Fasnet and the Jugendschutz

Fasnet is the Swabian word for Fasching/Karnival, and this weekend is high season for shenanigans. I always intend to research the historical traditions behind this springtime custom of chasing away the demons of winter, but so far I haven't got around to it. Seeing as the whole business involves a lot of people, a lot of drinking, and masks, it's just not my scene.

Bildechinger Blockstrecker

This Thursday is Schmotziger, which I've learned doesn't really mean "Dirty Thursday" (though that fits in a way, too) but rather probably comes from the word "Schmalz," which is fat or lard. Around this time it was - and still is - popular to eat sweet and fatty foods to get ready for the fasting time of Lent.

Fasnetsküchle
"little Fasching cakes"

Enthusiasts say Fasnet or Fasching is not just about getting drunk, and I'll believe that. However, this week's Real ad brochure begins with beer, more beer, Jack Daniels and Coke in a can, Schnaps, vodka, Sekt (sparkling wine), beer glasses, glass boots, and a beer barrel carousel. The seasonal section, closest to the entrance and the cash registers, is full of alcohol and costumes.

This week's Blättle (local newsletter) is full of info about where to find the parades and parties as well as reminders to be sensible and clean up after your damn selves. Vergebens (all for nothing). It generally takes a good week for all the filth in the streets, parks, and public areas to be cleaned up by city workers or to blow away. Broken bottles, crushed cans, empty beer cases, confetti and candy wrappers from parades...

There are also two articles in the Blättle about Jugendshutz (protection of youth), which involves laws but mainly protecting young people against their own dumbass decisions. We are reminded:

• Children under 16 may not buy alcohol.
• Children between 16 and 18 may buy beer, wine, or Sekt, but no hard liquor.
• As of age 18 young people can buy any alcohol.
• Children between 14 and 16 who are in the company of their parents or guardians may consume alcohol, but not Branntwein (hard liquor - the alcohol content is too high).
• Children 16 and older are allowed in pubs even without parents until midnight.

Several of the stores in our town are participating voluntarily in a program called the "Rottweiler Idee" (Rottweil* idea) which hopes to dimish the incidents of young people drinking to the point of alcohol poisoning, which I applaud. At the same time, I realize that a wee bit of planning ahead (and most Germans are masters at this) circumvents these noble efforts. According to the article, local incidents requiring police intervention during Fasnet have decreased since the Rottweiler Idee was implemented.

*Rottweil is the Swabian hightown of Fasnet. Köln holds this fame to the north, but down here Rottweil is the place to be to celebrate the most traditional of Fasnet gatherings, parties, and so on.

What the stores in the vicinity of the Bahnhof have agreed to is not selling hard liquor to persons under the age of 25 on three upcoming days of drunken foolery: Schmotziger, Fasnetssamstag (Saturday) and Fasnetsmontag (Rosenmontag - the Monday that is the highlight of the Fasnet madness fun). Sunday doesn't need to be on the list because all stores are closed every Sunday.

Our town has been doing this since 2014. The store M and I use most often, Real, is not participating, unfortunately. This store is not near the Bahnhof, but its neighbor Norma is participating and I wish Real would, too. The kids can still buy beer, wine, and Sekt and can do plenty damage to themselves with those, but limiting hard liquor is at least something.

Not only will Real continue to sell alcohol to everyone over 18,
but plenty of the offerings are also on sale through Saturday.

I'm not a teetotaler and don't judge people for including alcohol as part of a celebration of whatever kind. I even think the U.S.'s drinking age of 21 is a bit silly when kids at 18 can serve in the army. Alcohol is part of German culture, and having a glass of wine or beer with lunch - even at a business meeting - isn't unusual. I just applaud the idea of (voluntarily!) making it as difficult as possible for young people to binge drink themselves into a coma or worse. The cut-off age of 25 is probably bit harsh, but I don't have a problem with it during the craziest days of Fasnet. The scariest thing is that there is surely plenty of drinking and driving during these days, and since Germans can drive as of age 18 but lack experience and judgement, the Rottweiler Idee could be intended to address this danger as well as to limit the ability of already wasted young people from buying even more hard liquor.

