Day 44 Monday, October 13, 2025
First stop on our way to Mulhouse is a pretty little town called Esslingen. At first sight we thought this was a real person!
Our Airbnb in Stuttgart had a calendar with almost this exact photo. It was the impetus to visiting Esslingen.
Autumn has definitely arrived. I love walking through the fallen leaves.
We walked into this church because its doors were so interesting,
I didn’t record the name of this church, but it had a very austere dark interior…
…but the area to light candles was small and intimate and appealed to me. We lit a candle for all our family members and friends who are facing health challenges right now, and spent a few moments in silent contemplation.
Back outside, we see Esslinger Castle in the distance. But this castle isn’t actually a castle, it is a well-preserved part of the medieval city fortifications, located high above the city centre. Originally expanded in the 13th century, it was reinforced in the 16th century with walls up to 5 meters thick. We can see people up there but we don’t have time to go and explore. Travel days don’t allow for in depth exploration and only give us a chance for brief visits to sites along the way.
One thing I love about European cities and towns are the unexpected little things, like the face on this wall. There is always something interesting and different to discover.
We pass this road construction site. I think they were replacing some pipes. All the little stones from the cobbled sidewalks and streets are piled up and then relaid in the pattern that matches the rest of the in place stones. Very labour intensive, but such a wonderful final result.
Built in 1423 as a sales hall and tax house this building is the Old Esslingen Town Hall. We were hoping to hear the Glockenspiel and see the figures on the clock move but later discovered that only happens five times a day. We are out of luck.
The cobbled streets are lined with ancient timbered houses…
…and there are canals here too. We could have piloted our own electric boat for a trip on the canals but they stopped operating the end of September.
The town is surrounded by vineyards.
I thought this house was particularly spectacular. It is dated 1531! 
As we are leaving Esslingen I quickly snap this photo from the car window! I just googled it and dick means thick in German, but also discovered that F. Dick is a German cutlery manufacturer that owns this smokestack…too funny!
Next stop is Baden Baden. We spent some time in Baden Baden a long time ago so we thought we should stop there for a visit. There are flowers everywhere, but bathrooms are few and far between! We spent 45 minutes trying to find a bathroom. Using Google maps we walked several blocks to where there was a WC…but we couldn’t find it. Turns out it was in a parking garage and both of us walked right past the doors to the washroom twice without seeing them! They were on either side of the of the parking payment machine with a tiny sign on each door!
I love how people have tiny potted gardens on their window ledges or on the street beside their doors. 
Baden Baden has a lot of very high end shops. This watch is priced at €15,500…no prices on the others. I presume they are even more expensive. We also see small diamond earring studs that range from €399 to €820 and there were no clothing items on display in the shop windows below €100! A bit too pricey for us, but it is fun to window shop.
Loved this stork fountain!
This is the Baden Baden Casino. Bob thought we could go in and tryout luck but men must wear a suit jacket and tie. We wouldn’t be allowed in with our jeans and casual sweaters.
The drive from Baden Baden to Mulhouse in France was interesting. I see these strange structures on Google maps while navigating…turns out they are huge shopping malls with parking on the roofs of the buildings.
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Just a few kilometres down the road I see this huge truck rest stop on Google maps. I count 86 trucks stopped for a break! Bob’s biggest complaint about driving in Europe is all the trucks on the roads. The right lane is one truck after another and when a truck pulls into the car lane to pass a slower moving one all the cars have to slow down until it manages to pass and get back into the truck lane.
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Remember the German highway speed limit is usually 130 km and often there is no speed limit so a truck pulling into your lane at 90 km is actually quite dangerous. Bob does enjoy the chance to drive at 156 km/h though!
We get caught in traffic for almost half an hour, moving just a car length at a time. We finally figure out why. This huge boat was trying to move through a rather small covered bridge so all traffic was stopped during this operation. Notice our speed now…1.6 km/h!
We arrived just in time to meet our Airbnb host, but our planned stop for groceries has to wait for another day.
These ancient caves were used as building stone quarries for Arras in Medieval times. They are very large with high ceilings.
