cím: Wellness ABC - what does it mean? Letter B - F

lead: Letter „B – F” Balneotherapy, Caldarium, Chinese massage, Cleopatra-bath, Fango

tartalom: + 1 Wellness ABC – what does it mean? Letter „B – F”   Balneotherapy This is a kind of treatment with medicinal water or so called thermal mineral water not classified as medicinal water yet. It comprises drinking cure with such waters, inhalation, mud treatment, carbonated baths and medicinal baths. Caldarium This is one of the facilities used in Roman baths, which means hot watery bathroom. The caldarium, usually tiled or covered with marble, in which people usually stay for 30 to 40 minutes, poses less burden on human organism than a sauna due to the lower temperatures (40-50 °C) and the humidity of the air (70-100%).   Chinese massage The Chinese massage may be considered as a kind of acupuncture combined with stretching. The massage may consist of various parts. It may refer to the spine massage and the Chinese head massage aiming at the head and neck. During the massage the acupuncture points are treated as well. The Chinese massage also includes the stretching of muscles or joints.   Cleopatra-bath Cleopatra, the Egyptian Queen did her best to fight ageism; she tried to make her skin soft and healthy by having a bath with donkey milk in it. The beauty care products named after her suggest having a bath with a mixture of milk and vegetable oil. These products are based on the conditioning and nourishing effects that milk and vegetable oils have on the skin.     Fango Mud pack from ground volcanic rock is applied to a certain part or the whole of the body. Fango is capable of holding heat for a long period, rich in minerals and free of organic substances. It has been used for treatment of rheumatism for centuries, and it is also used for beautician purposes.   More about wellness? Here!

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cím: Holidays at the West Balaton and in Hévíz

lead: Summer fosters active holidays, and the West Balaton is one of the destinations worth considering. A Hungarian “sea” dazzles with its emerald color, there are very differentiated accommodation options, and what is the most important, there is no awkward crowd. There are many attractions, thermal spas – like Lake Hévíz - for the tourists, that you can reach by the numerous biking routes.

tartalom: + 1 Thanks to the proximity of Hungary Polish people are willing to plan there not only their summer holidays, but also weekend trips. The Balaton lake has been well known among countrymen since a long time. It is a good idea to plan your route more to the South and discover the West Balaton region. It is a perfect place for the family holidays, for the history lovers, the fans of water sports or the connoisseurs of the Hungarian cuisine.   Hungarian see The Balaton lake which is ca. 500 km far from the southern borders of Poland, is the biggest lake in Hungary and Central Europe. It is 77 km long and 4 to 15 km wide. The average depth is 2,5 m and the deepest point is 12 m deep a Tihany Well. In summer the temperature of the water oscillates between 22°C a 25°C. The Hungarians call the Balaton lake their sea and it is one of their favorite places for leisure.   Holidays at the West Balaton The West Balaton region is very reach in touristic attractions. There are many beaches and the depth of the lake is not more than 1,5 m for over a few hundred meters. The holidaymakers can rent the water bikes or go on a boat trip, where there are special animation programs for children. Yachting is very popular in the region, there are also many windsurfers take advantage of the winds. Balaton is a paradise for anglers, too. They can fish in silence and serenity, meanwhile the canoeists can admire the beautiful landscapes.  In the vicinity there are many well prepared biking paths and interesting touristic routes. In the offer for those travelling on two wheels are routes of different length and difficulty. Kesthely, a university town with a beautiful palace of the Festetics family built in the middle of the 18th century, can be a good starting point. It is just 6 km far from a charming town of Hévíz, known for the biggest thermal lake in the world where you can swim all year long. Try to discover the secrets of the castles Szigligiet and Sümeg, and then take rest in the Buddhist stupa of peace. Do not forget to include in your itinerary the longest case in Hungary, Csodabogyós in Balatonederics. The city of Hévíz The spa resort Hévíz, with its emblematic thermal lake with unique healing properties, is a perfect place for leisure. The beautiful nature and idyllic atmosphere favor clearing your mind, and one of the biggest attractions is a bath in the turquoise water. Not only is the lake located in beautiful surroundings, but also the waters are rich in minerals, e.g. calcium, magnesium and Sulphur, which help to heal different diseases. There are peat and peloid on the bottom, which have a positive influence on the skin. It is worth mentioning that in May the bath of Hévíz was given a EuropeSpa Med certificate, which confirms the highest quality of service.   Those who visit Hévíz may take a walk in a charming town. Do not forget to visit the church from the 13th century, built during the Arpad dynasty and get acquainted with the ancient artefacts from the region collected in the Museum of Egregy, that was opened to public in 2015. There are also the remnants of the Roman villa, that is nearby. If you would like to get to know history of the town and the lake, you may be interested in the exhibition in the Museum of Hévíz. In the collection there are medical and medicinal relics and also a book dated 1818, which was written by earl Richard Brighton and given to György Festetics, who was a contemporary owner of the lake.   Through the stomach to traveler’s heart A visit to Hungary is an exceptional culinary travel. It is hard to resist the local specialties, as well as hospitality, especially in the vineyards of Egregy. There are many taverns in the area between two street and in the summer you can hear vigorous Gypsy music. In the restaurants there are wine tastings and the landlords offer to the guests a glass of wine and csemege, a fresh house bread with lard, red paprika and onion. One of the most important regional dishes is dödölle, a kind of noodles made of potatoes and flour, fried in lard with onion. As far as the wines are concerned the most recognized vines in the area are Olaszrizling (Italian Riesling), Szürkebarát (Pinot Gris) and Rizlingszilváni (Müller Thurgau). 

