German wine route - thermal baths?

"Bad" is actually the German equivalent to "Spa". Spa is actually a town in Belgium after which all French and English speaking Spa towns are named; except for the few which were already named "Bath" in English. What is available varies greatly from Bad to Bad.

The official town website is: http://www.bad-duerkheim.de/
The pages on the spa offerings are here: www.bad-duerkheim.com/wellness-gesundheit/kurzentrum.html
and here: http://www.salinarium.de/
It appears to be only in German.

P.S., most German spas, saunas etc. require you to take all your clothes off, swimming suits are not allowed.

A caveat to what Chris's last sentence... some of the larger thermal bathing facilties have both clothed and nude sections, but the saunas are almost always FKK ("Freikörperkultur"). You can probably figure out what that means by context...

Ok Tom, what does that mean?

Freikörperkultur. Free-body-kulture?

Germans use Frei as available, as in Zimmerfrei - also unfettered, as in Schmetterlingen sind frei or butterflies are free, but not usually as kostenlos, costless. Körper is a body (human). Kultur is pretty self explanatory.

Thanks Lee! I think I get it now. Probably not something we're going to find in Peoria.

Or, as in the German folk song, "Die Gedanken sind frei."

Which means....?

Thoughts are free? As in unfettered? Or costless? But tell us, Fred, is there another connotation?

One word that trips up many visitors: Parkplatz frei
It doesn't mean "free parking", it means there are parking spaces free (not full up). You may have to pay.
FKK = nudist (oh dear have I posted a word which the webmaster will censor) :-)

Die Gedanken sind frei...you could give the words a historical connotation if you want. It's just a name of a folk song.

I was always amused to see pay toilets with "frei" on the handle. Of course, it meant available, or unoccupied, not "kostenlos".