Whatever your plans for the days of Fasnet, Fastnet, Fasching, or Karnival, stay safe and make good choices! And for mercy's sake, don't drink and drive!!!

Life in Swabia: Mülltrennung

I believe every foreigner living in Germany who writes a blog has written about Mülltrennung - garbage separation. I also wrote a post about this not long after I moved here. If your German is good enough you can find many articles online, such as this one, with instructions on how to do this properly or this one which includes a handy dictionary explaining all important words concerning garbage. 

Unless you live here, you would not believe the amount of time that can be spent pondering - and even discussing - the disposal of waste.

Each Landkreis (county) has its own special policies and procedures, so if you have moved to Germany and want to be certain you're doing it right, look up "Mülltrennung" for your county. We live in Landkreis Freudenstadt, which handles some aspects of garbage and recycling differently than Esslingen. We can put meat and bones into our Biomüll, for instance, whereas you can't do that in Esslingen.

This is a tired old topic, but one that keeps coming up again - recycled and reused, if you will. This morning I found myself perusing the 67-page booklet that arrived last week explaining the details of Mülltrennung for our area and then reading an article about it in the January issue of Deutsch Perfekt.

Seriously - this is what it has come to on a quiet Saturday morning. I am reading a booklet about separating garbage.

On the cover of the booklet is an ad for the AbfallApp (garbage app).

Why would I do such a thing? Why would anyone? Our county - and probably every county in Germany - publishes and mails to each household a printed annual guide for this business, hoping residents will read it and stop screwing up the system. We should dutifully research what refuse goes where, and when bins will be picked up. How on earth is anyone supposed to keep track of that?
Spoiler alert: There's an app for that.

M's phone dings once a month to remind him to put out whatever is being picked up in the morning. You read that right - once a month. Ok, Biomüll (compostable scraps) gets picked up every two weeks, and I recently read that in big cities it's all collected more often.

The magazine pictured above is Deutsch Perfekt. It's a brilliant magazine aimed at learners of German and includes a regular column called "Wie Deutschland funktioniert" (How Germany works"). As I mentioned, January's column is about separating garbage and recycling, and I read it with enthusiasm. The writer makes the claim that Germans love recycling and consider themselves Weltmeister (world champions) at it. 

And yet still there are those who don't get it. Case in point:

glass recycling containers: for white, brown and green glass

Those folks were just dicks. They showed up with bags of empty bottles but found the containers full to overflowing. What they were supposed to have done was take their bottles away, find another container, whatever - but not just stack them on top! They probably also committed their crime under the cover of darkness, ignoring the strict opening hours of the containers to restrict noise during the night and on Sundays, since no one would want to be caught in broad daylight being a Müll-Ferkel.

The "Garbage-Piglet" sorts his garbage/recycling wrong,
making the container area as messy as a pigsty.
Don't be a Garbage-Piglet!

When guests stay with us for just a day or three, the garbage separation business doesn't usually come up. My dad stayed with us for more than three weeks in the spring of 2017, though, and that meant a lesson on where to toss which garbage along with follow-up reminders. Honestly, it's nearly embarassing to me to do this to people - but since our space for garbage is limited, we need to do this right.

In extreme cases, there are even penalties for improperly disposing of garbage! If plastic or metal shows up in our Biomüll, we get a yellow card (soccer reference) warning. If it happens again we get a red card (also called the Arschkarte, or "ass card" in soccer), which means they will no longer collect our stinking bin of decomposing kitchen scraps. We then have to take it ourselves to the dump (no, it does not fit into the car upright, and for obvious reasons we wouldn't load it in sideways) and pay them to take it.

So...yeah. This shit needs to be taken seriously.

In the above photo you see many of the typical types of garbage and recycling a normal household deals with from day to day. All of what's there would go into two different bins in Wisconsin (USA): garbage for the landfill or recycling (paper, glass, plastic, all mixed together). But here in Germany... You don't get to claim to be Weltmeister at Mülltrennung just by throwing everything into one of two bins. The above items require seven different recepticles. Seven.

I'm not telling you this to be instructive so that you know where to toss things if you visit Germany. I'm telling you this to show you that something you don't give a nano-second of thinking time to (because you don't need to unless you live in Germany!) is actually something that matters here.

