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Sunday, March 7, 2010

A Day at the Spa


How to Pamper Yourself

We were going to have a day at the Spa back in October, however I chose to have a day at the hospital instead by having a motor cycle accident. I have learned not to confuse the two in future. Then my wife and I were going to go away in December but I was having therapy everyday, so that got scrubbed. But, Lorna hit upon a great idea. There is an exclusive hotel and spa near to us where we could go on a day pass. Trouble with that is they closed over the Christmas and New Year period. Probably something to do with staff wanting to have holidays so that they could go home to be with family over that period of time, or some other such “trivial” reason.
Then it occurred to Lorna that there is another exclusive spa within distance of home that is used by members of the Valencia Football Club. The manager is someone known to Lorna so we went on a reconnoiter to see what was what. Turns out we were welcome to spend a day there, and we can become members if we so choose. To make matters even better, the facilities were just perfect to help my therapy.
There is a water circuit that consists of several types of treatments. Firstly you have to take a normal shower before entering any of the specialized rooms. We went to the dry saunas where we roasted ourselves, then back to the showers. Then came the cold shower room where you enter a cubicle, and if you really like pain you stood under a bucket that was filled with ice cold water. By pulling a cord the water tipped over you. Assuming you didn't actually pass out you then went back to the normal shower to warm up.
Then came two troughs of water with hard smooth rocks on the bottom. The idea was to walk first along the warm water side and then cross over to the cold side. This treatment should be done five times. As my leg was swollen it was suggested that I do exactly this at home, using first cold and then hot water to try and decrease the swelling.
There was another sauna, this time a wet room where the mist was so dense you could not see your hand. There could have been other people there but unless they coughed or said something their identity would have been safe.
Then we went on to a room where there was a basin that had fine chipped ice that you were supposed to rub over yourself. I rubbed a little on my leg but I was very frugal with those people's ice. They didn't have to refill the tray because of me. Then we could completely immerse ourselves in a small pool of heated water, which was just to my liking, and following that we could get out and go into another small pool of cold water. I considered they were going a little bit too far with this theme by this time.
Then came a big pool with water massage stations and one where the water cascades over your head and shoulders. That was my favorite. I could have stayed there forever, but it was not to be as we had booked the honeymoon treatments, so after an hour and a half of messing about on the water circuit it was time to head to the Honeymoon Suite. It was nice to know that we can go back anytime to repeat the water circuit at 32 euros a time.
The Honeymoon treatment consists of first each of us going to a separate room where we were immersed in a tub of bubbling water. I made sure it was just bubbling and not actually boiling. They then poured in some chocolate to flavor the water. I panicked just then until I remembered that we were in Valencia and not Borneo. I asked whether I could actually drink the water as it smelled so delicious. They said I could, but that I shouldn't try to drink the tub dry.
The tub gave a wonderful massage and was so relaxing that I started to fall asleep. The only thing that stopped me was that I was in a deep dish tub and if I slipped down it would probably feel heavenly, but that is where I would have been headed.
After that was over, and I have to be honest, I didn't want it to end, we were both taken to a single room where two people, one assigned to each of us, gave us the most luxurious all-over body massage using chocolate oil. I thought by now my name was Cad Bury. I have had some pretty good body massages by airport security but this was unlike anything else. When it was over, and I must be honest, I didn't want it to end, (did I say that already?) I explained to my masseur that although I had tried my best I could not scrub all the chocolate off in the shower.
It took him a full minute to realize I had just told him a joke.
We shall return, although in reality no-one deserves to be that pampered.

Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael