In my last post, I told you all about my time at Thermes de Spa, the original spa – well, the current spa in the town Spa that gave all spas their name. I wish I could get three or four posts out of this weekend but it’s not really worth doing an itinerary post … More Spa by train
If you’re writing a book about hot baths, thermal water, steam rooms and bathing culture, sooner or later you’re going to find yourself in eastern Belgium in Spa, the town with natural thermal mineral water that gave its name to many towns with natural hot water and all places where you go to get properly … More A spa day at Spa, the spa that named all spas
I’ve discovered that I’ve missed quite a few sets of film photos but I like them and I think they show a slightly different perspective on places and on travel, especially with the fact that you don’t get to find out whether they even worked until a good few weeks later. They’ll never replace the … More The Eras Train Tour on film
You know the drill by now. I like 35mm film and I often take a film camera with me when I travel and then come back with a selection of 90s-style photos of dubious quality which I just really enjoy. But on this trip, I had something even more fun. You see, back in 2003, … More Great German Spa Towns on film
The last stop on my adventure around the UNESCO Great German Spa Towns was Bad Ems, which is only a short train trip from Koblenz (when the line is open, which it wasn’t when I was there). Unfortunately, I was coming from Bad Kissingen and that meant five trains and a rail replacement bus, taking … More Bad Ems is lovely but it’s very quiet in winter
When I booked my UNESCO Great European Spa Towns of Germany trip, I didn’t really know anything about any of the towns I was visiting. If UNESCO thought they were great, that was good enough for me. I made my lists of their spas, I found somewhere to stay, I figured out how to get … More Leisure in Bad Kissingen
Baden-Baden is a well-known spa town. It’s almost the ubiquitous spa town. Does it do anything else? Does it have any other claim to fame? So when I started writing my Bath Book, a travelogue of some kind about hot water, steam and bathing culture, Baden-Baden was the first place to come to mind. But … More Is Baden-Baden past its best?
In the last four posts, I’ve talked about the four spas I visited on my train adventure around Germany’s UNESCO Great European Spa Towns and now it’s time to talk about the journeys between them – because visiting those four spas required thirteen trains, four buses and three trips to Frankfurt. A few years ago, … More Germany’s Great European Spa Towns by 13 trains and 4 buses
The last of the four spas I visited on my Great German Spa Towns trip and let’s get the spoiler out of the way early – it was probably my favourite. Bad Ems is a tiny place that doesn’t instinctively feel like the place to put an interesting spa with a unique feature but it … More I tried Emser Therme’s naked riverside sauna
Next on the Great German Spa Towns adventure is KissSalis, in Bad Kissingen. So far I’ve been to Baden-Baden’s Caracalla Therme, which sits on the spa/waterpark borderline, and Friedrichsbad, which is as close to Roman as you’re going to find in 2025. And now, after a bus, three trains and a stroll, I made it … More KissSalis Therme: the one with the mushrooms
I Am A Polar Bear 