We'll start in the upper left. This is the little bugger I remember having to tell my dad did not belong in the tiny bathroom garbage can. Poor guy - he took it upon himself to change the TP roll himself, which apparently many boys and men can't be bothered to do, and I then had to tell him he was doing it wrong. Ugh. (Sorry, Dad!) Anyway, the empty TP tube belongs in the Altpapier (paper/cardboard bin), as does the booklet, when I'm finished reading it at the end of the year when the 2020 edition arrives, and the magazine. 

The lightbulb needs to be brought to the special lightbulb recepticle at either the local dump or at the entrance of our supermarket. 

I haul the empty wine bottle and its companions to the Glascontainer (glass recycling containers), and since it's not exactly brown and not exactly green, it goes in the green container - as does blue glass and yellow glass (don't ask, just accept). Drinking glasses do not go into the white/clear glass container, though - that's a special kind of glass and goes in the Restmüll (see below).

Left of the bottle are nut shells, representing kitchen scraps. Fruit & vegetable peels, apple cores, egg shells, meat scraps & bones, coffee grounds, etc. - just nothing liquid or soupy - goes into the brown Biomülltonne wrapped in newspaper. In the summer this bin stinks to high heaven, which brings flies and maggots. In the winter if it's too moist in the bin, whatever went in first freezes to the bottom and doesn't come loose when it's emptied. Fun times.

The lighter: I have no idea where the empty lighter goes. It's plastic, it's metal, it's liquid if it's not totally empty...We have a bag full of them stashed in a closet waiting for further instructions. I just asked M, and he said they probably go into the Restmüll (everything that doesn't belong somewhere else goes in here - it's our smallest bin), but not all of those at once. He means to toss 2 or 3 into the Restmüll every month when it's picked up, but he always forgets. That bag of lighters will probably still be there when we die.

In the bottom left of the photo we have a plastic-coated box of old Ricola lozenges. This requires three bins: the plastic wrapping goes into the gelbe Sack ("yellow sack" - stay tuned), the cardboard box goes into the Altpapier, and the expired cough drops go into the Biomüll.

The dirty tissue (please note: it's not actually been used) goes into the Restmüll or the Biomüll. Sometimes (though seldom) you have options, isn't that nice?

The batteries need to be taken to the dump, which is open for a few hours on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings, or to the battery recepticle at our supermarket. We have a bag of these in a corner of the office, too, which we keep forgetting.

Lastly, between the batteries and the TP roll, you see a burned-out tea candle and styrofoam packaging peanuts. Those, along with almost all plastics and aluminium, lids to jars and bottles, and empty plastic bottles that can't be returned for Pfand (deposit) go into the gelbe Sack. Unlike with all the other types of garbage, we are not limited to a certain amount each month. We can put as many of these sacks out on pick-up day as we want. Do note, though, that not all areas of Germany have this gelbe Sack. I learned that from the Deutsch Perfekt article today.

We usually only fill 2 or 3 gelbe Säcke in a month.
This was shortly after our move.

Amazingly, we get these yellow sacks for free! Once a year the garbage guys put one roll of yellow sacks onto our garbage bin after they've emptied it. In apartment houses they place them next to the front door. Last week when I was at my Schwiegermutter's place, a pile of them - one for each household - was lying on the ground outside the front door. She scooped them all up "before they get pinched" and put them inside the locked door for residents to pick up.

I'm sure this all sounds complicated, and believe me, it is. But it's also just part of life in the Schwabenland. One becomes mindful of waste by living here, and most people make a conscious effort to produce as little waste as possible. We have things still in our basement (like the old sun room curtains, which we replaced four years ago with blinds, wire hangers ["Mommy Dearest," anyone?], and kitchen gadgets we don't need) because we don't know how to dispose of them!

A student of mine once called me pedantic. Friends have called me nervous and finicky. More than enough times I have heard "Relax! Let it go! It's not that big a deal!" And none of that was about sorting garbage. I can just imagine what any of those people would say if they stayed with us for more than three days and had to listen to my garbage-sorting instructions.

My parents are coming for about a week in Spring and my kids are probably coming for about 10 days next December for an early Christmas. In the event that they read this blog post to the end...

