousse was very rich but was served in small ramekins. The main course was just as delicious and special. Veal tenderloins, filled with walnuts, cranberries and apple finely chopped in a b\u00e9chamel sauce, served with white asparagus, heated in clarified butter with fresh dill. My Hal and George ordered the wine, a beautiful crisp German Riesling and it was heaven! No one could even think of dessert, so we ended this feast with an espresso, one sugar cube and a curl of orange rind. We had several hours until the concert, so we started to walk along the tree-lined main street, through the park and to the Festival Hall. The most beautiful ground about this stately building. Flood lights were already shining on this old building, and it looked impressive! Hal took a lot of pictures we will enjoy looking at once we are home again and want to bring our memories back to this wonderful journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The evening was unforgettable in a stately old place with a lot of history. A first-rate orchestra and a great guest conductor, Claudia Abbado. When he entered the stage, the whole Festive Hall erupted in applause and standing ovation. The music was touching, mesmerizing and one did not want this evening to end. Beethoven\u2019s fifth symphony had the audience on their feet. It was a once in a lifetime experience and will stay in my heart and memory for ever. I have, in thought only, a little idiosyncrasy on keeping and storing all wonderful journeys, depending on beauty, importance, lasting power and endearment. The way to store them, and to save them to peek at them now and then. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This journey is worthy of the finest and most beautiful box, awesome ribbon and much tenderness and gratitude for ownership of this lovely experience. It shall always be in my heart and mind. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Trip to Baden Baden: World Famous City of Spas Baden Baden: A beautiful, picturesque city in the Black Forest. Twelve natural springs well up from a depth of 2000 metres, supplying thermal spas with 68C hot spring water to pamper visitors from around the world clear back to Roman times. My Hal and I … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Ilona Cole, Guest Author, Story 141”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":553,"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions\/553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcielsims.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}