Berg Mineral Bath, Stuttgart

Sunday's in Germany are boring! You lose track of how lucky we are in England having Sunday trading, as when I was in Stuttgart, it was dead. Having already visited the major tourist attractions (have a look at some of my other reviews for my impressions of Stuttgart), we decided to check out the mineral baths.

There are two or three mineral baths in Stuttgart but we decided to visit the Berg Mineral Baths, a short train journey from the city centre. To get there you need to get either the U1, U2 or U14 on the U-Bahn and get off at Mineralbäder. From there it's just over a road to get to the baths themselves. To get in its 6,30€ for adults or 5,20€ for children and students. This allows access to the giant outdoor pool and the surrounding areas. If you want to experience the saunas then the price is 13,00€ but we decided against this.

When we visited, it was a hot, sunny day and the baths were very busy but thanks to the huge amount of space, it didn't feel crowded. The main outdoor pool is very large but the majority of people at the baths were simply sunbathing. There is also a café outside where one can get drinks, food and, most importantly on a hot day, ice creams!

The pool itself has a variety of minerals fed into it, all of which are meant to help invigorate the skin. The water is very cold at first but dive right in and it soon becomes easily bearable. You can't really do much swimming per se but just relaxing in the water for a few minutes followed by some sunbathing makes it a great experience.

The one thing that really stood out whilst I was at the baths was the fact that there weren't many young children. I've been to open air pools here and there is always loads of noise but this was missing, making it much more relaxing. I'm unsure of this is due to youngsters being banned (don't think so) or of the Germans are more laid back.

The only disadvantage that I can think about from my time at the baths is the fact that there is a women's terrace above the main pool. My best advice is, where possible, don't look up! The Germans are obviously more comfortable in their own bodies than we are in the UK and looking up usually led to the view of a leather skinned, naked German woman.

The baths are not the best thing to do or see in Stuttgart but if you are visiting and have time to spend after the other attractions, check out the baths, as they are nice and on a sunny day, very relaxing.