Bad Herrenalb.. and the first time of....

1) going to a sauna in Germany

In Germany, there are some towns with the name "Bad something something". Now its not pronounced as bad as in "good and bad", but rather "ba-d". Bad means in German Spa or Bath, and hence the town is known to be a Spa town with water from mineral sources. Today we went to this place called Bad Herrenalb which is somwhere near Karlsruhe. Initially wanted to go Baden-Baden (another spa town), but last minute revised our plans and came here instead. This small town is a resort town, which most people would spend their holidays in, perhaps during summer. Bad Herrenalb is also situated at the north of the Schwarzwald, which is why we saw the lush green coniferous trees at one side of the town.

It was a terribly quiet place by German standards on a Saturday. The roads were empty, rarely see cars zooming, and most of the shops were already closed at 1pm when we arrived there. We made our way to the Kurhaus (known as Spa hotel in German, but no hotel at all), and sampled some real mineral water as you can see below.

In most spa towns in Germany, there would be such a source for people to taste the water

Although we could help ourselves to as much mineral water as we want, I felt that one glass was enough. It does not taste like the mineral water you'd buy from supermarket. The water is very thick, and you can feel the richness when you slur the glass. A glance at the poster revealed that the intake for an adult should not be > 1 litre per day because of the high mineral content. The water tasted really different. A little salty, a little metallic, and I felt that the taste is too powerful for me to gulp it down.

After that we made our way to the historical "monastery road", a little enclave which preseved much of the buildings from the time it was first built. I found the tree below to be interesting, it grew on top of the entrance to the monastery gardens.

But the highlight of visiting a Spa town is always the spa itself. The name of the place is called the Siebentäler Therme. Although there are swimming facilities, most of the people would go for the sauna facility. Naturally we went for the sauna.

outside the Siebentäler Therme

It is at this point that I mention the term Freikörperkultur (FKK - literally free body culture, meaning nudism). It is a requirement that we strip naked when we use the sauna. And males and females are not seperated. (On some days however there are like male-only days, or female-only days). However on weekends, generally all spas are mixed.That is to say, the males and the females use the same facilities, bath in the same pool, and use the same toilets together, naked.

And so everyone was walking around naked in the sauna section. Seeing naked women for the next two hours was a fait accompli. It was an eye-opener for obvious reasons but also as well as a unique experience. Nobody was shy of exposing themselves. Some females still sit with their legs spead in the sauna room to receive the heat all over. And although everyone was naked, there was nothing sexual and no hard staring at one another. People said hi to one another and engaged in small talk. It was really interesting and the saunas were very refreshing! After being in the room for like 15minutes in temperatures above 90degrees, we'd come out burning and drenched with sweat and then quickly dip ourselves in cold water of less than 10degrees! Its like fire then followed by ice.

here's how a typical sauna room would look like

2) partying in a kitchen!

Just back from the party in the kitchen at the next block. The Germans are really crazy people. They can just party anywhere, at places we will not even expect, such as the 5th floor kitchen at the block next to mine! The whole level was flooded with people and everyone was just shaking themselves in the kitchen. I would have thought that the people who went to the party were all living at Hafenstraße but who knows I got to know this German girl by the name of Vanessa who does not live here but just happened to be around the area. Very interesting gal indeed!

Mi, Vanessa's friend and herself

Ok, time to go to bed. Tomorrow we are going to Mainz, which Vanessa says that it will be a very beautiful place.