I Want to be Retired in Germany

A few weekends ago I left with our program on a seven hour train ride to Strasbourg and then a 2 hour bus to the oh so quaint and beautiful Baden-Baden, Germany, whilst entertaining our professor's twin twelve year olds, playing hot potato categories with a stuffed anime animal they call "Mr. Tofu Man." It was a long, amusing ride, but soon for the first time, I entered into another European country, besides France.

The streets were immaculately clean. The buildings, although medieval, looked completely unscathed or touched by time. The buildings are bright pastel yellows, blues, pinks, and off-white. Although most of the town looked above the age of 65, I did spot a little family wearing matching sweaters tied around their polo shirted shoulders. How pleasant!

Baden-Baden, obviously by its name, is a bath town with many spas and mineral baths, most of them clothing optional or completely nude. Most of them filled with old naked men and women and a few young couples visiting for the weekend from France. The spa I went to had numerous pools: indoor, outdoor, one kind of like a lazy river, one with bubbles, one with a massaging waterfall, a cold pool, a hot pool, and then there was the second floor "no clothing" spa, with 10 hot saunas at differing degrees of heat with different aromatherapy steam.
I wonder if people here ever run into their bosses or teachers?

We stopped at a wonderful thai/asian food restaurant with 4 euro HUGE plates of fried rice, noodles, pad thai, and all kinds of delicious options, not to mention really good, cheap hot saki and German beers.
The more I travel, the more I learn that France, besides the U.K., is the most expensive place in Europe.
As for nightlife, it seems unless you're gambling at the casino (21 and up), you're asleep in Baden-Baden by 10 p.m.