It's winter in Berlin. It's grey, wet, cold and the days are short. After taking down the Christmas tree the apartment quickly went from cozy to confining and so we decided on a low stress night away- a change of scenery. And we found the perfect place to do it. A quick 50 minutes outside of Berlin on the Ruppiner See is the Mark Brandenberg Resort and Fontane Therme and it was literally just what the dr. ordered.
We arrived mid morning on Saturday stashed our bags and headed to the Fontane Therm . We quickly changed into our cushy white robes and donned them for the most part until we departed late Sunday afternoon. The Therme has two outdoor heated salt water pools, an indoor fresh water pool and at least 5 saunas. There are rooms and nooks to relax and it is warm with peaceful music playing quietly. The fresh water pool was closed for cleaning (which we knew) and honestly I think it is what made it so nice. There were other people there but the place was not crowded at all and it was so quiet! We spent the majority of our time in the salt water pools, and the family sauna area as these were the only areas where kids were allowed. Lars and I also made several trips to the upstairs 15 and older area to enjoy the lake sauna and even saltier water pool. I have always claimed that I don't like saunas but after our time at the Fontane Therme I am a convert. I loved the 60ºC sauna and the 80ºC (the family sauna) and even survived a 10 minute stretch in the 90ºC sauna. And this place had one of the most beautiful saunas I have ever seen. Every sauna I have been in (and there aren't many) has been small and dark, but not the lake sauna at Fontane Therme. Located on a pontoon floating on the lake, it was huge with a lake facing wall of glass. You have to walk outside to the lake sauna which chills you and makes the warmth even lovelier and then back outside to return- past a warm saltier water pool, where you float and look up to an open ceiling, so you can see the sky. I really loved this place!. It turns out Benno is also a sauna lover (like father like son.) He enjoyed the ritual of it all- flipping the timer, the sauna infusion, heading out into the cold after sauna etc. And Frida put up with it. Perhaps she will come to love it later in life like me. The whole weekend was really restorative. I have been under the weather for a while and am convinced that the sauna aided in my feeling a lot better this week (ok it could also be the meds.) I was told not to take pictures in the spa (because of all of the naked people) and for the most part I respected that but I did snap a few.
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Although we all miss Maine and Christmas far away from friends and family can be hard, we all agree that December is a great time to be in Germany. This year we tried to make the most of it and I think we did pretty well. We made it to 4 Christmas markets and just generally tried to soak up as much holiday cheer as the city provided. Wishing all of our friends and family near and far a Happy New Year.
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