Precious

Another short sauna (and wellness) review. 

This time the facilities of Pfalzblick (Wald Spa Resort), located on the outskirts of the small town of Dahn (southern Rheinland-Pfalz), surrounded by the extensive forests of the Pfalz.

The wellness facilities are based over two locations. One in the older building and a brand new sauna island. 

The older facilities have two sauna's, a steam bath and a jacuzzi. It also has access to an inner pool, though this a textile required facility, to complicate matters. 

The new facilities have two sauna's, a steam room and access to an (unheated) swim lagoon.

This set up is not too ideal, certainly difficult to sell to outsiders, who would pay extra for the split set up?

The old facilites have actually seen better times and it's unclear why they are still in operation. 

The new facilities are very nice, but as they are in a seperate building, these only may not afford the extra visit. As for instance the Felsland Badepardies is just 2 muntes further, which incorporates all facilities under 1 roof.

The experience was ok, the Aufguss sessions were the highlight, also evidenced by seeing how many guests made it to these. But even though this had it's own charm, having personel usually doing other work and then doing the Aufguss sessions doesn't always result in an excellent experience for sauna goers.

My ratings are based on the experience of wellness itself, virtually all other reviews refer to the resort as a whole.

And during my stay, the new steamroom broke down, which would have otherwise added a slight variation of the experience. All 'n all? 7.5? 

Possibly a summer experience whereby the swim lagoon would be easier to use might lift the experience. With the temperature of the lagoon in winter varying from 1-5 C, there's precious little fun to be had. So 7.5 it is.

Google: 4.5 stars (900+ reviews), though virtually all of this is based on the resort itself, not the wellness facilities.

Tripadvisor also rates it with 4.5 stars (400+ reviews).

Facebook rates it even higher 4.6 stars (500+ reviews).

Leadingspa notes 97% satisfaction for wellness facilties, whatever it means.

Medley

Well, I have taken the first steps towards setting up an overview of all sauna's / wellness facilities my partner and I have visited in Europe over the past years. 

Quite easily by adding a figure denoting how the experience was valued of past postings. 

But there are still many facilities left to review, which due to reasons that these places are not geothermal related, have not been merited with a posting. 

So I'll start off with a review medley. 

The first medley will concern the Flemish part of Belgium. 

This part of Belgium has a peculiar mix of sauna set ups. Currently in vogue are three types of wellness setups: private small rental sauna's, smaller sauna's in (often in need of renovation) and blinking new spa walhalla's.

I have never had any experience with renting a private sauna; seems to defeat the purpose: public wellness places which due to their bigger size simply offer more facilities to enjoy as well as additional catering.

Rituals

So concerning slightly older (the majority) public and / or smaller sauna's. Starting with the province of East Flanders:

The Asanti wellness complex is located in Destelbergen (east of Gent). It's a mid-size public facility (3-4 sauna's, indoor/outdoor swimming pool, hammam, smaller jacuzzi); the overall set up is not too bad. As I remember the Aufguss ritual was also pretty good. Reasonable size outside pool. And catering was quite good. 

Somehow I had the impression that quite a bit of concrete has been used, which is not helped by the outside area also being able to hear the nearby motorway.

For comparison purposes I'll include more objective reviews (where available). Note all references to reviews are from the beginning of November 2022.

Concerning Asanti with no specifics to add: Google: 4.3 stars (239 reviews), Facebook: 4.4 stars (139 reviews) and Tripadvisor: 3.5 stars (28 reviews).

Figure to be given for my 2019 visit: 7

Not far away from Destelbergen, in Nazareth (south of Gent) the Saunate sauna is behind a tall wall on an industrial park. Roughly same size and facilities as above (5-6 sauna's, hammam, indoor heated pool (outdoor not), a jacuzzi).

Again the Aufguss was very good, but the set up and way the sauna's and baths are set up, renders this to a six (point five?); also visited 2019.