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cím: Testing the Devil’s Waters

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tartalom: + 1 The Hungarian spa town of Hévíz is famous for its sulphurous thermal lake and its unconventional therapies. The devil himself once worked the fields around here, but it was such hard going that in a fit of rage, old Harry flung down his plow so hard that it shot deep into the earth – or so the ancient Hungarian legend goes. Warm water henceforth flowed from a spring on that spot and has fed the thermal lake ever since. Resort entrance The reality on this early fall morning in Hévíz is less dramatic:14 degrees Celsius and a light drizzle. After a cool night,a white mist hangs over the deep-blue lake and the bathhouse on stilts at its center with its pretty wooden spires. It looks straight out of a Disney film, but smells like a sulfur mine.   Author Mathias Becker in the thermal lake I wait on the shore, shivering in my shorts. I’m supposed to take a dip in the lake, but not before an attendant has arrived– for safety’s sake. The fumes apparently make some people feel woozy in the water. I stick my big toe in to test it – lukewarm. When my potential life saver comes into sight soon after, I slide into the lake like a fish eager to return to its element. Sedately, I swim by water lilies and on into the fairy-tale landscape. Somewhere beneath me lies the lake’s geological source: Every second, 410 liters of mineral-rich water, heated naturally to a very pleasant temperature by the earth, flow from a crack inthe rock 38 meters down. That’s why the water temperature can be as high as 38° C in summer and only go down to 25° C in  winter. Regular bathing in the lake is said to ease rheumatic complaints and back pain; drinking the water in healing doses reputedly aids digestive disorders. The mists have now evaporated and the first bathers of the day are stepping into the lake. Nearly all have a brightly colored foam pool noodle around their hips. It looks silly but helps keep them afloat – a safety precaution. You’re not supposed to stay in the water for more than half an hour anyway, and it’s completely off limits for anyone with cardiovascular problems. I swim slowly back, then make myself comfortable on one of the sunbeds around the inner pool. The lake has made me drowsy. Tropical waterlilies With a surface area of over four hectares, this thermal lake is the largest in the world suitable for bathing. There is one in New Zealand of a similar size, but at a constant temperature of 55 to 60° C, it is better suited to steaming vegetables than bathing. The Hévíz lake resort, on the other hand, is like a warm bathtub even in frosty weather, making the small town on the western shore of Lake Balaton Hungary’s most popular place of pilgrimage for those with back and joint complaints, even despite its competition within Hungary. From the famous Turkish baths in Budapest to the cave baths of Miskolc (where you have to swim through tenebrous tunnels) and the thermal baths in Hajdúszoboszló (one of Europe’s largest), more than 1300 thermal springs make the country on the Pannonian Plaina veritable healing hotspot. Many a source was only discovered while drilling for oil, but the warm waters of Hévíz were already popular with the ancient Romans. Bathing culture ended soon after the fall of Rome and was only revived in the late 18th century. First came the nobles and the bourgeoisie; then, in the Communist era, it was the turn of the workers. Allegedly, it was the party big wigs who involuntarily stopped the fun: Duringone of their sauna parties, the wooden bathhouse caughtfire and burned down. Rebuilt in 1989, the bathhouse reopened when Communism ended. The old political system disappeared, but Hévíz remained and blossomed. The town recorded over a million overnight stays in 2017, around 40 percent from Hungary, the rest from across Europe. A wellness industry with massage and beauty salons has long become established in and around the resort. Hotels have installed spas, and some flood their pools with the thermal water. To get a sense of the unbroken enthusiasm for Hévíz, I booked in for some of the traditional Hévíz treatments. First, the mud bath. I climb down steps into a steel basin the size of a garden pool that’s anchored in the lake. Just a few steps, and already the heavy mud, making a gloopy, bubblysound at every step, is up to my thighs – and up to my bellybutton when I sit down. A woman