14-08-2009 om 14:17 by Stafford Wadsworth

After the full embrace of the pleasures of the flesh, today's dynamic young and equally dynamic, though not so young, embrace the course of wellness. And in its pursuit, they flock to its temples of wellness, which are, of course, well represented in this region.

There is a new flagship operation at the Carolus Thermal Spa in Aachen. Its gestation took sixteen years and involved an investment of thirty-five million Euros. The Thermal baths now cover 18,440 meters, and cater for virtually every form of health-giving aquatic pursuit.

Aachen has always been a place to take the waters. Its lightly sulfured draught was once thought to combat all manner of social diseases. People also attended Spas for the pleasures of dalliance, although Lord Sandwich, who invented the sandwich at Aachen, clearly had no time to waste.

Half an hour down the road is the original spa at Spa, nestling in the wooded hills of the Ardennes. One can go there and recline in a deep copper bath and reflect upon the past, or the present, or indeed, read Casanova's memoirs, and learn what he got up to when he was there in the eighteenth century.

On the Dutch side, there is the spa at Valkenburg, which is very popular and has facilities for wondering about on the grass in the altogether on the way from the steam room to the cold plunge. Valkenburg, like Spa and Aachen, also has a casino for after-dinner entertainment. It has something else too: a beautifully restored estate, at Chateau St. Gerlach.

St. Gerlach has restaurants, a Kneippkur center, hotel and a baroque church - not of course an actual part of the hotel facilities, but nonetheless adjoining. The estate originally belonged to a convent for noble ladies, often dispatched, in the eighteenth century, to one nunnery or another to spare their noble families the price of the dowry

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