Please forgive me! It's not me, it's Swabia!

P.S. The EU has just banned the production of disposable plastic items such as straws, plastic plates, cups and cutlery, balloons, and plastic bags. This will be inconvenient at times, but I find it an excellent move. Why? Look at the last two photos in this article for a start.

Things We Do in Swabia but not Wisconsin, Part 1

It's been a while since I compared life in the Schwabenland to life in Wisconsin. It's also been a while since I last blogged! The will is there, but I've lacked inspiration. We had some lovely weather recently, which was perfect for Easter (and then it got cold and snowed, but never mind that), and I started thinking again about things we do differently here vs. in Wisconsin.

So let's see what comes of this.

Things We Do in the Schwabenland that We Don't (Didn't) Do in Wisconsin

Plan Easter meals well in advance

I think Easter has always been my favorite holiday. When I was little it meant a new Easter dress, an Easter bonnet, white gloves, new white shoes, and a wonderful fancy brunch at a local country club. The music in church was uplifting and beautiful, and even though snow was not uncommon at Easter in Wisconsin, at least Spring was on its way.

ca. 1970, probably Easter Sunday

Here in the Schwabenland Easter is even more special in some ways. The best part is that we have three days of forced family time and relaxation. Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Easter Monday are stille Feiertage, which means all stores and businesses are closed. No shopping (even for a last-minute ingredient one forgot), and M doesn't go to the office unless there's an emergency. Lamb is the traditional meat served on Sunday and/or Monday, and we typically make our lamb stew.

Since [loud] yardwork is frowned upon on stille Feiertage (weeding is tolerated if you feel guilty while doing it), we quietly get indoor jobs done, read, watch TV, cook, and relax. It's really nice to have M home for basically four days in a row (he spends a short time in the office on Saturday). So while Easter has always been my favorite holiday, it's even more special now. It feels strange to me by now that Good Friday and Easter Monday are just normal days in the U.S.

Bring our glass bottles to the recycling center

In my hometown, items that can be recycled - paper, cardboard, glass, plastics, and cans - all get thrown into the same huge rubbish bin and collected by the city every week. Here only the gelber Sack (plastic and packaging recyclables) and Altpapier (paper & cardboard) get picked up from the city, and that's only once a month. We have to haul glass bottles to the recycling containers, which is not a big deal. 

This is in Wisconsin, and I'm pointing at the recycling bin.
The other is garbage, and ours here is 1/3 the size of that.
Wisconsin garbage pick-up: once a week.
Horb garbage pick-up: once a month.

Sort the recyclable glass by color

White (clear), brown, or green? Unfortunately the wine M and I drink comes in bottles that are greenish-brown. I have no idea which bin they belong in.

Buy our meat from the local butcher (and lamb from the Turkish butcher)

There's just something about a small local butcher where everyone knows your name. I have the luxury of not having to worry about convenience, which is why most people just buy everything at the grocery store. I have lots of free time and am good at planning ahead. And although I never cared about that in Wisconsin, I like knowing where the meat we eat comes from. All the meat our butcher sells comes from farms within our state. If I ask where the Rinderfilet is from, the butcher will tell me a farm in the Black Forest (for example). I once asked the butcher in a store in Sheboygan where the tenderloin was from, and he said (I kid you not), "a cow." I could tell from his smile he was being funny, but he also had no idea where the shipment came from.

Drive to local farmers to buy fresh produce (especially Spargel)

We buy most of our produce from Mustafa, our vegetable guy who comes with his truck on Tuesdays and parks for 20 minutes in front of our neighbors' house. He also tells us where everything comes from, though he gets it all from a Großmarkt. Being an American, I don't care if the strawberries come from Italy or Spain as long as they are nice and red, but I know Germans who will buy one but not the other. 

Mustafa and his seasonal produce

Spargel, however, I only buy from the Spargelhof  seven miles from home. Picked freshly that morning from the field I have to drive around to get to their shop.

the white blankets cover fields of delicious weißer Spargel

In fact...

