Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Baden-Baden (The Final Part)
24-DEC-2008:
In my previous post, we were at the outskirts of Strasbourg in France and attended a friend's wedding dinner. We left the wedding early (at 11:30pm) and on the next day found out from the others that it ended at 2:30am.
Today, after we had brunch, we drove to Strasbourg for another Christmas market. This one was really crowded and Dominic wasn't in a good mood, so we left early. When we got back to the hotel, Dominic started throwing up and that was the start of our *unforgetable* holiday. He had mild fever but was okay after taking Neurofen. I must have sixth sense because I normally don't bring any medication with me when traveling but this time, I dropped by the pharmacy and collected medicine for all 3 of us before we left London.
Lots of people at the market.
The market was in front of a cathedral (I think it's called the Notre Dame) and it was open for visitors.
We decided to have dinner in the hotel that night and we got to the restaurant at 7:30pm. The menu was in French and the people didn't speak any English. On the 1st page, the first two items said "Hummersuppe" or "something-suppe" and I was pretty confident those meant soups. I was going to order one each. The 2nd page was titled "Poisons" which didn't sound delicious. On the 3rd page, the first item said "Poussins" which I believed was chicken - and I was going to order that as well. And further down, I spotted the word "beefsteak" and I was also going to order that. Just then, the bride, groom and his family came down for dinner and asked us to join them. We said yes out of courtesy.
Because their family was huge (about 15 of them including kids), it took quite a long time for everyone to be seated and for the waitress to take our orders. Dominic wanted spaghetti but they didn't serve spaghetti in the children's menu (or maybe they did but nobody translated that to us), so we ordered sausages and fries for Dominic. Daddy was told that his main course would come with pasta and Dominic could have some of that. Starters were served at around 8:30pm. Dominic's main (the sausages) came with our starter but he refused to eat it. We kept telling him that his spaghetti was coming. After the starter, we waited close to 1 hour for the mains. By now, Dominic was lying on the table, his head on his arms. When the pasta finally came with daddy's main, he didn't want it anymore. I quickly finished my food and took him up to the room with me, and I told daddy to please eat my dessert for me, because I myself was getting a bit annoyed with these lengthy dinners.
We went up to the room, Dominic had a temperature, I cleaned him up, undressed him and gave him more Neurofen and he fell asleep shortly. I then showered and got to bed myself. Daddy only came up at 12am!!
Dominic continued to have a temperature for the rest of the night and he slept a lot. We checked out of the hotel at 1pm the next day and were the last ones to leave. We drove back to Baden-Baden and in the car, Dom continued to sleep. Since he was ill and we couldn't do any touristy thing, we decided to go for a scenic drive instead. We drove through the Black Forest all the way from Baden-Baden to Freudenstadt (I hope I spelled it right) and here are some of the scenic photos we took on the way. It took us 2 hours to get there but slightly shorter time to get back. All the while, Dominic was asleep and he woke up briefly on and off and we got out of the car for a little sight-seeing.
It reminded me of the Black Forest cake and I wondered why it wasn't black but covered in lots of white cream instead. I guess looking at the snowy scene in this forest, I could understand why.
The next day, our flight was scheduled for 6:40pm and we were planning to do some touristy thing before flying back. However, Dominic continued to be sick and he had started to worry me because normally his fever wouldn't last this long. This was really unusual. We stayed in the hotel the whole day and even extended our stay till 5pm (we would normally be required to check out by 12pm) so that Dominic could rest. Fortunately, he was feeling better by the time we left for the airport. Unfortunately, both daddy and I were beginning to feel ill. Thank God for my 6th sense, we downed two flu/cold pills each and made it back to London. When we got back to London, I was ill for a whole week and it was the worst I've felt in many years. We sent Dominic off to the nursery and for the rest of the week, I did nothing but slept the whole day. If Dominic and I had caught the same bug, then I think he is a strong boy because he recovered much faster than me.
