Bad Wilbad Thermal Baths

Vicky still had a few things on her 'list of things to do in Germany' and one was to visit the Thermal Baths at Bad Wilbad. The van was too high to park in the baths' multistorey carpark so we left the van at a campervan parking place about a mile away and headed in through the park. The walk was beautiful with the autumnal trees and a rapidly flowing peaty river that had cut a steep gorge through the valley.

Palais Thermal contained some of the oldest thermal baths in Europe. The red sandstone building, whilst attractive, didn't draw undue attention when looking at it from the outside. However, the inside was stunning. Mosaic tiled floors led the way through arched doorways into high roofed chambers containing different baths. There were smaller ones for up to about 4 people, medium and larger ones about the size of a learner pool at a leisure centre. Beautiful mosaic wall tiles lined the lower sections of wall, stone pillars rose up from the water, inset arches framed wall paintings and gorgeous stained glass windows whose colours sometines shone on the opposite walls. In the larger baths white stone statues featured in the centre and you could lie back in the warm water and study the stained glass ceilings.

We were glad to be visiting when we did as there were very few people there and at one point we were the only ones in the main pool with the statue of Venus at its centre.

The original building had been added to and the complex had a further 2 floors of saunas, plunge pools, showers, swimming pools and an ice machine for you to cool yourself down. On the 2nd floor, you could sit in a sauna or swim in the outdoor pool and have views over Bad Wilbad and the funicular railway trams making their way slowly up and down the autumnal hill opposite.

This isn't normally the sort of thing we are drawn to do but one of the aims of our travels is to experience things we wouldn't have otherwise and at €21.50 each for 4 hours it was accessible and something we won't forget. We even got into spirit of indulgence and had had a glass of prosecco whilst lying back on wicker loungers in the opulent 'Moorish Hall' lit by around 100 square metres of stained glass ceiling.

We stayed the night about 70km away in Nurtingen.

(The photos of inside the baths are from leaflets and a poster).Read more