beside me reaches for the grainy, strong-smelling mass and gleefully smears it onto her face and shoulders. I bravely follow her lead. That evening, I notice that my skin feels unusually soft and I sleep better that night than I have for a very long time. Awakening the next morning, I can’t wait to get moving and am ravenously hungry. After breakfast, I have a massage appointment in the wellness and therapy area. Stefania Bajer, atherapeutic and sports masseur sporting a severe undercut, greets me with a firm handshake. In just 20 minutes, she has kneaded my muscles so expertly that I still feel the beneficial effects of it days later. I ask her whether my back is in good shape. I’m 40, I jog now and again, but spend most of my time in front of the computer. I haven’t had any pain – so far. “You need to exercise more,” says Bayer, “much more!” Mud wrestler: author Mathias Becker is clearly enjoying his bath Later on, I get to see where a lack of exercise can lead at the bath house: to the underwater “stretching pool,” where patients with back problems are suspended in the water, their arms or neck fastened into a kind of harness so that they cannot move. At the same time, weights attached to their hips pull their vertebraeminimally apart, relieving the discs between them. Developed in 1953 by Károly Moll, a local physician, this therapyis still used successfully on patients with disc problems. As I have no trouble with my spinal discs, I am allowed into thewater with very little ballast for a kind of trial therapy, so to speak. My arms rest on a kind of underwater gymnastics bar and I am drawn down by two three-kilo steel weights attached toa belt. My feet make no contact. “Harascho?” In Russian, Bajerasks the young man next to me whether he’s all right – but he doesn’t look it. My neighbor is wearing the kind of neck brace people wear after a rear-impact collision, and there are two metal bars on top of it, keeping his head above water. “Harascho …,”he breathes softly. As we leave the pool 20 minutes later, Anton Marukhin tells me that he’s a 28-year-old advertising and music video producer living near Moscow, and that he suffers with back pain. “I sit a lot, maybe that’s why,” he says. The doctors in Russia couldn’t help him so his parents sent him to Hévíz. The town’s healing reputation clearly extends far beyond the borders of Hungary. The underwater stretching bath is said to ease back problems. One of the men aiming to help pain patients like Marukhinis Dr. Gábor Domokos, the rheumatology and physiotherapy consultant in charge of wellness and therapy at the resort. He wears white sneakers with his white coat and is 68 but looks much younger. That’s not from bathing in the lake, he says (he cycles a lot and hikes in the hills around Lake Balaton), adding that too much significance should not be read into the lake water alone because no precise physiological explanation has been found for how the minerals work. “But we do know that many people who come to us with chronic pain feel better after the treatment.” The secret probably lies in the package: exercise in the warm water, possibly also the water’s composition,and then the peace, the long woodland walks – recently coined as “forest bathing” – physiotherapy, and a good, healthy diet. And also the sleep, I think to myself. Besides intensive curative swimming physicians recommend longwoodland walks Dr. Gábor Domokosis head of wellness and therapy Finally, I test the mud pack: I lie down on my back and am covered from neck to toe in the warm mass and then wrapped in foil and towels like a napkin dumpling. The mud weighs heavyon my body. Not a minute later and I have dozed off once again. Several days later, once I’ve returned home, I open my case and a sulfurous cloud rises to meet me. A most stimulating odor. I pullon my running shoes and head out the door. I’ve had enough sulfur to last me awhile. Well kept: the lake amid lush greenery GETTING THERE In February, Lufthansa fliesup to six times daily from Frankfurt (FRA) and up to five times daily from Munich(MUC) to Budapest (BUD). Source: Quelle: Lufthansa Magazin (LHM 2/19) Author: Mathias Becker | Photos: Ramon Haindl https://magazin.lufthansa.com/de/en/travel-en/testing-the-devils-waters/  

title: Testing the Devil’s Waters

description: Read Mathias Becker's article over Hévíz and its traditional therapy including mud

címkék: heviz;wellness;Health;Therapy;thermal lake;Mud

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