While in Wisconsin I bought everything in one grocery store, the other day I drove to the Bäckerei one village away to get fresh rolls and pretzels, then to the Spargelhof  above for a kilo of that deliciousness, and then to one more village beyond to the Kartoffelhof for potatoes. Total time: ca. 45 minutes. The grocery store would have been a 3-minute drive, but fresh local products are worth it!

Bring our own reusable cloth bags to the grocery store

There's a sensible charge for plastic bags in most stores in Baden-Württemberg, so any self-respecting Swabian will bring her own bags or shopping basket with her to avoid this charge and damage to the environment. It just makes sense, and would even if there weren't a charge. We bag our own groceries here, which I also vastly prefer to waiting for the bagger in Wisconsin (especially the ones who insist on chatting).

I love my granny basket. Don't judge me!

 

Change tires twice a year

M calls this "putting the summer/winter shoes on the car". Although he did teach me several years ago how to change and pump up a tire with a foot pump, I would have had someone at a garage do this for me in Wisconsin. Of course, despite several layers of frozen snow on city roads for three solid months, I had all-season tires on my Jetta (damn, I still miss that car). Here in Swabia we have summer and winter tires, and M changes them himself. 

It goes without saying that he thoroughly cleans each tire after removal. And this had to be done on Easter Saturday (not a holiday), because again, it is frowned upon to labor publicly on holy days.

This list goes on, so I decided to make this a two-part post. My dad arrives tomorrow to start his month of learning/improving his German, so I should have all kinds of things to write about in the next few weeks. He'll be taking a class at the local language school, and I'll be his evening tutor.

Expat readers: What kinds of things do you do in your adopted country that you didn't do in your home country?

Loving Southern Germany 5: Castle Ruins

Most tourists who come to Germany visit the well-known castles and palaces - Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, Nymphenburg in München, Charlottenburg in Berlin... Many visit castles along the Rhein as well. They are expensive to visit, but it's nice to see how the upper crust lived many years ago. I don't begrudge anyone wanting to see these castles and palaces, but I am glad I will not ever again need to visit the over-rated Neuschwanstein, having taken enough student groups there over the years.

Neuschwanstein, Bavaria
This palace isn't even very old - it was built after the American Civil War ended!

Nymphenburg, München, Bavaria

Pfalzgrafenstein, on the Rhein, Rheinland-Pfalz

Personally I prefer the castle and fortress ruins - the more rustic and ruined, the better. They each have a history, sometimes steeped in mystery, leaving visitors to use their imaginations.

Many ruins are free-of-charge, and others charge a nominal fee to help with upkeep and maintenance. And they're all over, at least in southern Germany.

Within walking distance of our home not long after I moved here, we found Ruine Eutingen. To learn about the more remote ruins, you need to know German because they are not tourist attractions and little or no information is available in English. This Burg (fortress) was built in the second half of the 13th century and was the seat of the Lords of Eutingen. It was destroyed by Graf von Hohenberg in 1350 but eventually rebuilt, changed hands a number of times over the centuries, and abandoned and sold off in 1818. Today one can find the remnants of a tower and wall, a cellar vault, rounded window arches, and Schießscharten (arrow slits).

This turned out to be a nice afternoon's walk and adventure on my birthday a few years ago, because although we knew about where it was, we had to search and backtrack a few times before we found it hidden on a hill among the trees.

When fellow blogger Adventures of La Mari and I decided to meet, we chose the ruins at Hohentwiel near Singen. Our husbands and their pug Abner joined us to explore the ruins. This one is well-enough known that info is available in English. The first castle on this site was built in 914 and first served as the seat of Swabian dukes.

My Schwiegermutter enjoys exploring ruins as much as I do, and we made an excursion together to Klosterruine Hirsau, near Calw. The origins of the monastery go back to 830, and in 1091 the large church was built. These ruins are an architect's delight, with clear and preserved examples of Romanesque and High Gothic windows and elements.

Just right of center are the rounded arches of Romanesque style windows.
Just left of center in reddish brick you see the pointy Gothic arches of the Kreuzgang (cloister).
Marienkapelle in the background.

Some might see all this as piles of rocks, but I see Germany's romantic and turbulent past. And part of the beauty of southwestern Germany for me is that whenever I have time, I can check out a new one or visit an old favorite. They are easily accessible by train and bus, and an extra bonus is often a lengthy walk or climb to get there from the station, which is about the only exercise I ever get.

