What is this place we are always referring to as paradise?

Finally, a blog about our favourite place on earth - Baden-Baden. We discovered this late in the Strasbourg year with the other students, and I can say without a doubt, that we are all kicking ourselves for the tardiness.

Baden-Baden is in Germany, but only 45 minutes away from Strasbourg by car (via the autobahn, where there are no speed limits). In the last few weeks of ISU, we had managed to fill X cars to the max (5 people) to partake in this pilgrimage to heaven.

Why heaven you ask? I will describe it for you, and then I urge you to go on the website which I will post at the end. It's one of the original modern-day spas. Baden means bath in german, thus it's bath bath germany. The city has a reputation of being the prettiest city in Germany, and I couldn't agree more. It's small, but has everything you could want in a 10 minute walk around. And what is central to the city is the thermal baths. Caracalla is the big spa. The current pricing is for 2 hours - 14 euros, 3 hours - 15 euros, and 4 hours - 17 euros. But because we always have more than 10 people, we get a group discount so 4 hours - 14 euros. What this will get you is four hours of sitting in naturally heated, mineral water in several different pools and jacuzzis. Each pool has a unique feature and is either outside or inside. There is the one at 32 deg C with a current - my personal favourite. This pool also has two jacuzzis within the pool which are hotter (I think 38 deg? but not sure). And there is the big mushroom which rains hard on you in the middle. This pool is outdoors so you can a lot of sun and fresh air as well. The other pool is 34 deg C, and has lounge seats built into the walls with bubbles or jets for a back massage, throne seats with bubbles for a body massage, and in the center is a crazy turbulent bubble area which has bars you need to hang onto if you want to stay in the area because otherwise you are thrown out by the bubbles. There's also a nice waterfall which many use to massage their backs.

Inside there is another 34 deg pool which is huge and has many of the same features as the outer pools, but there are three different levels you can sit in as well. And then there are the saunas (a special salt one which is supposed to help your lungs) and a mint one which I think smells like pee. And there are lounge chairs all over, some outside, some inside, and some with heat lamps too. That is the first floor.

The second floor is the naked floor! What we learned is that in Germany, spas and saunas are always naked. Baden-Baden is one of the only ones in the country which has a non-naked area. Many felt weird about it at first, but then when you get up there, strip down and start your regime, you realize how you really don't want to put your wet bathingsuit back on and want to stay naked forever. The problem for me on this floor is that I can't actually do a lot because most of the areas are saunas which are way too hot when you are filled with hormones and fetus. However, because the nudity is addicting, I stay up there as much as I can.

So that's Caracalla in a nutshell. There's a second spa which is called Freidrichsbad and is technically part of the same spa, but in a different building and has a completely different feel. Axel and I finally did it the day we moved to Köln. It's a 17 step regime, with the option of being scrubbed down by very friendly staff with strawberry soap and a really hard brush (even though we both asked for the soft one). There's showers, and hot rooms, and pools of all temperatures. And at the end, there is a room full of mirrors and lotion which you smother all over (or for an extra 10 euros, you can get one of the staff to do it for you, which I think is weird and a waste of money), and then the last step - the nap in a warm towel and blanket for exactly 30 minutes. They take you into a room which is decorated like a ballroom with exceptionally high ceilings, and is filled with very clinical looking beds arranged in a cult-like circle. They fill them in order of how you came in, so there are always others wrapped up like mummies in warm-towels and blankets in the bed next to you. Then they tell you, 30 minutes to sleep, and then you just lie there like a freshly swaddled baby and try to get to sleep. After exactly 30 minutes, someone comes and grabs your toe to let you know that time is up. And then it's over. I actually liked it a lot, mostly because of the lotion and nap, but also because I felt like there was a real routine to it all. The only thing you have to watch is that if you follow the times exactly, you will be done way earlier than you need to be...so spend a lot more time lounging in your favourite spots! What was kind of weird and slightly irritating is that because I am pregnant with an obvious pregnant belly, it gave people permission to come up and touch it and ask about my pregnancy. It's always weird to talk about this with people you don't know, but to be naked and be touched on the belly takes it to a whole new level! Luckily, that only happened in two stages, and one being the sweaty room stage, so I could have a good shower after. I didn't realize how much I didn't like my belly being touched, let alone rubbed, by anyone, until now.

I should mention that my first time I went, because I was hypersensitive to heat, I thought not to do the pools and did a massage and body wrap (with cocoa butter) instead. What I didn't realize is that they aren't really prepared for pregnant women, so the massage wasn't really that comfortable. People who have done the massage have raved about it, so I know it was just my experience. And yes, you are naked. The body wrap experience was hilarious. The woman who performed it had very limited english (though was leaps and bounds better compared to my german), so she brought me to the area for the wrap and declared "SHOWER TIME" at which point, she grabbed my towel and pointed to a shower she just started for me. I went in, and then she took another hose and started to blast the areas that she thought needed more attention. Then she turned the water off and lay me down on a table and started to smother me with cocoa butter, as if I was a turkey in basting mode. There was nowhere she didn't smother if that's what you are thinking. Then she wrapped me in this piece of paper and lowered the table, which turns out was a water bed that was heated with jets. So for half an hour, I was in a paper cocoon, covered head to toe with this slippery cocoa butter, simmering in this hot waterbed which had jets to massage 12 different parts. Once in a while, like you do with a turkey, she would come to check on my progress, peeling back my cocoon and checking my doneness. And then I was done. She raised the bed and declared "SHOWER TIME!" Unfortunately I was so slippery I couldn't get out of the bed, so she had to carry me out, and then threw me into the shower, and once again took the second hose to get those hard to reach parts. Then the shower turned off and she declared "TOWEL TIME!" to which she had a HUGE warm towel, open in her arms, waiting for me. I stepped to it and she wrapped me up like I was a little kid and gave me a nice little hug to indicate I was done. Then she led me to a room with soft music and mood lighting and declared "RELAX TIME!" and there I sat until she came back 15 minutes later to let me know it was "GOODBYE TIME!".

While I really hate to stereotype, the german spas are exactly how you picture them. There are clocks everywhere so you aren't late for your exit time, and the environments aren't as relaxing as you would imagine a spa to be. But I love it.

We found another spot in Köln called Neptunbad. It's only 6 minutes away and it's not as extensive by any means, but it's good enough for the once in a while urge to sit naked in a pool with strangers.

Here's the link. I suggest you make this a stop if you are in the German, France, Swiss area. Totally worth it.

http://www.caracalla.de/home/en/index.html

Why I am writing this blog now is that we just found out that Neptunbad is open until midnight every day (INCLUDING sunday) so guess what we're doing after dinner tonight!?!