/ 7 June 2013

The best of a Bad situation

The Best Of A Bad Situation

There’s always a song in the air in Bad Füssing. Whether it is from the daily free afternoon concerts in the park or from an elderly man whistling while he crosses the street, the town is filled with the hum of a shared melody. That’s because everyone in Bad Füssing shares the same secret: they haven’t felt this good in years.

Bad Füssing is a small town in the heart of Bavaria, Germany, just two hours from Munich and a few minutes drive from the Austrian border. People from all over the world come here to enjoy the healing effects of its hot springs, certified by the balneology department of the University of Munich in 1953.

The whistlers and hummers glow with the shared knowledge that there’s nothing quite like sinking into the warm, healing waters of Bad Füssing at the end of a day filled with eating, cycling, walking and shopping — or doing absolutely nothing.

The hot springs contain a magical mix of sulphide sulphur and have a neutral pH value of 7.21, making them ideal to help to alleviate, or even to cure, a variety of chronic illnesses from rheumatism to spinal and metabolic conditions. The effects of the healing water are said to last for six months, hence the town’s slogan: “It works and works and works.”

The first spring was discovered almost by accident when, in the run-up to World War II, the state drilled for oil in 1938. Instead, the drillers found thermal water with a temperature of 56°C, bubbling to the surface at 3 000 litres a minute. Completely useless to the upcoming war effort, the development potential of the hot springs was noted, but not acted on, until after the war.

The oil industry’s rights to the hot springs were transferred to a private organisation in 1955. Development was boosted when the Bavarian authorities found a second hot spring in 1963 and — in the same year — a husband and wife, both doctors, found a third.

Today more than 7 000 people call Bad Füssing home and millions call it a healing holiday: in 2012, 3.2-million overnight stays were registered and the town welcomes more than a million day-trippers a year.

However, don’t expect to cure yourself of all your ailments in a day. A recommended stay is two weeks, with two 20-minute sessions in the thermal waters a day. And there’s plenty to do in those two weeks that will make the time fly.

Feel-good nature
One of the town’s main attractions is Haslinger Hof (haslinger-hof.de), a self-described “adventure park”.

A large farm just outside of Bad Füssing, the owners originally planned to breed pigs. Worried that the smell would drive away business, the townspeople protested — probably with pitchforks. Instead, in the early 1970s, the owners exploited an interesting gap in the market.

To visit the nearest bar, the residents of Bad Füssing used to have to cross the border into Austria. Crossing back after imbibing a few too many often resulted in unpleasant encounters with the border guards. So Haslinger Hof opened a bar on the German side of the border and, in time, a restaurant, clothing stores, a hotel, spa and animal farm (no pigs though).

Even though there are now several bars in Bad Füssing, Haslinger Hof is the biggest, and hosts folk festivals, dance competitions and shows on weekends.

There are many restaurants in Bad Füssing, offering everything from Italian to Greek and Chinese cuisine. But you don’t want to be one of those tourists, so rather go local with some of the best food you’ll ever taste. Bavarian cuisine is famed for its hearty, feel-good nature and you haven’t lived if you haven’t had an apfelstrudel in one of the coffee shops scattered along the main boulevard.

Indulging in a little too much cake? Bad Füssing is in one of Germany’s sunniest regions and boasts 430km-long bicycle and hiking trails in the area. It also has beautiful gardens, called Kurgarten, which showcase a variety of stunning seasonal flowers.

There’s also an 18-hole golf course and a casino. Travelling in winter? No problem! Although there is no snowfall in the town itself, there is snow in the nearby valley and so there are plenty of winter sports on offer and many charming villages around Bad Füssing itself, ready to be explored by bus, bicycle or on foot.

The hotel Bayerischer Hof  is one of 12 hotels with direct access to the hot springs in the form of a pool in its basement.

This enables guests to have a dip at any time of the day without having to join the masses in one of the three public thermal springs and the temperature is constant at a comfortable 36°C.

Manager Marianne Würzinger takes pride in the hotel’s reputation for wellness and relaxation and urges guests not to pack too many activities into their schedule. “After all,” she says, “you’re here to rest, not to stress.”

Bayerischer Hof also has an in-house beautician and physical therapist who offers a special treatment with hot mud called fango, which helps with arthritis and other forms of rheumatism, but is also good for a general detox and for treating eczema.

Want in on another little secret? One of the town’s unofficial pastimes is Kurschatten-spotting. Many doctors send their patients to Bad Füssing after an injury or just for general wellness in their old age, forcing them to leave spouses behind. And what else to do but find a replacement for said spouse, leaving the rest of the town to wonder: Is that his wife or does he have a Kurschatten?

Jessina Springer (91), has been to Bad Füssing every year for the past two decades, first with her husband and then, after he passed away five years ago, alone. “The water makes me feel like I’m 18 again!” she says with a twinkle in her eyes.

So does she have a Kurschatten? She laughs. “I would have one if I really was 18.”