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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Baden Baden Casino


In the morning we walked, frozen to the center of town. Baden Baden is very old, as if the wars in Europe have just avoided it.The buildings are ornate and about 5 stories high. A lot of the buildings are in pastel colors and a lot of bright yellow, pink red and blue flowers are planted neatly along the streets. Everything was shining in the sun and looked technicolor, especially the radiant green manicured grass. We found the tourist office and had to wait an hour for it to open, but we didn't mind as where ever you sit there are beautiful views. So we sat on some concrete mushrooms next to a fountain on the edge of a park, and ate more breakfast! From where I sat I could see 5 clocks, they must be very time conscious, either that or their proximity to Switzerland is effecting them. Eventually the tourist office opened and we got a map and some info.

First we visited the famous casino. It's not very grand from the outside. It is a square white building surrounded by grass lawns. Inside it is apparently modeled after rooms in Versailles Palace. Beautiful use of gold relief and painted ceilings and plush red carpets. The casino is smaller than I expected and the tour of the place - in German - cost 3 Marks. There is a newer section of the casino which is nothing compared to the original. It has a lot of copper work, which is brown and not shiny. They have 27 roulette tables and play roulette, black Jack, Klondike, Baccarat. When we left we were discussing the difference between this and Sun City in South Africa. This is class sophistication and each room is unique. The one major difference is that Sun City, and Las Vegas, have one arm bandits, where as here it is just the posh gambling games. Here it is a sport for the rich.
Photo from Baden Baden

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