Nagold is a beautiful little town not far from us, and the ruins on the hill above town are worth the forest climb.

watch tower and oven of Hohennagold

cemetery at the Remigiuskirche with fortress ruins in the background

Although I haven't visited them yet, we did pass below the ruins of Hohenurach on a walk to the Urach waterfall on a lovely autumn day. I'd rather wait until the renovations are finished anyway.

With the exception of Hohentwiel, none of the ruins I've mentioned charge an entrance fee. Even Hohentwiel costs only €4,50, while Neuschwanstein will set you back €13, which doesn't include all the tourist crap Gedöns bits and bobs you'll be tempted to buy in the shop.

Let that stand as the fifth thing I love about living here in southwestern Germany, though there are plenty of ruins in other parts of the country as well.

For more on this thread, see:
  Beautiful Towns
  Landscape
  Food
  Holidays
and
  Wegkreuze

A Wellness Week in the Schwarzwald

M and I just returned from a wonderful week at the Hotel Engel Obertal, during which we fully spoiled ourselves by relaxing, doing nothing in particular, and eating like royalty. The Engel is a Wellness und Genuss Resort in Obertal, only 45 minutes from home! The wellness culture thrives in the Black Forest with the crisp, clean air, meandering valleys, and variable weather, and many of the towns are labeled Kurorte (health resorts or spa towns). People come from all over Germany - Europe, really - to bask in the good life.

We have been to the Engel before - in 2007 for two days. That was my introduction to the German sauna culture, which was quite a shock for me initially (we Americans are real prudes). When we decided to do a wellness week, we knew we wanted to come here again.

The hotel is located in a very quiet village with plenty of walking paths and trails of all difficulties. One can choose to stay in the valley and walk along the stream or venture up into the hills and forest for a more strenuous hike. In hindsight I recommend doing some good hiking when the weather cooperates to offset some of the calories you'll put on during meals!

The Engel offers a well-organized activity program which includes outings, hikes, fitness classes and training, water aerobics, and specialized classes in Qigong, Smovey-Gym, and Pilates. The activities are spaced well apart so that one could participate in every class they offer during the day. Being the Fitnessmuffel that we are, we only nodded appreciatively at the offerings and later watched some of the exercise classes while sipping wine on our balcony. 

outdoor saunas, jacuzzi, and ice cold bathing pond, as seen from our balcony
fitness pavillon is out of sight to the right

We actually did brave that ice cold bathing pond! I dipped in to my knees the first time, almost my waist the second time, and nearly to my chest the last time. Softly whispered profanity was part of that process, but sitting in a blazing hot sauna afterwards is a wonderful feeling. M went in once and up to his neck, crazy bugger brave lad!

Each evening before dinner the lounge is open for Happy Hour with a different mixed drink featured.

Side note: I was not compensated in any way for this blog post. I had planned on writing it because we really like this hotel and the wellness experience they offer. We celebrated my birthday during this week, and I was greeted warmly that day by everyone on the staff who knew. They left a birthday card and a bottle of wine in our room while we were at breakfast and had decorated our breakfast table with rose petals. I asked about taking pictures and was told by the managing director that I could photograph anything as long as other guests were not pictured, and she gave me permission to use photos from their website as well.

Every morning at breakfast guests find the Urlaubsblättle at their table detailing the day's offerings, a "thought of the day", wellness tips, the evening menu, products offered in their wellness shop, and a thoughtful story encouraging one to reflect on the positive things in life. The weather and the menu were the important bits for M, but I read most of it.

The service personnel is exceptional. Every single person we passed or interacted with made us feel special, welcome, and appreciated. Each staff member greets the guests with a genuine smile and a "Schönen guten Morgen!", "Guten Tag!", or "'Nabend!", and when we had the slightest need it was fulfilled almost immediately. The housekeeping crew was rarely visible, but they swooped in and out expertly while we were otherwise engaged - at breakfast or dinner, normally. Fresh towels, folded or turned-down sheets, chocolate on the pillows, clean water and wine glasses...To them this is standard and expected for the level of service they promise, but guests like us enjoy these little details and recognize that the behind-the-scenes team is sadly underappreciated.

