In the summer of 2019, I was passing through Bamberg. Bamberg is a cozy town in the northern part of Bavaria. The city center is built up with half-timbered houses. The most famous landmark of the city is the town hall, built right on the river, because the local spiritual authorities did not give the city authorities a place to build it on land.
In the local museum of local lore, you can get acquainted with the history of the Slavs who inhabited these lands before the German invasion. In particular, you can look at the “stone women”. Such sculptures are found everywhere in the area of settlement of the Slavs.
Near Bamberg (20 minutes drive) there is the spa town of Staffelstein, where the well-known thermal complex “Obermain Therme” is located. After Bamberg, Staffelstein is unlikely to make a strong impression, but the baths there are wonderful. I even regretted that I spent only an hour and a half on them – you can spend the whole day there. Why? I’ll explain now.
First, the large pool area is about 3000 square meters. The term website claims to have 25 pools. I counted much less, but perhaps some of the pools are located in the area with saunas – Saunaland. I did not visit this zone, which now I regret. There are not only 9 types of saunas, but also a natural lake suitable for swimming. True, you need to be prepared for the fact that when entering this area you will need to take off all your clothes. Moreover, there is no division into male and female zones – everyone is resting together. These are the rules for visiting saunas in Germany.
We planned our visit so that after sightseeing in Bamberg we would have time for the so-called “Happy Hour”. At Obermain Therme, happy hour starts 90 minutes before the closure of the thermal complex, and during this period there are reduced prices for visits – 7 euros instead of 10 euros for the minimum ticket. Since this was my first visit to the complex, such an offer was interesting for me.
There is ample free parking in front of the Obermain Therme. Local health cosmetics can be purchased in the lobby. The locker room is normal – lockers with combination locks, everything is clean. Taking pictures on the territory of the complex is strictly prohibited, therefore the photos you see here are taken from the official website.
The entrance to the area with outdoor pools is made through the passage from the indoor pools. This makes bathing more comfortable during the cold season. The set of entertainments is usual – pools of different salinity and temperatures, nozzles supplying jets of water to the lower back and neck, there is one “waterfall”. Of the unusual things, there are three small cascading pools. What is their advantage – it was not possible to understand.
There is also a large pool with not very hot water (28 degrees Celsius), in which you can swim for a long time – the water in it is not very salty.
The area is very well appointed. It’s very quiet around.
The main attraction of this thermal complex is located in the indoor pool area. It is there that there is a pool with a salt content of 12%. This is a very caustic solution. It so happened that I rubbed calluses in several parts of my body from a long walk. In this pool, every corn stung hard. But at the same time, the skin was cleared – it was visible. Indeed, in this pool you can just lie relaxed – the water is so dense that it is impossible to drown.
About 15 minutes before closing time, visitors were asked to leave the pool area. Thus, “happy hour” does not last 90 minutes, but 75 minutes, of which the first 10 minutes have to be spent changing clothes. However, even such a short visit was enough for a wonderful experience. I will definitely visit there again if I manage to visit these places again.
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