First, Wiesbaden is a fairly big town....278,000 people (and still growing). Course, you have to take this with a note or two. To reach 278k....this includes suburbs....which connect via a forest or woods, and onto an adjacent village. So the only way that they reach this....is by moving the city limits further and further out. You could be a village four miles outside of the city urban area...with a fairly big forest between you and them.....and you'd still be considered part of Wiesbaden.
Reaching 300,000? I'd take a humble guess and say by 2040....the city will reach this point. A big town? No. It's not what you'd classify as a metropolitan type city.
Second. For better or worse....it's an area that developed originally by the Romans. They came....discovered the warm springs, the wine, and the fair climate. There were various "tribes" that settled the area way before the Romans....but they are the ones who brought commercial activity and made them realize the impact of being a spa town. There's no gladiator-type events or Roman-days for Wiesbaden...mostly because they've gone past that point in a major way.
Third. Foreigners influence the city a great deal. The Romans came to influence them. The Franks came to influence them. The French came to influence them. The English came to influence them. The Russians, the Austrians, the Swiss, the Dutch, the Turks, the Egyptians, the rich Saudis, and so on. Now since 1945....even the Americans came. Even Elvis came to influence them.
The Kur Park area, the casino, and the upscale hotels in the region....have drawn people for an awful long time. Folks used to come for weeks and months, for some type of 'recovery'. They spoiled themselves with the hot springs, good wine, and exceptional food. And they paid a fair sum of money to be pampered.
The influence of this capital....over a thousand-odd years.....is seen as you walk around the city today. If it looks clean, neat, tidy and organized.....it's because they had the money to do so.
There's roughly five thousand Americans in the local community, and they are part of the overall community. Yeah....they bring diverse menu requests like burgers, pizza, and steak to local restaurants.
Fourth. As much as people in Wiesbaden like to talk about themselves....their survival and growth....is dependent on two other communities: Mainz and Frankfurt. Both within a fifteen minute drive from the end of the city. Mainz has the major university and 200,000 residents. Mainz also has several major business operations and industrial companies. Frankfurt? It's the Wall Street of Germany, and most of these upscale bankers and investors.....live in Wiesbaden.
Folks in Wiesbaden will slam Mainz folks....mostly in jest. The Frankfurt folks will talk of the snobs of Wiesbaden, but it's mostly in jest.
The significance of Wiesbaden would only be half as much....without the two adjoining cities.
Fifth. The river matters to some degree. Without the Rhein....there's no barge traffic....no castles on the hills....and likely no wine trade. I'd be the first to admit that Wiesbaden has almost no harbor facilities (Mainz got the majority in the deal). But the river has an impact on trade, commerce, and tourism.
Sixth. Some might argue on this....but Jews prior to 1940 brought business commerce into the city. At the peak, in 1925....there were around 3,000 Jews in the city. They were a strong segment of the business community and commerce. To some degree....they helped bring organization into the chaos of business operations in the early part of the last century.
Seventh. Restaurants are a major part of the city of Wiesbaden. TravelAdvisor will tell you that there 433 cafes and restaurants in town....as a minimum. By the time you consider the extended neighborhoods, the cafes, bakery-coffee shops, and imbas stands....there's likely to be closer to 700 possible places to eat.
Every ethnic possibility of food can be found. If you were desiring heavily upon some Italian dish or pizza....there's probably over one hundred shops or restaurants to pick from.
Costs from from a 2.99 Euro Currywurst plate, to a couple hundred Euro for a star-chef gourmet meal for two at a fancy spot within the city.
Eigth. Apple wine is the preferred drink of just about the whole town of Wiesbaden. Yeah, they will drink a good beer on occasion, and they've got ten thousand wine labels from the twenty-mile circle around Wiesbaden to pick from. But apple wine is the preferred drink.
Sweet or just plain sour....take your pick. Some of the locals might even drink sixty gallons of the stuff on a yearly basis.
Ninth. Fests occur on a weekly basis with Wiesbaden or the forty towns surrounding it. Everyone celebrates something....fifty-two weeks out of the year. This means rich and fatty food, plenty of beer and wine, and a traffic jam or two every single weekend.
Tenth. Residents of Wiesbaden have built the city into a place that they admire. There's hardly a city in Germany that has a city park system as extensive as Wiesbaden. For entertainment, from opera to rock music.....there's something going on nightly. Art, culture, comedy, and life are pulsating within the city. On a cold day in December in the midst of town....you could stand there and listen to some Peruvian guys play wind instruments for an hour. Strange art objects get put up yearly....demanding your attention and curiosity. Good fashion and bad fashion can somehow occupy the same spaces of the trendy part of Wiesbaden to hang out.
If you wanted to toss Manhattan, Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, Moscow, Miami, Berlin, and Istanbul into the same mix of things.....this is probably what you'd end up with. No tall buildings.....but no massive traffic jams. No massive corruption episodes, but no sixty-million Euro water fountains.
Passionate or absorbed with Wiesbaden? No. There's some great history, some dramatic moments, an enjoyable closed-in city, and no real urban crime like you'd see in most cities. It is....what it is.
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