Other reviewers highlight the slightly tired facilities (I have to agree), in general the reviews of Saunate vary wildly; so maybe expectations are different? Google: 4.2 (232 reviews), no Facebook reviews and Tripadvisor: 3.5 stars (75 reviews).

Projected

Heading to West-Flanders.

A bit off the scale, the larger Thermen R is a big=beautiful sauna outside of the city of Roeselare. Six sauna's, large indoor / outdoor pool, two hammams (and assorted). The changing rooms were cramped (and seemed a bit weary), hopefully this has improved since (2018). The indoor sauna facilities themselves were quite special: a sauna overlooking a pool with beyond on the wall nature documentaries which were being projected. Good catering, large Himalayan salt grotto. I'd give it an 8.

Reviews Google: 4.1 (470 reviews), Facebook: 4.5 stars (318 reviews) and Tripadvisor: 4 stars (510 reviews).

A more special loaction, a former grainery named Sileau, near the small village of Snaaskerke, itself part of the local Gistel community (just behind the Flemish coast). The canal lined grainery has been neatly restored with industrial touches remaining. A sauna and hammam inside and two sauna's outside. A cooler indoor pool. No catering beyond a drink or two.

Reviews: Google: 4.7 stars (93 reviews) and Tripadvisor: 4.5 stars (19 reviews).

My own figure: 7.5, visited 2020 (Corona affected).

engelenlaagwater

Good way to begin your sunday 🧘‍♀️🔥🛁

#sileau #sauna #hottub #relaxtime #couplegoals #enjoyyoursunday #wellness

Slightly less obvious in this medley, I've included the wellness facilities of Le Plat Pays, an excellent and peaceful B&B just beyond the outskirts of Brugge.

In essence, the wellness section comprises just a small barrel type sauna, a barrel type hot tub. With the possibility of natural swimming pool usuage in the more public section. As it's dark (when you use the wellness), the latter should be no problem for other (non-)users.

Not really special, based on our most recent (summer 2022) visit a 7. You really need to be able add firewood for both, but not too much ... Other reviews (with reference to the wellness use) are not common; but otherwise the review figures for a stay border on perfect!

So there it is: the first review medley. Not too exciting I know, but let's just see how this evolves.

What stands out are the lack of wellness and nature: it's mostly all nondescript industrial surroundings, the backround even in some circumstances walled out. Non of above even try to emulate any natural specifics.

Otherwise public reviewers tend to give high markings for a wellness visit, clearly they meet or are better than expectations. 

Drought

I don't know if I'll get round to it, but just to say the island of Pantelleria (the Black Pearl), south of Sicily, is rather volcanic in nature (source). A nature nonetheless that determines just that: were there no volcano, then there were no island.

For some unknown reason, my stay on Pantelleria coincides with a break in the 6 months summer drought, a break with storms and rain. Much to the delight of locals no doubt, as there's precious little water to be had.

With the backdrop of fierce winds and clouds hugging everything above 300m (the islands peaks extend to 800m), we leave the village of Scauri behind us and slowly trug up the hill. 
Five minutes in, my partner and I are seemingly leading an expedition with two friendly dogs tagging along. We cross the Monastero plain and leave  the remnants of agriculture behind us as we switchback up the side of the mountain (photo below).

Today's menu consists of a visit to the Bagno Asciutto (sometimes known as  Grotta di Benikulà or more simply Sauna Naturale or a variation of those) followed by a search for distant steam vents.

This side of the Pantelleria's highest mountain (Monte Grande) is characterised as having a fault line along which steam evaporates.

The Bagno Asciutto (which translates as dry bath) is one of Pantelleria's prime inland attractions. From the village of Sibà, it's a 20 minute well-defined and gentle walk. 
From Scauri it's less obvious, but all can see you'll need to scramble up the side of the mountain. 

There's been a considerable investment in trails and tracks by the local (?) government, so easy to find, no worries.

The sauna or cave itself is basically a 5m deep cleft into the mountain, a meter and a half high. One walks to the end and sits as high as possible to feel the heat slowly invade the body.

