Dear guests of the city of Wiesbaden,

Every time I walk from the composers' quarter through the Kurpark into the city, I feel like I'm on vacation and immediately start to relax. Just the path to the pond behind the Kurhaus is a dream - a small path winds along a stream behind the villas on Sonnenberger Straße, birds chirp, you meet dog owners walking their pets, joggers run past you in the morning and evening....In other words, you feel like you're in the forest.

Then you reach the actual, fenced-in spa park (open daily from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., in summer until 11 p.m.). This magnificent 75,000 square meter park was laid out at the beginning of the 19th century in the style of an English landscape garden. Rhododendron bushes and magnolias form a sea of flowers in spring, many trees, some of them exotic, provide shade in summer and the lawns are ideal for picnics. Right at the entrance to the Kurpark is the Nizza square with a beautiful flower bed, a bust of Fyodor Dostoyevsky (who found the inspiration for his famous work "The Gambler" here in Wiesbaden) and two old columns from the first Kurhaus on the Eiskeller hill.

Classical and pop concerts still take place in the concert shell today. The pond with its six-metre-high fountain exudes a Mediterranean flair and invites young and old to go rowing or pedal boating. The "1907" lounge is reminiscent of the building of today's Kurhaus and offers refreshing alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks as well as culinary snacks (open in summer afternoons from Thursday to Sunday). And while many an adult passes the time with a game of boules under the shady trees, the youngest guests can let off steam in the small playground. Who doesn't understand why Wiesbaden is also known as the "Nice of the North"?

I wish you a wonderful, relaxing time.