In the peace of Charles...

Playlist

Various Artists - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2016 Vols 1-52

Various - The Front Line : Best Of

Various - Funk Soul Classics (Ministry of Sound)

Bononcini - L'Age d'Or des Castrats

Sainte-Colombe Le Fils - Les Six Suittes Pour Basses De Viole Seule

Henry Mancini - The Best Of Henry Mancini

Alice Cooper - The Sound Of A [EP]

Monday morning on the balcony...

The flower from the ballet, still going strong...

Out and to the railway station...

...for the 20 minute trip to Karlsruhe...

Train there, then tram to the centre...

First stop, Schloss Karlsruhe...

The beast and his Exec Producer were about their business...

We could not gain entry as there was an exhibition changeover taking place...

So we took a wander around the gardens instead...

...before walking back into town and stumbling across a book/record shop - I had not researched anything beforehand...

Four purchases made...

This, as it contains Wind Quintet arrangements of some of the pieces heard for piano for four hands yesterday...

This, as it's by one of my faves since the late 80's, the Huelgas Ensemble

This because it's string quartets and a contemporary of Herr Mozart...

And this because it's pieces for piano for four hands - although I'd never heard of the composer...

Onwards for a walk around the centre, taking in some good buildings...

Kirche St Stephan...

I liked this old guy who trundled past us on his bike, singing away...

The natural history museum...

...which looks onto Friedriechsplatz...

..and in the Market Square (Marktplatz), the Court House...

The Town Hall...

...the Kinder Staatkirche...

..and, erm...

Back round towards the palace for bier, apfelschorle...



...and a tasty lunch - fish ragout with mango and tagliatelle for your correspondent, a tasty chicken salad with goat's cheese for the EP...

Then, a tram ride to the old slaughterhouse district...

Schloss Gottesaue, now the library for the music school...

...the music school...

..and into the ex-slaughterhouse complex itself, for a further wander...

We liked this wee coffee place, Espresso Tostino, which, while it serves coffees and other drinks (and tasty cakes of which we did not partake), is mostly about roasting the coffee etc...

Onwards, I liked the building on the left, Anne the building on the right (if it were to have the building on the left's interiors)...

The beers of the Hoepfner Bräu were found to be very good indeed throughout the holiday...

And so we left the slaughterhouse and took a tram back to the centre...

...enjoying a bier or two...

...before returning to the record shop to try and obtain a 6 CD set of Villa Lobos' string quartets but it was out of stock - I could not resist this instead, because I am a CD buying idiot...

Back down to the tram again (we had day tickets which covered all buses, trains and trams in the Karlsruhe and Baden Baden region)...

...and a trip out to the town of Durlach, the original seat of the rulers who, later, built Karlsruhe...

The Karlsburg Durlach...

The Palace Gardens aka State Park...

...and back to the town...

The Evangelische Stadtkirche...

...finally taking a rest at Cafe Cielo to watch the world go by...

Here I made, quite possibly, my stupidest drink purchase of the holiday - a black coffee on ice - I'm sure the ice worked out at a couple of quid...

Oh well...

A tram back to Karlsruhe and the station for the train back "home"...

...in Baden Baden...

A rest on the balcony...

...and a listen to some of the purchases on the apartment CD player before bed...

Another good day...

Today's artwork, "The Blue Sheep"...

Highlight of the Day : A trip to Karlsruhe...