Hagenbach and Baden Baden

I've just spent the majority of the work week in our office in Hagenbach, Germany. I used to have a Spanish boss who sent me to Valencia - now I have a German boss who has different priorities. It's a shame really, but I don't have any complaints about Germany, either.

Hagenbach is barely German anyway - it's little more than 8 kilometers from the French border. The office chatter is always a mix of German and French, and most are also fluent in English, which makes me rather more comfortable there then my own home office here in France.

My first evening in town, I was invited to a colleague's apartment to celebrate her birthday. She has a beautiful apartment not 100 meters away from a village clock tower, with a balcony completely overgrown with a kiwi tree. I had never seen a kiwi tree before, and I was completely fascinated with the branches swelling with fruit. Silly me, I thought kiwis only grew in exotic countries. I had previously considered southern Germany's weather to be not unlike
Michigan's, so now my reasoning wants to know: why can't my parents have a kiwi tree?

The next evening made an otherwise ordinary trip to Hagenbach the Best Business Trip Ever. By sheer coincidence, David had to take his own business trip to Durlach, which isn't more than 20 minutes from Hagenbach by rental Mini (oh yeah, the Gods of Rental Cars have finally smiled upon me). After running some errands after work - finding an ATM (a word to the wise - Germany doesn't do credit cards) and buying a batch of our favorite chocolate - I arrived at the Karlsruhe train station with a smile and the Mini keys ready to hand over to my better half.

However, after my hug and kiss hello, David looked at the keys with unexpected trepidation. "I'm hopped up on coffee" he warned me wearily. "I don't know if I should be driving your rental". But I relented, and it didn't take much persuasion before he was sliding behind the wheel and eying the dashboard excitedly.

We zipped off to Durlach, which wasn't more than a few minutes' drive from the train station. David checked into his posh 4 star hotel (a far cry from the village attic I was crashing in outside of Hagenbach), and we walked to a nearby Cuban restaurant for dinner. We were served by a friendly waitress who spoke perfect English and served David a tall German beer. Score another point for Germany.

I stayed that night in Durlach, and took off the next morning for Hagenbach. David walked to work, which was mere steps from the hotel, and left for Paris again that evening.

For my last night in town my boss invited me to nearby Baden Baden for the evening. "Baden Baden" literally translates to "Bath Bath". I don't understand the need for redundancy, but apparently they do have a lot of baths in town.

We drove the Mini out to the edge of the Black Forest, where Baden Baden is nestled between two low mountains. After a harrowing drive up the side of one of the mountains, we walked around an old castle built into the side of a cliff. Vincent had stopped by his house to change into sensible shoes, but I was still in my work skirt and heels. So my exploration of the castle was limited to delicately placed footsteps, but I made my way to the top tower in time for a spectacular view of the landscape below just before sunset.

Back in the town center, we ate at a tourist bistro where the waiter proudly bounced linguistically between French, German, and English for our amusement. I had a hearty meal of veal and cranberries with spaetzel, which is a kind of German pasta. It was an evening and a meal that was right up David's alley, and I mentally marked Baden Baden as a place that I must bring him to sometime.