Vienna and Bad Blumau
Steven Short gets into hot water in Austria…
Last week I spent a rather lovely afternoon floating in bath-warm silky water, totally relaxed, listening to plinky-plonky chimes. No, I wasn’t in a hippy-dippy flotation tank but the Vulcania thermal pool of the Rogner Bad Blumau spa and resort, 90 minutes outside of Vienna.
Imagine a holiday camp designed by Catalan architect Gaudí with a touch of primary school and the Hobbit thrown in and you get an idea of what to expect at Styria’s leading ‘wellness’ centre. Colourful buildings with lawned roofs appear out of hills (the work of Austrian painter Friedensreich Hundertwasser) while steam rises from the thermal pools, around which stressed-out city folk lay on loungers lapping up the summer sun.
My sister and I had decamped to the spa after a couple of days of Viennese culture, taking in endless museums and checking out The Ring, Vienna’s new five-star ‘casual luxury’ hotel.
Slap bang next to the Opera, the hotel (left) is all pared- down elegance: our beige and green room featured huge twin beds, the biggest and softest towels I’ve come across, fresh fruit and flowers and views over the old city, just minutes from our doorstep. It is also home to acclaimed At Eight restaurant. Our tasty post-museum feed included asparagus and saffron quiche followed by tournedos of excellent beef with oxtail and cauliflower for Tracy and ultra-fresh tomato and coriander salad for me, followed by an equally ‘healthy’ red mullet with calamaretti.
Eager to keep up the good eating and hungry for some R&R we left for Rogner Bad Blumau the next morning. The spa’s sprawling grounds feature plenty of opportunities to lose yourself in nature including the Bach flower walk and Celtic tree circle, but most of our fellow spa-goers were obviously here for some serious lounging and pampering – treats on offer range from facials and pedicures to Tui Na and reflexology.
While sister had a ‘lovely, really relaxing’ aromatherapy massage I handed my museum-trudging weary bones over to Valentina who first of all smothered me in mud, wrapped me in cling film and left me to grunt myself in and out of sleep for 20 minutes (as undignified as it sounds!) before treating me to an extremely firm Intuitiv Senstiv massage, which, she said would give me a spiritual lift. I emerged an hour later, my dignity restored, rosemary-scented and invigorated.
Having checked out the various water worlds – there are 11 pools in total, including Vulcania, fresh water ponds, endless Jacuzzis and a pool with a wave machine – we hung out in the sauna (clothing optional) and discussed plans for the evening.
Foolishly we’d forgotten to pack Scrabble (make sure you don’t – you make your own fun in the evenings) so our nighttime entertainment consisted of eating and drinking. The spa offers a buffet-style supper, which really did feature something for all tastes. We started at the salad cart, heaving with endless options from ultra healthy leaves, seeds and nuts, to lardy-by-stealth coleslaws and garden salads, before moving on to mains. A tasty liver stew with cauliflower cheese and broccoli for me, virtuous sole fillets and roasted vegetables for Tracy. Her halo slipped somewhat, however, at the dessert trolley. A weird- sounding, but utterly delicious, corn soufflé with raspberry coulis and a helping of homemade vanilla custard ice cream quickly helped her find whatever pounds she might have lost in the previous days. All washed down with a lovely local Riesling.
After breakfast next morning (eggs galore, seven types of bread, endless preserves as well as hams, cheeses and cakes, all organic and as locally sourced as possible) we took off on a cycle ride – bikes are free to hire at the resort, as are tennis courts. The countryside around the spa is picture-postcard perfect: all rambling flower-filled meadows and fir woods – perfect for a nature top-up before the inevitable flight home.
ROOMS AT THE RING START AT 390 Euros
www.theringhotel.com.
Two nights’ half board at Rogner Bad Blumau start at £214 per person
including two treatments of your choice. For bookings and information please visit www.austria.info/spa or call 0845 101 1818.
Austrian Air flies to Vienna daily,
with flights starting at £120 (incl taxes) from
London Heathrow and City airports. Book at www.austrian.com.
