Baden-Baden does not hide its reputation. The casino still glows after dark. Thermal water still comes out hotter than you expect. Grand hotels still face the park as if the nineteenth century never quite left. What changes the visit is how little of that you need. I start with the Oos. It is a small … Read more
Rheingasse still drops to the old Rhine gate in Niederburg, Konstanz Konstanz sells itself with water. Bodensee on the postcard, Swiss border on the map, a steeple that still owns the skyline. Fair enough. The town I come back for sits lower than the Münster roof, in a pocket of bent lanes where the lake … Read more
Most people who detour into Schwäbisch Hall come for the staircase. St. Michael’s wide stone steps open onto a market square that looks, from the top landing, like someone arranged half-timber and Baroque façades for a postcard. The town’s origin story sits lower, almost at river level, on a small square called Haalplatz where salty … Read more
Ulm sells itself with a steeple. Fair enough. The Minster still owns the skyline. The town I come back for sits lower, where two thin arms of the Blau slide through half-timber and tip into the Danube. Locals say Fischerviertel and point south of the Rathaus; the careful name is Fischer- und Gerberviertel. I start … Read more