The hourlong drive from Kaiserslautern took me along the winding roads of the Palatinate Forest and the famed Weinstrasse, or German Wine Route, which runs through the spa town. The therme is ...

The essential guide to baths, saunas, and spa treatments. Finnish cabinet ministers do it, Russian hockey players do it, Koreans do it on a first date. Social bathing—known as "naked communion" in ...

They do exist but on the whole, Germany opts for mixed-gender saunas. Often thermal baths will offer a 'women-only' day. Now and again, the Saunameister (sauna master) will prepare Aufguss or ...