Part 2:  Wiesbaden is a beautiful city with 250,000 plus citizens and an American army base that houses another 5,000 or so.  As GP would so politely say, "It stinks of money".  It's in an area where you can't drive more than 30 minutes without running into another prosperous little, or in the case of Frankfurt, not so little, city.  It's highly touristic, houses a US base and it's the center for many German companies.  But the city maintains a wonderful charm.  The architecture is fabulous with older buildings of wood and plaster (Neo-Gothic??) and Classical and Belle Epoch all tossed in together.  It was once a famous spa destination and in fact there are still some spas functioning.  Hot springs run all under the city so there are fountains that spurt scalding water into the air and steaming manholes all over the place.  Kinda freaky.  The town center is in a hollow, like the bottom of a teacup, with five valleys leading up into the hills around it.  Each hill neighborhood has it's own character.  Some areas are very austere and elegant and remind me of Kennsington in London.  Others are mainly brick and granite and are more like Back Bay in Boston.  There are hundreds of incredible mansions that I can't imagine heating and neighborhoods of smaller, old traditional houses that look like they come out of a fairy tale.  In the center we went to a famous Cuckoo clock shop where I played American tourist and a very old, very beautiful Viennese style cafe' where we stopped for cake and coffee.  As I found in Austria, the cakes look better than they taste.  The bread however is another story.  Germany has the best breads anywhere.  Bread with nuts and seeds and grains and apples and spices.  Gad it's good.  That plus the beer tightened the jeans a wee bit.

Here are a few of my favorite houses.

The city literally abounds with these beauties.  Ah well.  They do have to put up with the weather.  xxoo me