Wellness

Autumn is fast approaching with it's rainy skies and blustery winds, but there's no need to dispair in the Rhineland.  Right on your doorstep you'll find one of the largest choices of spas in all of Germany - just what you need to beat the Autumn blues.

The city of Cologne, which first received the name of Colonia and city rights in 50 AD, also inherited its thermal tradition from the Romans. At the time, wood fires heated the steam houses from underneath, hence the denomination thermes, Greek for “warmth”. The bathing custom stemmed from the belief that periodic immersion in water would bring the bathers health, “saunus per aquam”, which in turn produced the word “sauna”.  However, after the decline of the Roman Empire, thermal baths virtually disappeared from Europe.

Then, in the early middle ages, bathhouses once again spread throughout Germany. As it was, several establishments in Nordrhein-Westfalen covered up for brothels and prospered thanks to city senators‘ patronage – before the Church clamped down on them altogether.  The last turn of fate came with the industrial revolution, when public bathhouses once more earned right of stay after massive migration to cities caused hygiene concerns. Today, North-Rhine-Westphalia houses a growing number of thermal baths and pool complexes – ranging from weekend family resorts, Oriental massage paradises and Art Deco jewels to luxurious and virtually empty spas run by hotels.

Asking for the nearest „spa“ will probably draw a blank from the person you are speaking to – the term is either “Wellness” – which indicates saunas, pools, Jacuzzi and various types of resting rooms, together with a lucrative array of massage and cosmetic offers; “Therme”, a more down to earth, sauna-pool-and-showers type of offering, is less fashionable, therefore somewhat more affordable. Last but not least, from the suffix “-bad”, expect a mixture of earnest swimming and fun, an aquatic Adventureland of sorts, including wave-pools, giant slides and plaster animals in the kiddie-pool. In the latter, don’t leave the sauna area without your bathing suit. In the former, keeping it on will qualify you for acid looks – and a prompting from the Bademeister to the effect that “dies ist ein textilfreier Bereich” (“this is a no-clothes zone !”).

Dorint Hotel Cologne-Deutz:
So you’ve decided to treat yourself to something special. Even if you do have a liking for exclusive memberships, this doesn’t necessarily mean they are inaccessible, as the newly built Dorint Hotel near the Messe in Cologne-Deutz goes to show. With the facilities nearly empty outside of fair times, which draw several hundred exhibitors and many more thousands of visitors to the city’s hotels, management is eager to attract guests from outside – and more than willing to offer special deals, as manager Roland Schütz emphasizes: “We’re looking into deals with local subsidiaries of foreign corporations. Considering the sums we invested in the wellness section, we cannot afford to run it half empty – and besides, expatriates are a most pleasant type of guest”.  However, until Schütz succeeds in attracting regular sauna-goers, the total peacefulness on his premises will afford guests the first step toward relaxation. Cream-colored and soft brown clay tiles form Roman-style mosaics on the floor and the walls, while piles of bathrobes and towels await every guest next to large birch lockers. The black granite pool is empty – and gliding through the cool water a most stunning experience, as underwater beams make tiny enamel inlays on the pool floor glitter like a starry night.   After that, heating up in a steam sauna made to look as a cave is no breach of style. Columns of steam billow up from underneath the black tiled bench, and for a second, if it weren’t for some white shapes, it would be difficult to tell if anyone was in there. Pretty soon, however, a tall man thumps across the room, swings his towel around his hips, opens the door vigorously and all but slams it shut. “Don’t expect him to be pleasant until he has his way”, comments a woman wrapped up in her bathrobe to a younger man wearing a towel. “That guy insists everyone has to be naked”.   Annemarie, a 53-year old IT-consultant, and Sven, her twenty-something colleague, chuckle and prop their feet on the rock in the centre of the room. They come at least once a week on a corporate card – and nakedness, however normal otherwise, would seem quite out of place between colleagues, explains Annemarie, “I wouldn’t think of wearing anything when I come with friends or family”.

Mauritius Therma - Cologne:
To Chuy, a young Singaporean reclining by the pool at the Mauritius Therme, appearing naked is not an option and a bathing suit is barely enough “It feels uncomfortable with men all over”, she explains, while her husband splashes about naked under the neon lighting. During the ANUGA, an annual fair for the food industry, the resort has a large amount of far-eastern guests – whose eyes linger appraisingly on each passing female figure. The Mauritius Therme, in the immediate vicinity of the Neumarkt, one of Cologne’s main squares, is overhauling its marketing strategy to attract more city guests. “Cologne has lost many fairs to Berlin”, comments manager Rainer Wiese, “with a dwindling number of guests, competition among the spas has become fierce”.   In addition to special deals before 4 PM, the Mauritius’ strategy is to cater to all tastes. The wellness area, which is set up as a village with separate sauna huts surrounding the main area, spreads over 3500 square meters, with two swimming pools, three whirlpools, nine saunas and numerous resting zones. Guests can choose from temperatures between 60 and 90 degrees and an array of special features such as light therapy, classical music, varied scents and steam.  Between two sweating sessions, André and Oliver sit at the bar with a beer. “We often meet here – it’s so much more relaxing than at in a pub”, says Oliver, a 34-year old consultant, who also comes to the Mauritius with business guests, “after having been to the sauna together, you tend to trust each other – and deals go off much more smoothly”. They have long ago given up on trendy wellness centres in the city: “Here, you have everything on the spot – and you don’t have to stand in line for saunas like at the Claudius Therme.”