In a theatre after the tour we watch a film about what happened after this battle and I am shocked to learn that the British advance slowed in the next few days and the German defence recovered. The battle became a costly stalemate for both sides and 4,000 men a day died in the days after the surprise attack. The British had 160,000 casualties and the Germans about 125,000. Up until hearing this I thought this Arras surprise attack was at least a success. I really hate war!
We were pleasantly surprised though to find that food here was reasonable. I bought a cone of yummy hot roasted potato slices for just 3 euros. There were lots of other affordable food options as well as hot chocolate and hot alcoholic drinks and mulled wines for 3 to 5 euros. There are so many people here that sometimes it is difficult to get to the front of a booth to see what is for sale.
Near the booths is an area with beautifully decorated trees and ….
a skating rink! There is a 3,000 m² artificial ice rink with skating paths throughout the park. We watch the kids learning to skate, everyone is having a good time.
This all takes place under a canopy of the most beautiful trees, all lit up with thousands and thousands of white lights.
Just take look at the size of this tree! It is enormous! 
A special attraction is the tree of hearts, and we see couples taking selfies here.
I love all the lights and there is Christmas music playing, children laughing and everyone is enjoying the evening. I am beginning to feel Christmassy!
As we leave the market, I take one last photo looking back towards the Parliament Building…
This is a smaller market, only 70 stalls, and the only decorated trees are the man-made ones. 
We see a booth with goods from Bomo Art, the little handmade book store we visited in Budapest.
There are also some pretty crazy animal candles, cute stuffed gnomes, blue and white pottery and wooden boxes and cabinet with drawers. The tall one with six drawers is ‘only’ 350 euros! That is about $500.00 Canadian. Still nothing I really love to take home with us though.
These little pink snowmen were kind of cute…
and a tree decorated with bird ornaments is different. Only at 10 to 15 euros a bird this would be a very expensive little tree! There are at least 150 birds on this tree, so it would cost between 1,500 and 2,250 euros, which is $2000.00 to $3,200.00 Canadian! No bird trees for me!
The booths are centred around this big fountain…
and there are lights projected on a nearby building, adding to the festive feeling.
It isn’t very warm, the high today was only 9° and it is colder now that the sun has gone down. We want to walk and see some of the streets lit up for Christmas …
but we are both getting chilled so we head home to finish getting ready for our trip home tomorrow.
We visit the Buda side of Budapest today. First stop is the Matthias Church, located in the Holy Trinity Square in front of the Fisherman’s Bastion. It has a beautiful tiled roof and a 60 metre tall bell tower. 
There are a lot of people here.
One of the many great views from the Bastion.
We had to wait a bit to find an arch not filled with other tourists. It often takes a while before I can get a decent photo, which involves deciding where I can get the best view and waiting until vehicles and other people are not in my picture frame. Bob is very patient, waiting for me to take photos. I probably take at least 5 or 6 photos for every one I use in this blog.
The Bastion was inspired by the architectural style of the early medieval times. It has many towers and was meant to feel like a fairy tale castle, as it wasn’t built for defence.
I am always happy when I find a dragon!
These medieval church ruins were built into the modern Hilton Budapest Hotel.
The Black Plague caused the death of 30-60% of Europe’s total population in 1691 and 1709. People believed that erecting a column would protect them from the plague. The carving on the top of the column represents the Holy Trinity. Below this the whole column is decorated with smaller statues depicting angels, and saints. The central sculpture shows King David praying to God to let his people avoid the outbreak of a plague. Residents believed the Holy Trinity Column did its job, as the plague never returned after 1709.
On our walk to the nearby Buda Castle we pass these Medieval ruins. Beneath some of the ruins there is a wine cellar which offers wine tastings. It is located below the remains of a 13th century Dominican Cloister, which is part of a huge labyrinth system underneath the Castle Hill. 
King Matthias (1457-1458) adopted the crow as his heraldic emblem after catching one of them stealing a ring, and killing it to get his ring back. These gates are topped with a crow with a ring in its mouth. The gates are very bizarre, almost creepy looking.
This is the back side of the Buda Castle…
and here is a close up of its fountain. Too bad the water in all the fountains in Budapest has already been turned off for the winter.
