Day 196 - Look away, look away

Stuhlingen to Freiburg Im Breisgau - Freiburger Hostel

We arrived in Frieburg around 12pm to check into our next place, what a lovely surprise. After months of falling over each other in tiny hotel rooms we have a lovely modern one bedroom unit, much nicer and cheaper than the tiny room we had in Switzerland.

We drove to Baden-Baden to partake in the number one activity for which this town is known - the Friedrichsbad Roman-Irish Baths. These are the only baths in the world that are still naturally heated. We were told to allow 3 and a half hours to follow the bathing routine through the 17 rooms - the one hitch being that clothing is not allowed!

After checking our clothes into a locker we finished off the 17 stages (including a massage) in about 2 hours - maybe we are not as good at naked relaxing with complete strangers as other couples? After getting over the fact that we were naked, it was quite an interesting experience. In each room there were instructions on how long to spend e.g. shower 3 minutes, 15 minute sauna at 54C, 5 minute sauna at 68C, etc. The strangest room though was the one near the end where we lay down in a silent, dark room and were wrapped in sheets and blankets by the attendants. We were meant to stay there for 30 minutes - we lasted about ten, and the snoring coming from the other side of the room didn't help!

We decided to drive back via France (through Strasbourg), however it started pouring rain so we didn't get to see very much at all through the drizzle, by the time it stopped we were back in Germany again.