Wiesbaden

First off, I want to say thank you to Jessie for our new blog header! She took the pictures, chose the layout and created the whole thing. Thank you so much! I love it. Over the weekend we took a short trip to Wiesbaden, which is right next to Frankfurt. We love taking day trips because we enjoy listening to books on tape during the drive and it's a good way to see the countryside. We chose to go to Wiesbaden because it is known for having beautiful parks and there was an Easter festival taking place on Saturday. The city was very pretty and actually reminded us a lot of Zurich. The parks didn't disappoint. Jay especially loved feeding the ducks and pigeons. He kept inching too close to the water though so we had to end the feeding early. I think those birds were full anyway as evidenced by the large amounts of uneaten bread covering the ground. After wrestling Jay back into his stroller we walked past the giant neo-classically constructed casino and onto another huge park. Jay was entertained by all the different varieties of dogs we saw. Europe definitely knows how to entice people out of their homes. The parks are all so magnificent. In fact, our guide book described one particular park we ventured into as a, "quiet oasis of dream-like beauty." Not bad.

After visiting the parks we went on and saw one of the 26 hot springs in Wiesbaden. The water was coming out of a little man-made volcano and it was really warm. It was nice to touch since our hands were getting cold but it was sure smelly. We snapped a picture of Mike in front of the police station and then went and saw the Old Town Gate, parts of which date from the Roman period. Then we strolled down the walk-platz. A walk-platz is a large pedestrian only street with shops and restaurants lining the sides. Half way down the walk-platz we found the Easter market. Plenty of good food and Spring trinkets were being sold. They also had activities for kids going on including a little roller coaster that looked like it was constructed from parts found at the local hardware store. You would never see something like it in the States since it would be too much of an insurance risk. We really enjoyed seeing Wiesbaden and definitely recommend it as a short day trip.

And here's another video of Jay dancing, just for fun...