The front of the Buda Castle with lots of tourists…
and a bride and groom taking their wedding photos. I wonder if the photographer has to photoshop out all the tourists?
We see a large river cruise ship o the Danube.
There are walkways high above Medieval walls.
We walk down a flight of stairs below a statue of the Madonna and baby Jesus.
When we walk across this bridge we can see these same stairs on the far left side of this photo.
We are walking to this little bookstore that sells handmade journals. Bomo Art is a tiny store, less than 2 metres wide! It didn’t have any larger sketchbooks with good paper for drawing. Too bad, or maybe it was good. My suitcase is already pretty heavy with the two sketchbooks I bought in Linz, and the huge Dürer book I got in Vienna.
We watched this street performer for a while and wondered how he was able to hold this difficult pose. We later saw him in a different position but when we walk by again we see a guy lean heavily on him and to our surprise he crumples! Turns out he is a mechanical man! People were putting lots of coins into his can, trying to get him to move. They had no idea they were being tricked into thinking this was a man in costume. 
It is quite cool at night but it doesn’t stop people from sitting outside drinking beer. 
One last walk down the decorated street towards the Christmas Market. There are so many more people out on the streets tonight.
We stop at one of the stalls and I buy a couple small gifts I have been eyeing every time we walk by. 
I also took photos of the food stands. Pork hocks are a big item here! We were going to buy a meal here a few days ago but quickly changed our minds when we discovered that one cabbage roll, albeit a big one, would cost us 5,000 Forints, the equivalent of $25 Canadian! A small plate with a sausage and two small helpings of side dishes was $35.00! We were rather shocked at how expensive it was. We saw other tourists change their mind and refuse to purchase what they had ordered when they realized the price.
I saw lots of these sparkling balloons and thought they were so pretty. They were even nicer in person than in the photo. We spend the rest of the evening tidying the apartment and packing for our drive to Croatia tomorrow. Oh, and the puppet show we saw ws ‘Coraline’.
We are staying in the Old Jewish Quarter and the roads are very narrow and crowded. As we leave this area, the roads widen and there are many pedestrian-only roads and big plazas. This large ornate building is the first large building I see on the main Street near our apartment.
We walk towards the nearby Christmas Markets. There are lots of small wooden ‘cabins’ filled with beautiful crafts. I loved these dried fruit ornaments, but I am sure that I wouldn’t be allowed to bring these through Canadian Customs. Too bad, they are lovely and smell wonderful.
There are several stands with all sorts of candies…
beautiful felted hats, that are priced starting at $150.00 CAD.
This our first Christmas tree of the year.
This ‘Little Princess’ is the first of many statues we see on the streets of Budapest.
Another ferris wheel, but we decide to pass on riding this one. 
St. Stephen’s Basilica is in the centre of Budapest.
The inside off the church has lots of gilded ornamentation and a beautiful dome.
The main attraction in this church is the thousand year old mummified right hand of King Stephen. If you want to see this relic, deposit a coin and a light comes on to view the hand.
These two borzoi dogs looked like they needed a bath and brushing. There are lots of dogs here and they live their lives on pavement. I kind of feel sorry for them.
The Fat Policeman Statue represents how hearty the Hungarian foods are, and rubbing his tummy is supposed to bring good luck. There are many ‘good luck’ statues on the streets of Budapest.
The Hungarian government erected the ‘Memorial for Victims of the German Occupation’ statue in the middle of the night in July 2014.
Some seed pods from one of the trees near this statue are interesting.
There is a statue of Ronald Reagan in this plaza as well because of his efforts to end the Cold War.
There are so many ornate buildings here…
like the Parliament Building! It is so big I can’t get it all into one photo.
Across the river we can see the Buda Castle.
Bob takes a moment to sit with the Hungarian poet Attila József…
and then we walk onto the Chain Bridge with its guardian lions for a view of Budapest from the river.
This is the Pest side of the river, the side our apartment was on…
and this is the Buda side. These two cities were united in November 1873, and the name ‘Budapest’ was given to the new capital.
I don’t know what this building is but it had delicate golden trim that sparkled in the late afternoon sun.
