When we got to Karlsruhe we used the google map we had sent to the blackberry to walk to the hotel. When we found the hotel address we found a printing on the door explaining that we had to go to a different address to check in. It took us awhile to figure out what was being said and then a bit of time to figure out where the address was. Finally we got to the 'lobby' on a different street and in a different building. We learned that we had been up-graded to a newer hotel which was nice.
By now we both are really ready to relax so we decided to not do anything more than rest, go to a local beer garden for a couple of drinks and return to the hotel to sleep. This is what we did and why I do not have anything to share. Tomorrow we head off to Interlaken in Switzerland. We will be back to touring then.
I would like to make a couple of observations about Karlsruhe before we leave this city. From the train station we walked along a very large and beautiful park with water features and flower beds. It would be similar to the size of Riverside Park in Kamloops. However the outside of the park is walled from the street so we only were able to see in and since we did not explore the city, we did not get a chance to walk through the park.
Another observation is the trams that seem to be on all the major streets. In fact we did not notice much in the way of buses, although in outer areas of the city buses likely were present. With the trams, the beautiful park and the clean look of the city, this would be a very nice place for people to live. It felt like a city for dwellers and not a tourist magnet. There seems to be a quiet calm feel to the city. So I decided to research the city and this is what I learned.
Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of city states. The town surrounding the Palace became the seat of two of the highest courts in Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, whose decisions have the force of a law in many cases, and the Federal Court of Justice of Germany, the highest court of appeals in matters of civil law and criminal law. It therefore considers itself the home of justice in Germany, a role taken over from Leipzig after 1945.
Due to similarities to the U.S. capital city, it has been speculated that Karlsruhe was a model city for the cityscape of Washington, D.C. Both cities have a center — in Karlsruhe the palace and in D.C. the Capitol Building — from which the streets radiate outward. L'Enfant, Washington's city planner, had been given the plans of Karlsruhe (among numerous other European cities) as an inspiration.
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