Spa Favorites

Favorite thing: I liked everything. Simply when you put your feet in the warm water (34°), you say : "wow, it feels so great". But my best feeling was in the outside swimming-pool, more exactly in the outside jaccuzi, when it began to snow. It was a bit surreal actually but so nice.

http://www.thermesdespa.com/

Favorite thing: The dilemma in Spa, what to drink. Belgium famous for its beer, and Spa famous for its water.

In the restaurant of our hotel we ordered two beers (Jupiler pilsner) and a bottle of Spa.
The price of the beer was 2.25 a glas, the bottle Spa water was 6 Euro. That means price related there was not much difference.
So we still have the dilemma what to drink in Spa?

Favorite thing: In the building of the Pouhon Pierre le Grand you will find two large dolls (giants). They represent a part of the history of Spa. They are called Annette and Lubin.

In reality they were Gilles de Walt and Maria Schmitz. They lived around 1750 in the woods near Niveze (small village part of Spa municipality). As full cousins the church didn't give them permission to marry. But Maria became pregnant. Some wealthy visitors of Spa cared for them and got a pardon from the pope, so the two could marry. They also provided a little house at a hill. The two made it into a succes. It became populair by the rich and the famous to visit here. But Annette and Lubin (as they were called now) always had money problems. They made a trip to paris, where they were displayed as heroes, but that didn't give them any richness. They had to sell there house and inn. Lubin went to Paris and became addicted to gambling, nothing is known of Annette since. Lubin came back to Spa and ended his life as a hermit.

The two became famous as the French dramatist Charles Simon Favart (1710-1792) and Marmontel both made a story about them.

Favorite thing: Spa is famous for its water. The town is surrounded by natural springs. There are two groups. One is rich in iron and carbonic acid they are known as Pouhons. The most important of these category are the Pouhon Pierre Le Grand, Prices de Condé, le Tonnelet, Barisart, Géronstère.

The other is cold with little metalic contents, the most famous being Spa Reine.

Some water is used for treatments and cures, other water is bottled (after filtration) and sold .

There is a watermuseum in Spa:
Avenue de la Reine Astrid, 776
Opening times :
peak season: daily 14:30 - 17:30
other: weekends 14:30 - 17:30
closed from 2nd January to 15th March

And you can visit the Spa factory:
Rue Auguste Laporte
Free tour all year: Monday to Friday, 9:00 - 17:00

Favorite thing: Spa was famous as health-resort and for it's mineral water from the late medieval times into the renaissance. The real Golden Age was the time around 1900, when Spa became very popular and attracted people from all over Europe. Both for curing as well as place where the high society met and had their exclusive parties. Later Spa got more attractive for corperative groups and it was soon a well-known conference-resort.