We find a statue of Roskovics Ignác, a famous Hungarian painter, on our walk along the Danube River.
Walking through the Christmas Market on our way home I notice this jar of pickled onions! They made me laugh!
It is only one euro admission to the Bavarian National Museum on Sundays. The first rooms we enter have incredibly beautiful wooden sculptures, many of which still have their original painted colouring. The sculpture of Christ is from 1200, the Apostles are from 1505, and the woman with children is from1300. All the pieces are in amazing condition…it is hard to believe that they can be this old.
These were two of my favourite pieces. The Mary on the left is from1300 and is larger than life size, while the second Virgin Mary is from 1500. Notice how her finger marks her place in the book she was reading when she is surprised by the angel. She is much smaller, probably about 30 ” tall. They were both exquisite.
This dancing fellow from 1490, is exceptionally animated for such an early carving. The detail of the hands and drapery in the group of figures was so beautifully done. I have a heck of a time drawing drapery, and I can’t imagine how anyone can carve it so well.
We don’t know what this skeleton astride the lion is about but it was interesting. Unfortunately most of the signage is only in German, 
There is a room full of armour…
and another room with models of many towns. This is Munich in 1580 and we are able to recognize some of the buildings that are still present in modern day Munich!
There are enormous detailed tapestries on the wall. We are amazed at the excellent condition of these tapestries.
This small panel from the mid 1500’s is only about 6″ tall and is made with intricately inlaid wood. It is incredibly detailed.
The child’s outfit is from 1547 and the dress from 1630. I wonder how these have survived all these years. Their tiny hand sewn stitches are visible and there is some wear and tear but they are really very well preserved.
The next room is filled with amazing cabinets. I love boxes and cabinets with lots of drawers, and I have never seen anything like these. The coin cabinet of Maximillian I was made for his collection of gold coins. Each of the rows is a shallow drawer with fitted spaces for the coins. It is made of ivory, lapis lazuli, silver and enamel, so of course it must have its own storage case! The case on the right hinges open in the middle so the cabinet can be inserted for safe keeping.
This cabinet was built for the Electress Maria Ana. The ivory cabinet is gorgeous with lapis lazuli panels, but then I walk around to the other side and it is even more beautiful, with silver and enamelling. This cabinet has 176 drawers and secret compartments for storing precious objects! Wow!
These huge globes were interesting..
and then we walked into the next room with these monumental wooden figures!
Don’t you love the faces on these sandals?
Downstairs there are several rooms that appear to be taverns. We aren’t sure, because all the signage here is German. I think the domed object in the corner is a stove to heat the room.
Back upstairs, there is gallery of about 1,000 ivory objects and I wonder how many elephants died so these could be created? This ivory carving was one of fifty or so. The background sky is so thin that the light shines through it.
The Rape of Proserpina on the left is carved in ivory, and the porcelain centrepiece on the right depicts Neptune being drawn by seahorse and tritons. They were both completed in the mid 1700’s.
I thought this tapestry was particularly colourful and beautiful. Notice the details in the close up of the pelican.
Some of the musical instruments on display are rather strange. Bob is wondering how to play the double layer of 19 strings on this one… 
and check out the crazy wind instruments.
There is a wonderful display of clothing from the mid 18th century. Even the pet monkey had stylish togs.
But take a look at the undergarments women wore! 
I love doors and this museum has many. The front door opens automatically when we approach. Seems weird for such an ancient door.
We walk along the river on our way to Maximillianstrasse, where all the fancy expensive shops are located.
On the way, a firetruck pulls up and the firemen check behind bushes and in garbage cans, then drive away. We wonder what they are looking for.
We window shop where the wealthy people shop! The two outfits on the left are only 42,400.00 euros! The red outfit is only 26,300 euros! At today’s exchange rate that is over $100,
The stores are closed so they only leave the ‘cheaper’ watches in the windows. Notice the empty stands for the more expensive ones.
We pass more very loud, very energetic Chilean protesters on our way home.
We thought that the rooms weren’t staged as well as our IKEA at home. The rooms seemed cluttered and not as appealing as the IKEA displays we are used to.
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