Veronika Wild

Alexandra Platz in the centre of town is where the buses stop. That's the Baden -Baden Casino on the left Although I had now passed through Baden -Baden a few times, I hadn’t really stopped to have a look at it as I was usually hurrying to catch another bus. The weather channel had predicted a change on my last day anyway, so I thought that would be a good time to have a look around and to visit one of the galleries I had wanted to see. No – one I knew had ever been to Baden -Baden, which I thought was rather odd, given that it was a well – known spa town and not too far away. When they said, “No, they hadn’t," they usually did so, with a slight sniff of disapproval. Do I detect a Calvinistic streak in this part of of the world which frowns on excessive indulgence or conspicuous displays of wealth?   I’d noticed a similar expression when my cousin and I were passing through Metzingen near Bad Urach. Apparently the latter is now a major Factory Outlet for big internationa...

Endangered Species at the Mummelsee - a popular tourist stop on the B500. Her predecessor who had been created as part of an Art Trail around the lake was stolen in 2011, much to the disappointment of art lovers and the community All Saints Falls - Die Drei Heiligen Fired up by the 'success' of my first mission, I thought I’d try for the All Saints Waterfall next, a semi famous one built on the site of a C12th monastery, steeped in legends and a good way along the B500. I’d heard there was a bus there too, but the lady at the Transport Information Bureau which has its back to the public, hadn’t heard of the waterfall, let alone the bus. This is the front of the Transport Information Office. The actual entrance is hidden around the other side on the right, not the left This is it - It says "Entrance to the Parking Garage" By her accent I could tell that like so many workers here, the person behind the counter was not from  here, but she made no effort to find out...

  A magnificent sight on Hobart's Waterfront on the weekend Aye me Hearties! Before we go back to Germany again, I thought you might like a few glimpses of Hobart's Wooden Boat Festival which is held in Hobart every second year. It’s a wonderful sight to see the great tall ships lying at anchor in the harbour just as they might have two hundred years ago. Boats and visitors come from all over the world for this and this year there were some 60,000 visitors over the four days. Sadly, at least one ship didn’t quite make it. The Goondaloo, a historic pilot ship which used to ply Sydney Harbour, sank on the way here.  Scrambling down Kelly's Steps from Battery Point  I was a bit worried at first as I hurried down Kelly’s Steps - the sandstone stairway built by Captain James Kelly in about 1840, so that it wouldn’t take him as long to get to work. Not many of the usual cafés in Salamanca Place were open and Salamanca Square behind the sandstone warehouses also seemed rathe...