Indulge your senses! Clouds of steam pervade the room. There is the sound of soothing music. You feel so relaxed that you could just fall asleep...
You are at one of Germany's many mineral spas or mud spas where you are being well and truly pampered. A nourishing pack of natural mud is providing your body with essential minerals and trace elements. Not only your skin but your internal organs too. But let's not spoil the relaxed atmosphere. As the delicious heat works its special magic, you feel completely detached from your everyday routine - but the best is yet to come. The highlight is when you are walking to the lift in your fluffy bathrobe. Running your hand down your unbelievably tender cheek, you can hardly wait to admire your face's soft, rosy glow in the lift's mirror.
Or, stepping out of the thermal baths in Baden-Baden, you feel as beautiful as Cleopatra. The beneficial essential minerals in the water here are to your skin what the relaxed atmosphere is to your soul and what the cultural highlights are to your mind.
Similar rituals have been being performed here for 2,000 years. And, over the centuries, Germany's more than 160 mineral spas and mud spas have attracted many health-conscious visitors. See for yourself the way that the fascinating architecture in many of these locations is keeping the splendour of the old days very much alive. Quite without realising it, you will often feel as if you have been taken back in time. We may wonder whether those well-to-do Roman ladies in Bad Aachen worried about their wrinkles. We can assume that they did. But they certainly had no notion of the diverse range of sports, dietary and beauty programmes that are now part and parcel of a modern-day wellness break.
