A spa weekend in Germany. In Munich, in Erding there are some of the most beautiful spas in Europe, fun for both children and adults thanks to the numerous services available.
This article tells the adventures of two Italians on vacation a Monaco of Bavaria, during the last bridge of November XNUMXst. The two Italians in question have already toured the length and breadth of Italian spas, from Ischia to pre-saint Didier up to the Tuscan and Trentino spas, so if they cannot be defined as experts in the field, at least let's say that they have seen something.
But let's get to the facts: the choice to leave for Munich from Barcelona was made with extreme clarity two days before: clarity made us lean towards Bavaria, to avoid giving exorbitant amounts to low cost airlines, thus opting for a nice trip by car.
But the choice of Monaco was also and above all dictated by the desire to try the much acclaimed Erding thermal baths, why?
It is a covered thermal park of over 145.000 square meters inaugurated just 13 years ago in this town of northeast of Munich, already famous for its beer (strange). On weekends there is an influx of people that exceed 5.000 units, his fame is recognized throughout northern Europe.
Beyond the numbers, we got a little information on the composition of the park, on paper made up of 4 areas of which: one dedicated to the fun of children with slides and swimming pools, (and already here we began to suspect that we were not going to visit the "canonical" spas) and the other 3 areas all dedicated to relaxation with saunas of different grades, turkish bath, swimming pools at different temperatures.
We also inquired by consulting some reviews and found that, as was the custom in the Nordic countries, part of the spa could only be visited completely naked.
With these premises, trusting that the non-naturist part had been much larger than the "Nordic" part, and that the park could be tempting as shown in the photos, we set out.
The thermal baths of Erding can be reached either by metro from Munich or by car, which I would say is the best solution since the metro is not really close to the structure (800 meters on foot).
We chose to visit the thermal baths on Friday 2, convinced that being a working day it had been less visited, we arrived at 13 and immediately found an unpleasant surprise: the ticket office had a large queue of people waiting, like a bivouac, it looked like the dining room. 'waiting for an airport on strike, when we tried to ask someone for an explanation the answer was that since they had run out of keys for the security lockers, we had to wait for someone to come out to enter and take their place; moral, the intelligent departure did not have the desired effect.
We preferred to wait, while many others desisted (letting us advance in the queue!) After about an hour we enter. On the changing rooms second alarm bell: practically no one used boots or flip flops to move, not really a good hygienic habit in a public locker room.
The impact with the park instead it was really chilling, certainly not for the climate since an external temperature of about 12 degrees corresponded to an internal temperature of at least 25, with the main pool of the Thermen-Paradies area of about 34 degrees. The reason for ours, let's call it perplexity, lay in the fact that the area in question, one of the largest, had a mega central heated pool with some sporadic hydromassage, 1 Turkish bath, 1 sauna, a tub where you can spread mud of dubious origin. stop.
On the other hand, the mega pool was full of teenagers and pre-teenagers around bars (who would want a bar in the middle of a pool?) From which rivers of beer sprang up, as in the best German stereotypes.
Disheartened by the first area, we venture into the second, the one dedicated to saunas: Sauna-Paradies. Once inside, we realize that the whole area is naturist, so to stay there you have to be naked, nothing insurmountable, so we decide to continue; here the situation is much better, no kids around, more silence despite the crowd of people, but all in all, nothing even remotely superior to the worst of the Italian spas. (Long live parochialism).
Why did this area not live up to our expectations?
Simple, the pools and wading pools were present very chlorose and with a few hydromassage jets; the waters should be thermal, but I honestly found an abyss between these waters and those of volcanic areas like Ischia. In some cases the saunas were very flavored, pleasant no doubt, but in an area called Sauna-paradies of the largest spa complex in Europe I expect dozens of flavored saunas, certainly not two or three.
Of course there were also thematic saunas, one of the most interesting was the Icelandic cave, with a geyse jet 5 meters high to produce a humid heat effect, or the Pompeian-themed saunas, which we found at very low temperatures (40-45 degrees, practically like staying on salerno reggio August 15; nothing special for authentic southerners like us!)
Of the other two complexes, the first was that of the slides, the most off-topic area of the park, not even visited; the other that is, Vital-oase offered a very mineralized water pool and a rose sauna, overall it was a small and limited area.
Disappointed by the experience, we started on food, which is fundamental after the spa; a visit to Augustiner with Beer and pork loin regenerated us from any disappointment!