Die Therme – Bonn, Madison Hotel - Düsseldorf:
At “Die Therme” in Bonn, which is located right next to the opera and within walking distance of the famous and exhausting “Museum Meile”, guests stand no risk of having to wait for bench space. But the question is rather whether they should want to: A guest’s first impression is that of a public swimming pool rather than a space to relax. Trying not to slip on the wet floor, visitors use ridiculously narrow lockers and similarly cramped saunas. The bright lighting will easily allow you to read – but the same will probably make you feel self-conscious swimming naked in an over-lit pool.  Another disappointment: In Düsseldorf, the Madison Hotel’s wellness centre, while easily reached by public transportation, shouldn’t be given preference for reasons other than just that. Low prices and the staff’s friendliness are no adequate compensation to a sauna the size of a broom closet, to the out-of-order whirlpool or to a basement pool resembling graduate school swimming facilities.

Münster Bad – Düsseldorf:
So if Düsseldorf is where you plan to beat the cold weather, be sure to check out the Münster Bad instead, which reopened in March after a full refurbishment. In contrast to its location in an unattractive part of town, the building is a jewel in cream and pistachio tones with a genuine 1902 style. Carved art-deco cabins on two levels surround the pool, which is set in an arched space reminiscent of a cathedral with pillars and vaulted galleries above; it seems to float in the natural light streaming in through a huge window front.  Here, you might not have a choice between nine different saunas – but visitors of all ages and professions enjoy the elegant yet simple atmosphere.  Entering the sauna cabins to pour a home-mixed citrus essence on the oven, the assistant chatters with a friendly Eastern accent while energetically waving a towel to disperse the vapour – and as soon as he retreats, the Turkish women unravel their long cotton sheet and ease back to whisper in their own tongue. After the sauna, Franziska, a medical student in her late twenties, spends twenty minutes immersing herself in the cold (10 C) and the hot pool (30 C). ”It’s unpretentious, affordable and beautiful here”, she says, “I don’t exactly need Feng Shui or business massages”.

However, in a bid to attract well-to-do guests and round off their margins, most German spas are going just this way. “Spas have turned to weekly events, exotic treatments, striking architecture, cosmetics and even haute cuisine”, says Lutz Hertel, president of the German Wellness Association, “this has contributed to a general hike in prices”.  With a growing offer of expensive Oriental and Asian massage techniques, therapies such as Pilates, Ayurveda and shiatsu, privately and publicly owned spas are battling to gain profile on a market confronted with dwindling public subsidies and unemployment. On the other hand, with the end of the fitness craze, comfort-and time-starved young urban professionals yearn for relaxation and are willing to pay the price. At the Mauritius, a women’s full day special including massage and food costs 60 Euros – but this is nothing next to the 125 Euro men’s special, the anti-aging program (175 Euros) at the Dorint or the whopping 275 Euros asked at the Claudius Therme for a similar treatment.

Neptunbad - Cologne:
Instead, you might invest your money in a rewarding full year membership. Head toward Cologne’s former working-class quarters in Ehrenfeld. Unexpectedly, behind cube-like buildings of cement and glass, a cheap shopping mall and a post office completely devoid of charm, the Neptunbad, a 1912 bathhouse, stands like a monument to Wilhelminian Germany. Inside, delicate lighting and graceful Japanese decoration soften the building’s massive appearance. The Neptunbad, built to promote hygiene in the blue-collar class, was re-opened this year after a 13 million euro overhaul. The result justifies upper-scale prices and the exclusive reputation: besides a state-of the art fitness studio enshrined in the former pool area with galleries and huge glass fronts, the Neptune offers a beautiful historical spa as well as an exquisite Japanese sauna.   The latter, especially at night, is eerie. Imagine reclining on a soft, ergonomically formed mattress, wrapped in a fluffy blanket. Looking out toward the candle-lit pool, your eyes sway over an arrangement of individual basins set in stone, dried wood compositions and a silent granite Buddha casting his shadow on the wall. The soft smell of sauna essences lingers beneath the glass cupola which looks up toward the Japanese roof garden.

Save the sound of trickling water and an occasional hushed conversation, not a sound is to be heard. Naked swimmers glide through the turquoise water and assistants circulate noiselessly, refilling buckets of ice and rearranging blankets.  Suddenly an assistant hits the gong, a powerful brass tone rolls through flickering lights and steam. You rise, shedding your blanket, and enter a roomy wooden hut. A young man welcomes you in - to the Japanese dai-dai-yun ceremony. He sprinkles citrus extract on the heated stones – and for a full fifteen minutes, he whips a towel through the air with powerful and expert movements, pausing only once to hand each guest a tiny cup of lemon water. Soon you can stand it no longer. Glistening, you seek relief in an ice-cold shower. When your body builds up heat once again, it is time to slip out of your bathrobe and dip naked into the candlelit pool. Self-consciousness might have been – in another world. 

When you’ve reached this state of bliss and relaxation, no rain or autumn leaves can bring you down.  So don't get blue, just bring some wellness into your life.

Text: Tina Specht