Baden Baden, Germany

What a beautiful town! There are lots of pedestrian friendly squares, gardens, and wooded areas up the hill - it kind of reminds me of Sudden Valley in Washington. My hotel is right next to the Catholic cathedral and I woke up to the chiming church bells.

I spent the first evening wandering around a bit, I seem to be doing a lot of that.  The people are friendly and will happily speak English when they realize I don't speak any German.

The next afternoon I went to a traditional Roman-Irish bath. You go through 15 stations emercing yourself in the supposedly medicinal waters. Of course, you are doing this all in the nude. Talk about stepping outside of one's comfort zone, but as the saying goes, when in Rome . . .

I went on a day where the men and women were basically separated (same steps, but on opposite sides, with a comingled area in the center.The hardest part was stepping out of the changing room. I had a brief moment of anxiety, was I really going to do this? But it quickly passed and I got over it. Europe really does have a different take on nudity than the states. There was no oogling or weirdness at all.

They started you off with a warm air room; I really liked this one, then a hot air room, then a soap scrub down. This was kind of rough, but worth it. The lady doing it said I would have very nice skin afterwards. Then it was off to the hot mineral steam room, then a dip in the warm water pool, then the cool water pool (the comingled one), luckily there were only females in there with me. Then a quick trip in the tepid water pool, to be followed with the cold water plunge, then back to the tepid pool, which now feels so much warmer.  They say you need to do the cold water plunge 3 times because it is good for the heart. I don't know about that, but I did it 3 times anyway. Next was a hot shower, then a cream lotion rubdown and finish with 30 mins wrapped in a warm blanket in the quiet room.

I came out totally relaxed and would Love to see one of these in the states, but I know it would never be allowed. I met a really nice German woman who spoke English and she helped explain the whole process to me. Then I ran into another American woman, from D.C. there. Who would have thought the first place I would meet others to talk to would be in the bath?

Later that evening, as I was journaling in the lounge area of the hotel, I met a couple from Texas. They were fellow Rick Steves readers. We talked for quite a bit about traveling. It was nice to finally start to meet some other travelers that also speak English.