Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Yverdon les Bains

This past Sunday, I finally went to Yverdon-les-Bains. I've been to the train station a couple times, but have never actually been to the baths there.
I'd heard that I really needed to visit it, because it's amazing, and so finally, I had the chance to experience it for myself.
For 27CHF, I had access to the outdoor baths, as well as the Espace detente which had a hot tub on the terrasse (which they call a whirlpool), Japanese bath (a 40 degree celsius hot tub), dry sauna and the Ham-mam sauna. You could also pay to get different treatments (massages, facials, use the exercise room, etc)
The baths are located in Yverdon, because there's a natural hot spring source there.
The first outdoor pool was warm enough that I wasn't shivering (it was pretty cold outside, but the typically strong Swiss sun gave me a suntan), but I was looking forward to the next, warmer bath.
The outdoor baths are like big pools, but have water jets in them. The jets are situated at different levels so that you could massage different parts of your body. In the first one, we sat around chatting as our calves and thighs were bombarded with water and then moved on to the jets for your feet. My baby feet were too sensitive and ticklish that I couldn't stand on the jets,Ii just kind of put my feet over them a little bit until I couldn't bear it anymore and dissolved in a fit of giggles instead.
The warmer bath was FAB. It was at a super-bly temperature...I could have stayed there all day. It too had massage jets, but laid out in Swiss precision. Around the periphery of the pool, you could follow along where one side was jets for your lower body and the other side was for your upper body. Each of the jets were at different levels so that as you moves along a different part of your body was massaged. There was a light that flashed to tell you when to move onto the next jet. So organized. Apparently, we got there at a good time, because we there wasn't a very long queue for the jets, but as we were leaving there were more and more people there. In the second pool, there was also a bubble section. I have no idea how they do it, but it was just this crazy effervescing (oooh, I think this is the first time I've actually used this word as a non-persondescriptorr!) area. There were bubbles popping at every depth. It felt really really cool on your skin. One other really neat thing that I noticed was that they had different scented plants around. I would get whiffs of lavender all of a sudden, and I thought I got a whiff of verbena, but I could have been wrong. I'm sure there were other plants/flowerswhichh were there for a reason, but I'm up to date on my botany reading, so I couldn't tell you what they were. All I know is that it provided for a nice atmosphere.
Afterwards, we went up to the Espace detente where I suffered through the saunas. I got lightheaded (that'll teach me from not eating in the morning)...but I was fine. I didn't do anything stupid, like stay in the saunas too long or anything. The dry sauna was about 84 degree Celsius and quite unbearable. I loved the 40 degree hot tub...but that's about my limit I think. Even worse was the Ham-mam, because it was this crazy humid sauna. I felt like I couldn't breathe and it was so dark in there, that is was slightly iffy. Sure, it'll kill all the toxins in your skin, but it was a new experience for me, so I was a little hesitant. I'll have to go back again and give it another chance (after eating a bunch of food).
It was a great outing, and as I said before, I'll have to go back again. I'd love to go back in the middle of the winter, when it's so cold outside (hopefully snow?) and you're submerged in the fab pools. I hear there's something similar near Zurich...I should look into that...

- photos courtesy of www.thermes-yverdon.ch

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