As Deutsche Welle notes, one of the most famous Russian guests at German water resorts of past centuries was Tsar Alexander II. A bronze bust on the Lahn River now commemorates his regular visits to the town of Bad Ems. In the summer capital of Europe, as Bad Ems was called, Nicholas II, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Vasily Vereshchagin also visited...
The Kurhaus in Bad Ems was built in 1715. Before that, the settlement consisted of a few nondescript houses, and vacationers were housed in tents in the summer. Around the same time, the success story of Bad Kissingen, Bad Schwalbach, Wiesbaden, and Baden-Baden, especially beloved by Russians, began...
And it all started with the ancient Romans, who built their baths wherever they established large settlements. The ruins of one such structure are located, for example, in Trier, the oldest city in Germany. The Imperial Baths of Trier are a typical, if you will, project with all the departments and rooms that a Roman bath required, including long corridors under the floor that housed heating furnaces, somewhat reminiscent of tunnels of a narrow-gauge underground railway.
Initially, ancient Roman baths were built mainly at thermal springs, hence the name "thermae." Later, it was extended to heated baths with ordinary water. In this regard, today things are the same as in ancient Rome. Not every sign mentioning something thermal has valuable water from the depths of the earth, for which vacationers from all over Europe traveled to Germany for several centuries.
The designations "Therme" or "Thermalbad" are not legally protected. Especially in recent years, there has been a steady trend to add them to the names of ordinary heated pools with saunas or water parks, which serve more for fun than for health and therapeutic purposes. Many of them provide high-quality service, but terminological confusion arises, a kind of inflation. Some lists of so-called thermae on German websites consist of more than 500 names.
After filtering by stricter criteria, their number shrinks fivefold to about a hundred. That is how many thermae in their traditional sense the Stiftung Warentest foundation—one of Germany's most authoritative organizations in the field of independent testing of goods and services—counted in Germany.
The main criterion is water from a hot, mineral, or salt spring. For example, the Bad Neuenahr thermae near Bonn are located near the Apollinaris well, drilled back in 1852. If you don't have money for a bath with champagne or goat's milk, you can swim to your heart's content in a pool with the famous mineral water for 16 euros per day; with sauna use, it will cost 6 euros more.
Some health temples in Germany are located directly at the spring; in others, healing water comes from the spring via pipelines. Moreover, only the highest quality products are used for their construction—if earlier, the pipe 09g2s was used for water pumping, now they are being replaced with plastic ones. In some cases, it is delivered in tankers, but the method of delivery does not play a major role; the main thing is the content.
On the one hand, thermae in their traditional German sense are intended for health improvement, leisurely quiet conversation, not for loud entertainment. For entertainment, it is better to go to modern water parks with saunas, equipped with slides and other fun water attractions. There are more than enough of them in Germany.
On the other hand, for example, children will clearly be bored in pure thermae. They are asked to observe silence and calm, avoid loud conversations and noise. Here one is supposed to meditate and relax. Therefore, some thermae do not even give discounts to children, not to mention a deliberate refusal of any special play areas and outlets for the energy overflowing growing organisms. And for very young children, bathing in thermal water is often contraindicated altogether.
True, there are also other concepts. This spring, the Therme Obernsees in the Bavarian municipality of Mistelgau is opening a whole children's club – Thermolino. In addition, every adult can bring two children under 15 years of age free of charge to these thermae.
Beginners should pay attention to signs, for example, indicating the recommended duration of stay in the healing water, as well as breaks between individual sessions. In some thermal baths, there is even a specific order of passing through rooms with different temperatures and pools. By the way, in tsarist times, water procedures at German resorts could last ten hours straight – in special closed baths.
In addition to swimming, an integral part of relaxation in thermae is saunas. Each thermae has several, some have up to ten or more, with different temperatures, designs, aromas... Imagination knows no bounds. For example, in the Mediterana thermae near Cologne, the walls and ceiling of one of the spacious saunas in an artificial underground grotto are entirely lined with rock crystal. It cost two million euros, and a patent has even been issued for the technology of attaching huge crystals to the ceiling.
In saunas, so-called "ceremonies" (Zeremonien) are regularly held, during which staff pour water with essential oils and essences onto the stones, then spread the steam with towels. During these procedures, absolute silence must be observed.
Saunas in Germany are mixed, for men and women. You should enter the steam rooms without swimwear, after rinsing off in the shower. Directly in the saunas, you must place a towel on the wooden benches – otherwise, either the attendants or other visitors will ask you to do so. Especially shy guests can wrap themselves in a second towel, but no other fabric. Textilfrei is a strict German word that regulates the dress code in the sauna, or rather the lack thereof.
One of the saunas may be permanently reserved only for women – with a corresponding sign 'Damensauna' or 'Frauensauna' at the entrance, but they are usually empty. Separate women's days exist, but very rarely and only in small thermal baths.
Despite long-standing and stable rules of behavior and decency in such places, situations still arise when women for some reason feel excessive attention from the opposite sex. In case of prolonged or repeated persistent signals or attempts to start a conversation, the staff may ask the intrusive guest to leave the thermal baths – without a refund of the entrance fee.
As for food, alcoholic and other drinks, bringing them with you is prohibited and not customary. Many visitors bring water, which causes no problems if it is not in glass bottles (for safety reasons). You can have a snack or quench your thirst with beer, tea, or juice in the café or restaurant, where due to hygiene rules, you are asked to enter in a bathrobe, wrapped in a large towel, wearing a T-shirt.
Otherwise, as in any other new places, to avoid an awkward situation, you should observe the regular visitors, and then you won't need to read the rules.