History And Health --- A Diary (4)

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This is the fourth and last entry of the diary we got from our English friends on the holidays they had spent in the south of Germany. In the first instalment in which Father Brian tells his tale I've mentioned how we met. The second and third give you the children's point of view and now it's Mother Pam's turn. PAM: HISTORY AND HEALTH. I did know about the Staufer dynasty whose cradle stood at the foot of the mountain Hohenstaufen. Its most famous member, Frederic II, was born in Germany at the end of the 12th century, yet lived his whole adult life in Italy. So there's no genuine building or artefact to visit which reminds tourists of this great man. The area has no big, impressive castles, only several small ones which belonged to minor members of the clan. But they were interesting enough for us! Yet, we weren't disappointed. We didn’t know about the Romans having been here. We learnt about them when we went to the small town of Lorch to see the Romanic cloister (a bit of culture doesn’t hurt kids) and found the reproduction of a Limes tower. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any time left to go to the town of Aalen to see the Limes Museum. We’ll do that next time. Better having something to look forward to than being bored, is what I say. While the others were looking for fossils (you've learnt about this from Nick's diary), I went to one of the many spas of the region. We read that nearby Stuttgart and Bad Cannstatt have the second greatest reservoir of mineral sources in Europe (after Budapest, the capital of Hungary). We didn't go there, though. I chose the small spa of Bad Boll which is nearer to our camping site. It’s more than 400 years old! It has a sulphur spring of about 32° C / 90°F which is still going strong. I stayed in the water for three quarters of an hour. I was told not to exaggerate at the beginning. One doesn't swim energetically but more or less lie on the water and paddle a little. Swimming would be too exhausting in such warm water. Then I indulged in a fango (mud) bath and had a massage afterwards. I felt reborn! Our hosts pointed out the buildings of the firm Wala in the neighbouring village of Eckwälden, famous for anthroposophical medicine and Dr. Hauschka cosmetics which has already reached Hollywood. Julia Roberts uses it! I herewith declare publicly that I’m going to brush up my German. I simply must be able to follow a tour through the firm next year. Everyone we met asked us if we had seen the famous towns of Tübingen and Ulm and if we’d been in the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart. No, we haven’t been there. We didn’t want to do them during our first (short) visit. We just wanted to get a feeling for the area and enjoy the ‘simple’ things. We’ve left them for our next visit. As you can see, dear readers of these pages, we’ve hit on the perfect holiday region. Each member of our family has found something to her or his heart’s content and wants to come back. What more can one want? Good bye! Auf Wiedersehen! ----- If you are interested in the other installments, click on the green bar at the top of the site.