SA in front of the Friedrichsbad, the other large Therme in town. The Friedrichsbad is what they call a Roman-Irish bath.



What is a Roman-Irish bath, you say? Well, apparently, Romans preferred the steam baths, of varying temperatures. The Irish enjoyed warm, dry sauna-air baths. So these Roman-Irish baths create an experience with a combination of both. They like to quote Mark Twain, who spoke of his experience here "At the Friedrichsbad, you lose track of time within 10 minutes and track of the world in 20."


The somber, relaxing experience at the Friedrichsbad is as follows. The entire spa is completely clothing-free (not-optional) but the men and the women go through each step separately. On the day we went even the one step that is co-ed was also separate, and we went early in the morning hoping there would be less people. We were terribly self conscious for the first 15-20 minutes or so but it really does get better.

1. Take a warm water and soap shower, clean yourself off really well. Wrap yourself in a warm towel and slip on some shower shoes (both provided)
2. Warm air bath (a room filled with circulating dry hot air) - lie for 15 minutes
3. Hot air bath (a small room with VERY hot air) - 5 minutes
4. Rinse off again in the shower
5. The lovely "soap and brush massage" which is just what it sounds like. You lie down on a table, they dump warm soapy water on you and scrub you all over with what looks like a floor scrub brush.
6. Rinse all the soap off
7. Steam room, with eucalyptus scent infused into the steam.
8. Rinse off, more steam room
9. Warm pool, temperature is 37C (body temperature), float and swim around for 15 minutes
10. Jacuzzi pool, 5-10 minutes
11. Regular swimming-pool temperature water, you're supposed to move around in the water for 15 minutes
12. Rinse off again
13. Ice-cold immersion bath (talk about waking up your nerve endings!!!)
14. Dry off with another yummy warm towel
15. Pretty, nice smelling lotion for you to put on allll over
16. Get wrapped up in a nice warm towel and blanket coccoon, lie down in the dark and nap for 30 minutes

Doesn't get much better than that. The whole process takes 2-3 hours. The soap brush massage costs an extra 8 Euros but it's so worth it.

Whenever I win the lottery I am definitely going to get a "hired lady" to give soap brush massages every day :)