Day Three - Die großen Spa

Not realising I would be staying at a hotel with a spa, I continued with my plan to visit a typical German spa located thirty minutes north of Frankfurt by tram in Bad Homburg. (Laurie, if you are reading this, THIS is why I don't plan things in advance. With me, things just happen. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't, but either way, it's all part of the adventure.)

As usual, I didn't plan the trek very well so when I disembarked the tram, I had quite a task to find the facility. Their website was of little help with directions and I assumed there would be a sign of some sort but of course I was wrong. I figured it out though, with little hassle (and no stress) and walked - in the rain - to Taunus Therme.

Inside the spa were ten different saunas replicating different cultural experiences (German, Finnish, Asian etc.) ranging from 60 to 100 degrees fahrenheit. At certain times, staff members poured water blended with different aromas such as honey, mandarin or grapefruit extract (I tried the latter) to massive crowds. It was a ritual akin to a church service. Sadly, I had to make an early exit as it was simply too hot for me.

The spa also had large pools with nutrient-rich water from the hot springs below the facility, in addition to many relaxation rooms and two solariums. The solariums (rooms with sunbeds) were designed to look like caves and the lights of the sunbeds were only up above which meant one had to flip over part way through. I felt like a contestant on the one and only episode of Survivor I saw. It was when the contestants had to count out X number of hours and the person who was closest without going over (Bob Barker anyone?) got to eat for the day or something stupid like that. I knew the tanning session lasted 8 minutes so I counted out 240 seconds before flipping onto my stomach. Do you know how boring it is to concentrate so closely? I kept wondering if I was counting too fast or too slow but then had to tell myself to stop wondering and to focus on the counting instead. Telling myself to stop wondering was as bad as wondering so you can see the downward spiral of the challenge. I can't imagine the torture of having to count out several hours. It's reasons like this why I (still) don't own a television.

You may be wondering how successful I was. Well my counting was too fast but it didn't matter because I learned (after that fact from another guest) that the intensity of the lights was low enough that one could do 8 minutes per side. Sooooooo, I tried another session later on and I had to break down the second session into four-minute intervals as well to ensure that I didn't end up like Ross from Friends. He had a bad experience with a spray tan.

I had some conversations with Germans at the spa and later at a bar in Frankfurt, only to realise I didn't know German as much as I had thought. I started to panic.

Hilfe mich!