Tag: Germany

The most impressive building at Bad Pyrmont is the Baroque-style castle from the 18th century located in a well-protected fortification dating back to the 16th century CE. It was used as a summer residence, but you can also find traces of war as it was besieged and conquered multiple times, even by Swedish troops. Still today the fortification is impressive with a wide moat, high walls, and a long bridge over which you can reach the castle. The tunnel leading you inside has a specialty; it is bended so that nobody can shoot inside. Throughout the castle grounds you can find many chambers and passages to discover.

If you like to taste different flavors of water, then Bad Pyrmont might be the right destination for you! For health treatments seven springs can be found throughout the city: the Hylliger Born, Helenenquelle, Friedrichquelle, Wolfgangquelle, Hufelandquelle and the Trampel’sche Quelle. They give water that contains calcium, magnesium, carbonate, sulphate and sodium. It’s a tradition to drink these waters to improve your health. In addition, there is also the Salinenquelle which can only be used to swim in its waters and a carbon dioxid gas spring that is also used to cure illnesses.

When you get old in Germany or suffer a serious illness then you will most probably have a Kur – a treatment at a health spa payed by your health insurance company. This includes different treatments, courses and sometimes drinking water from healthy springs. For that you’re travelling to a Kurort, a spa town that you can most often recognize in Germany by the town name having a ‘Bad‘ at the beginning. You will have nice walks in a special garden, the Kurpark, where you can relax and often listen to classic music. This is financed by a special tax, the Kurtaxe that everyone has to pay if he visits such a place. And sometimes you also get a Kurschatten (literally a ‘treatment shadow’) a person of the opposite sex that you’re spending most time with. Weird Germany.