We have plenty of towns with odd names in Ohio, so this one would fit right in. I suppose the name originates from the fact that there are two bath houses in town (Baden#1 - Friedrichbad, and Baden #2 - Caracalla Therme).
Besides the bath houses there is a world famous casino, a "tree park", and not a few expensive gift shops. A model resort town, but with a long, long history. (The baths were used by Romans. The casino by Marlene Dietrich.)
Our hotel was up, up, up from the town. Hence, the nice view (left). The Garmin took us up a highway that did not go through the town but kind of around it while climbing gradually. Walking to town and back was quite a workout.
Ol' Bismarck here (right) was a landmark for us on the trek. Remembering how to get from A to B in these old towns requires concentration.
Here is the bath house nearest our hotel. (The Roman). We chose not to partake of this particular recreation, although it might have been worth it just for the experience - and the story to tell.
After walking down the steep road to town we saw more conventional tourist sights.
A tavern with a sign reminiscent of the Getreidegasse in Salzburg (left).
And a fountain (right) reminiscent of everywhere, but with its own character.
Here is the famous casino (left) or rather this is the building, called the Kurhaus, which houses the casino. We took a guided tour of the casino one morning (it doesn't open for gambling until 14:00). The tour is nominally given in German but it turned out that besides us there were only two elderly ladies attending. After a little preliminary conversation it was discovered that the guide and the two ladies all spoken decent English and so the American bumpkins were accommodated and the whole tour was converted to English. Well, not quite. Often the guide would glance at our tour companions and repeat the narration in German. The casino was very elegant - and quite small by Las Vegas standards. And very tasteful as another comparison to Las Vegas. One suspects that it is also much quieter.
Since casino gambling is illegal in most of the U.S., we were curious about Germany and Europe. The guide said that the legality had varied over times and places including Baden-Baden. When it was legal there but illegal in France the town would get a lot of French tourists.
One day a photo shoot of some kind (right) was going on using the Kurhaus as a background. The attractive young couple would be just getting in or out of their Rolls-Royce.
After the tour we went to the basement where the slot machine area was. Much more similar to LV. We quickly lost our allotment and left.
The Kurhaus is situated along side a lovely garden and green space with a great view of the surrounding hills (up where our hotel was.)
This made it an especially nice venue for a concert we attended there one evening.