There are cozy seating areas at every turn, which we would have been happy to use had our favorite place not been our suite! There's even an easy chair with footrest right before the Toilette near the restaurant in case one needs a rest on the way there. One can check out books (we brought our own, though we hardly touched them) or purchase magazines and newspapers from the reception. A complimentary copy of  Die Welt awaited us each morning, and I always intended to read it...

Wolke 7 reception area with bistro

The real highlight for us, and I dare say for most guests, is the Wolke 7 Wellnessbereich (Spa). It opens at 11:00 and closes at 19:00, and I was already looking forward to our time there while enjoying a delicious and extensive breakfast buffet. (Just as a side note, the pool area is open longer: 7:00 to 22:00.) We went there once or twice a day to sit and sweat as long as we could stand it. The area begins with a group of Dampfbäder - steam saunas. Each one has a different atmosphere, scent, layout, and temperature. This area is a textilfreie Flüsterzone - a fabric-free (nude) whispering zone. The focus is on relaxation and wellness. And sweating.

There is one dry sauna in this area - the Schwitzstube - in which there is an Aufguss session each afternoon with a different featured scent. There are several showers for rinsing and cooling off between saunas and plenty of places to hang one's towel and robe. In the Dampfbäder you don't bring in a towel because it's steamy and wet in there, and your towel would be sopping after your first session. Each Dampfbad has a hose for rinsing off the seats between visitors, which seems a good idea but probably doesn't actually matter.

Kaminsauna
source

We settled into a familiar routine: after we did our three favorite Dampfbäder we showered again, had a glass of water from the drinking fountain between the saunas and resting area, and headed outside - although it got cold this week! Outside are two Finnish-type saunas, the Kaminsauna at 90°C and the smaller Erdsauna at 110°C. These are both fabulous! Guests wear their robes or towels to these saunas, but inside they are textilfrei. Germans - M included - can't imagine sitting in a sauna wearing a swimsuit. How uncomfortable that must be! For my American readers I'll write another post about the sauna culture here vs. the body shaming we (women) are constantly exposed to in the U.S.. Believe me for now that it is a unique and liberating experience, and it's not at all strange.

The Engel offers several pools and a zillion lounge chairs for resting from all the relaxing. Especially in the afternoons lots of people camp out on the lounge chairs to read, nap, and enjoy the gentle spa music.

source

One crazy experience is the floating pool. This is a small indoor pool of water as salty as the Dead Sea, and you just...float. It's not for swimming, you're asked not to splash, and they recommend you don't spend more than about eight minutes in there because the skin doesn't tolerate the salt well. After you wade in, you lift your feet off the floor and float around.

resting area surrounding the salty floating pool (through the doorway)
source

You can book many different types of massages and beauty treatments, though we didn't this time. One of my favorite overheard quotes of the week was related to a beauty treatment. Several Swabian women in the Kaminsauna were chatting about a honey massage from another spa: "Des macht net schee. Des macht bäppig!"

Truly, the food and those who prepare and serve it deserve their own blog post. We booked the Halbpension, which meant that dinner was included with our room, along with breakfast and a lunch buffet, which we skipped half the time to save room for dinner. Each dinner was a multi-course delight ending in a sheepishly deserved food coma. We learned to skip either the starter or the soup, I gave up the cheese course before dessert, and by the second last evening we could both make it through the last course without feeling we'd eaten way too much. The regular menu was a starter, a choice of soup, a salad buffet, a Zwischengang (a light in-between course), a choice of three for the main course, the cheese buffet, and finishing with a dessert or dessert buffet.

Here's a teaser for my future post about the dining experience in the main restaurant and the elegant Andrea-Stube:

Roh mariniertes Rinderfilet

Crepinette von der Milchkalbshüfte
My main course is reflecting the food coma face I'll be wearing shortly...

dessert from the buffet

This was truly a wonderful and relaxing week, and we will surely come back. We made notes about what to pack next time so we can avoid driving home on day two for a wardrobe change. One of the best things for me was seeing M actually relax into the experience and partially forget about work for a while.

And that's what wellness is all about.