Two weekends ago and a few days after returning from the field, Gwen and I escpaed to a little spa town about an hour and 20 minutes (at autobahn speeds) south of us. This placed was called 'Baden Baden', which translates into something like 'Bath Bath'. Its a rather fitting name for the place as several of the town's main attractions revolve around baths (roman style), saunas, massage, spa treatments, etc.
It was a pretty place and the weather was perfect that weekend. When we got there, we also discovered it was rather abuzz with peeps and energy. We later found out this was mostly because the semi-annual horse races were in town.
We got there in the afternoon, checked into the hotel, and got some lunch. I have made it a policy to try as much new German beer as I can, and at this particular lunch I ordered something called a "Fun Bier". In my head, I thought this would be pronounced "Foon Beer" and be some sort of dark eclectic brew. When I ordered it, though, the waiter halted for a half a second, raised his eyebrows, and then promptly walked away. When he got back to the table with the beer, it was literally a "fun bier" - meaning it was festive and ultimately the girliest of all girly beers and was probably, now that I look at it in retrospect, targeted at gay men. It was all sugary with a pinch of Tequiza - just ridiculous. I downed it quickly and then ordered a separate, infinitely more manly beer. After making a mental note to avoid "Fun Bier" in the future, I winced inwardly at the irony of me - I of course always on the prowl for Fun Boys - being taken in by the beer equivalent.
After lunch we cruised down to some monster spa place. What it turned out to be mostly was an elaborate set of pools on pools. Gwen and I spent most of our time going from pool to pool. Each were set at different temperatures in the 80-98 degree range and provided differing degrees of relaxation. Amidst the multiple pools were multiple jets which aided in the overall massage and relief effect. There were also several sauna rooms, including an entire floor of 'all naked' sauna rooms in the traditional roman style. Gwen and I didn't brave THOSE rooms, but given the multiple Euro men in their tighter than tight banana hammock speedos in the pools, and the ensuing stomach turning visuals of way-too-detailed, jaunty angular penile shafts and mushy balls bulging from skin tight suits, it sure felt like we did...
Eyebrow raising buffalo shots aside, the whole effect of the pools was very relaxing and a nice way to just kick it following 2.5 weeks of hectic field training and extensive traveling.
That night we went out to a nice dinner and enjoyed more fine German cuisine. There was some gaudy rico-suave-style spanish singer in the main plaza of this town belting out tunes to a happy vacation crowd. The music was terrible and the singer hilarious. At one point he actually screamed out a big Latin "ARRRRRIBBBAAA!" between shimmies and I remember thinking how one can be cheesy in any country.
At dinner, we made note of THIS GUY (below) who was wearing a ridiculous peach get up complete with sweater thrown over the neck. I hesitate to use the term so lightly - but this guy MAY qualify as some sort of middle aged fun boy.
Ummm...he's actually WITH a girl
After dinner, we were both sort of drunk and giggly and we started trying to find funboys. We were pretty successful, however photographing them in a shrewd manner was much more difficult. Below are the mild fruits of our labors.
Apparently, in Germany this word means "If you are sick and/or dying then this vehicle will take you to the hospital at great speed"
"Hey FUN BOYS - Get a room!" (*MIND CONTROL TECHNO*) - Well there it is - had to be said once. The saddest thing about this picture is that I doubt very much that either of these guys is gay. And THAT is what makes fun boys so sweet!The next day we got up and enjoyed an amazing continental breakfast at our beautiful hotel courtyard while taking in the sun. The food was great and totally Euro-style breakfast. Lots of meats and cheeses with an assortment of fruit and breads. The coffee was particularly good.
Our Hotel from the back...
View from the Terrace (while eating crumpets)
After breakfast Gwen and I checked out of the hotel and strolled around the town a bit more, doing some window shopping. We stumbled onto some old guys playing chess on this huge outdoor board which was pretty sweet. (See pic). We sat and watched these guys for a game or so. For the two players, most of the game was spent standing or strolling slowly around the large board with hands on chins. At certain points however (and mostly the end middle/early end game), there would all of a sudden be a critical move made followed by a flurry of activity as the moves lined themselves up. At that point, these old guys were nearly jogging back and forth to remove the captured pieces from their rapid-fire exchanges. Following that, there would be a lot of other old guys (watchers on nearby benches) who would turn to each other and start yammering on in German and French, obviously talking strategy. Pretty funny. Cool too - it would be a blast to play a game on that board, methinks.
Sadly, shit-talk was minimal here...
After the chess, we had more coffee and snacks at an outdoor cafe where Gwen read and I started typing up my field experience (still not completed) on my trust lap top here. After that, we headed out and back to Kaiserslautern. It was our first little getaway (for pleasure) since we've been here, and hopefull a sign of things to come.
