Delays, Detours, and Maultaschen

As promised—a new chapter in this trip kicked off today with Sanjay’s arrival!

After a quick breakfast and check-out, I moved my luggage to the hotel next door, Aqua Aurelia, where we’d be staying for the next part of the journey. Then it was time to hit the road: Karl, legend that he is, drove me to Frankfurt, where I picked up our rental car. Bonus: we got a free upgrade, which felt like a good omen for the days ahead.

From there, I headed to Frankfurt Airport to meet Sanjay… except his flight was delayed by two hours. Classic travel chaos. While waiting, I discovered that the Frankfurt airport parkade is an actual disaster (seriously, who designed that mess?) I passed the time with a much-needed cup of coffee and some excellent people-watching in the departure hall.

And then—finally—Sanjay arrived! A quick reunion hug, a deep breath, and we were on the road again, back to Baden-Baden. What should’ve been a two-hour drive turned into almost four thanks to traffic jams and endless construction zones.

When we finally made it, we checked into Aqua Aurelia and went on a short sightseeing walk—partly to give Sanjay a first glimpse of Baden-Baden, partly to keep him awake and ward off the jet lag.

We wrapped up the day with dinner at Le Bistro, where Sanjay tried his very first Maultaschen (a proper introduction to Swabian comfort food) after starting with a local Wurstsalat. I went for the Wald und Wiesen Pfännchen—game and veal meatballs with potato purée and a rich, lingonberry-spiked gravy. Glorious.Read more