Arriving in Wiesbaden

We left Zurich on the 8am train to Frankfurt after walking to the station in the rain. We had to make a connection with the 12.12pm train to Weisbaden and luckily we were able to follow a couple who shared our compartment for the last part of the trip to Frankfurt and were going to Wiesbaden too. We arrived in Wiesbaden around 1pm and made our way on foot to our apartment. There we met a neighbour of the owner who made us welcome.

After settling in and going shopping for some groceries, we set off on the Wiesbaden 'Daytrips' walk around the city. Wiesbaden was an elegant spa town which attracted the wealthy and powerful in the nineteenth century. This is still evident in the impressive apartment buildings and leafy trees which line many of the city streets, including ours.

The walk took us past the City Museum, along the Wilhelmstrasse, through several parks and to the Kurhaus which is now a casino.

 From there we walked to the Kochbrunnen, the most famous of Wiesbaden's hot springs.

We took a bus (free with our Wiesbaden travel card!) to the base of the Neroberg where we travelled on the nineteenth century rack railway to the top of the mountain. The main attraction there, apart from the view over the city, was the Russian Orthodox church erected by Duke Adolf of Nassau for his wife who died in 1855. The golden domes of the church shone beautifully in the afternoon sun but unfortunately we were too late to enter the church since it was just after 6pm.

We took the railway back to the city and then continued our walk, which included the Romertor, an old town gate some of which dated from Roman times.

We also found the old market place which was bordered by the Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall), the nineteenth century New Town Hall and the splendid neo-Gothic Market Church.

From there it was a long walk back to our apartment and up the four flights of stairs to our rooms. No lifts! Then we had a battle with a washing machine which wouldn't start and discovered that there was no microwave oven to cook the meals we had bought. We were, however, able to cook them on the stove. There doesn't appear to be any hot water in the kitchen but we eventually managed to get the dishwasher to work. The apartment is lovely and spacious but the lack of any instructions for the appliances etc is very frustrating. Ian texted the owner about the washing machine and she advised us to use the local laundromat! Such are the joys of independent travel!

Street art