Wimps
On arrival, in and around the cave there's a fair crowd of curious participants coming and going. There's not much space outside the cave, though off to the far side park officials have created a platform with benches which is used for changing though would be better as a cool down area (the benches are used for dumping clothes on).

The dogs (having tagged along for the hour long hike) seem to like the place and are invading everyone's personal space. As we're knacked of the climb we loiter around to cool off before entering Mother Earth. 

Everyone seems prepared, swim costumes already on: no need to disclose their bodies to total strangers. All visitors during our stay (more than 30) were Italian, so that might go some way to explaining body issues. It also seems that many are there only out of curiosity, their stay (including disrobing and changing) all done with 5-15 minutes. 

After half an hour catching our breath, we proceed to enter. Our dogs seek to follow but whimper out and must have decided that us being swallowed by earth meant that this was time for them to return (?).

gianlucanuzzo View from the inside:

Pantelleria | Sicily
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#sicily#pantelleria#cave#blackandwhite#silhouette

 #shadow#street#streetphotography#history#landscape#landscapephotography#iphonography

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Inside there are some makeshift benches from stone. Vapours arise from below and stick to the roof where they condense in drops and trickles.
In all honesty, it's of course no sauna, but a steam bath nonetheless. It's hot but not overtly, I see suggestions on the internet of an air temperature of 38°C, which may well be correct. 

After the heating process it's time to wind down on the benches outside. Note on a busier day there's little space outside the cave for such. Views are excellent.

Scouring the view to Scauri, what happened to the horizon?

Anti
After dressing up we continue along the ridge southwards. 

The path climbs further and after 45 minutes one comes to an open pass from which one can see steam ahead in a small valley and steam from the right, up the hill. 

We decide to explore the right first. Named Fossa del Russo (Russian pits), it's a rather eerie place especially in the wind driven cloudy circumstances of our visit. On top there are some ruins built over some of the vents, nearby are more natural ones. Nature lovers heed that last year a major bush fire swept through here, might be a few years before it greens over.

Apparently, the place was used during WW II to station anti-aircraft guns. Part of the complex was built over the steam vents thus ensuring that the military didn't get cold. According to my source.

We then proceed to valley located springs, the Favare Grande. Along the ridge are a number of vents, letting off steam. Locals have built smaller structures around to let the steam condense before it evaporates in the dry sky: the condensation feeds small troughs of water for cattle purposes. Water is precious on Pantelleria.

Towel
There are very few English language references, despite the occurrence of a natural sauna cave being pretty unique on this planet. All my braincells can come up with are a sauna cave below the Hoover dam in the U.S.A., though it's probably more of a hot spring in a cave. 
Freeing my mind, google reminds of the opportunity missed last year on Milos (ah; note this link claiming it's the only one on this planet). There's another on Antartica (link) and in Guatemala (link).

Anyway Tripadvisor ranks a visit to Bagno Asciutto as

#5 of 43 things to do in Pantelleria.

It gives it 4.5 stars based on 260+ reviews, though only 3 (?) of these are in English.

Likewise Tripadavisor rates La Favare as 4.5 stars (18 reviews).

On the former, I did find this particularly interesting study on degassing on Pantelleria (Fabbro, 2010).

From the Rough Guide To Sicily (2017):

'From Sibà, another (signposted) path - on the left as you follow the road through the village - brings you in around twenty minutes to a natural sauna, the Grotta del Bagno Asciutto, where you can sweat it out for as long as you can stand. It's little more than a slit in the rock face, where you can crouch in absolute darkness, breaking out into a heavy sweat as soon as you enter. It's coolest at floor level; raising yourself up is like putting yourself into a pizza oven, while the ceiling is so hot it's impossible to keep the palm of your hand pressed flat against it. Ten minutes is the most you should attempt the first time - emerging into the midday sun is like being wafted by a cool breeze. Bring a towel'.

It all seems rather spectacular, then again Rough Guides are very Brits in their comparisons ... 

References

Fabbro, G. (2010) Degassing and Deformation on Pantelleria Magma Chamber, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, United Kingdom.