As the temperature soared to 30 degrees we witnessed what happens when a city has a heatwave, but no coastline. In the centre of Vienna there was a large barge on the Danube Canal with an in ground (in barge) swimming pool attached. People sat either around the pool or on the sun deck of the barge. Behind this barge there was an area on the riverbank where the locals had imported some sand. So essentially on deckchairs, in a sandpit, next to a canal, with a poster of a beach behind them, the Viennese enjoyed a day at the beach.
We decided that we were in desperate need of a swim but decided to venture further a field than Vienna’s beach district. After a short 25 minute train ride we arrived at the town of Baden, famous for its thermal hot springs and ‘beach’. The beach was slightly better than the one in Vienna but not much. Here the locals enjoyed what they call a water park and beach. It was essentially an overcrowded complex of public swimming pools surrounded again by a sandpit with deck chairs. We decided it was not really our scene.
Up the road we visited a much more dignified thermal spring. This was a huge indoor and outdoor complex with a series of three pools. The first was refreshingly cool, the second was wonderfully warm and the third, which came with a strong smell of sulphur, was decidedly hot. We paid for a two-hour visit and wondered why anyone would stay that long. After 1 and three quarter hours we wondered why we had not booked in for the whole day. The refreshing power of this thermal spring made our weary walking muscles feel relaxed and at the same time reinvigorated. An added bonus was that the average age of other patrons at this thermal paradise made us feel decidedly young, which was quite a change from feeling like ‘mum and dad’ in the backpacker/hostel scene.
In short, it was the sort of day where we felt that we really emersed ourselves in the life of a quaint and very pleasant Austrian resort town.
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