Travel Information

The large spa in the Alps is in Leukerbad, a small Swiss village in 1500 living neighbors. A left corner in which to embrace the vastness of the white mountains and the warmth of his endless hot springs.

Imagine four million liters of water gushing from the bowels of daily alpine mountains at a temperature of 51 degrees. The snow is just one more in this festival companion thermal health and wellness in Leukerbad, a village in southwestern Switzerland considered “the largest spa in the Alps.

The Romans discovered the healing effects of the hot springs of Leukerbad. And see how the ailments of bones and skin problems are alleviated “miraculously” through these waters of Torrenthorn still come today, the nearby mountain where on clear days can see the legendary Mont Blanc and is very popular today among Alpine skiing enthusiasts. Then and now water flowing through the limestone rock, penetrating into the earth at 3,000 meters deep, to acquire a strong mineralization of calcium, sodium, strontium, iron and fluorine. Any source of health enjoyed by the 1,500 residents of Leukerbad, foreign tourists and even the Swiss Olympic team, which is produced here in an ultramodern clinic before attending the major events of winter and summer.

A journey of forty years

The question for the people of Leukerbad was until recently a guess how long it took to get water to the 65 hot springs in town. It was known that nine liters per minute cramming its springs, but it was only after making a curious experiment of “ink” a substantial volume of filtered water from the mountains when it was discovered that it took no less than forty years to appear in town. There is still a neighbor who analyzed the find in disbelief.

Today, Leukerbad, located at 1411 meters of altitude to its beautiful mountain coat Gemmi (in one of the walls of his top after almost a thousand meters can see the larger flag of Switzerland), is dotted with swimming pools, more twenty, led by the historic Burgerbad, a place well-known in the nineteenth century which proposes ten pools filled with jets, slides and a natural cave in the rock, a mixture of pool and sauna can actually skin pores open although one does not want.

The thermal paradise is complemented by private institutions and individual hotels that offer visitors their “spa” with the same characteristics of the water. Among the first highlights the Lindner Alpentherme with a huge choice of 250 treatments and an original Roman-Irish thermal circuit of eleven steps, with “hot and cold surprises” - which lets leave the bodies free from impurities through exfoliation techniques. The tour, which we must “cover” no bathing suit, ending at the top of the center with massage oils and soaps Hindu of Provence and a half hour of relaxation with a unique view of the pool outdoor Jacuzzis, always surrounded by snow. The price of this original ‘healthy walk’ is affordable, about 50 euros at the exchange, but we must expect that the whole process takes about two hours and even more can be extended if it matches the emission in the center of film in several languages within the pool itself, to 36 degrees. Another novel proposal to see movies in a swimsuit that is not lost.

Leukerbad has become well thanks to its waters into the third most important tourist destination in Switzerland, especially for Russians and Italians, after Zermatt and St. Moritz. Proof of this are his numbers: 28 hotels and resorts with over 1,500 beds, 1,700 apartments and 50 restaurants with varied cuisine and wines (more than 50 varieties achieved from vineyards planted at 1,100 meters) … Even the Swiss (75%) and Germans (10%) also enjoy it mainly because it is an excellent proposal to combine skiing and spas.

The Mersey River estuary steals plane to the port city. From the window of the plane are not recognizable buildings: only water, fog and tall chimneys that make their contribution to the cause. A strange place, desolate and damp. For the neophyte is important reference, a handle of topics that will be comforting. Fortunately, the empty feeling goes away shortly after landing at Liverpool. The airport is called John Lennon and his door is a large sculpture of “yellow submarine”. Look around: maybe Paul and Ringo are about to catch a flight. In the cab, after digesting the roundabouts are caught by the left, the visitor comes up and asks the driver for the Liverpool F. C. “Sorry, I’m an Everton ‘he says laconically.

Of course. Which was the European Capital of Culture 2008 is more than the Beatles and the “Benitles. Is Everton, cathedrals, the Albert Dock, St George’s Hall and the museums on the pier and William Brown Street? Is that arrogant architecture rising from Pier Head, the port of stone built in the eighteenth century and which was, for many migrants, the European landscape last seen in his life. It is the commercial center and bustling around Williamson Square. It is the home of the Grand National, the steeplechase world’s largest equestrian, held at Aintree since 1839 and seen on television by 600 million fans. But, hell, there will be time later for these and other places, because the call of music is too tempting.

In Matthew Street a Mexican rushes on the statue of Lennon and covers it with kisses, as if to ask a saint to health or a boyfriend. In Liverpool 60 languages are spoken today, and the street is a small Babel beat of music lovers. John has the distinctive look of its stage of Hamburg when the Beatles broke the seal of his engine to conquer the world. A brick wall with the names of many bands keeps you back. Two Cavern, a club and a pub, but neither is the legendary place where the Fab Four played 275 times between 1961 and 1963. A detail almost irrelevant to the fans that descend into the depths of these establishments to have a few pints and photographed next to posters and other memorabilia of the decade prodigious. No matter whether or not a certificate of authenticity. The original cave was demolished in 1973. A billboard located a few meters below the current club was remember where the entrance. If one enters the shopping center next door will run into a store for geeks and a cafe called “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” which claims the privilege of occupying the space of the old Cavern. In Matthew Street everyone agrees with that famous newspaper: “Do not let reality ruin a good story you.

But the street is the street. In The Grapes, a pub where the Beatles it was leaning on the bar, old rockers still remember the smell of sweat and disinfectant to the cave. “Women with straight hair came and went with curly hair,” says a voice. Hundreds of people crammed into this old Victorian warehouse where even the walls were dripping. “If after a concert you were with a colleague in another place immediately known you were coming to the Cavern because stank. But above all, remember the feeling of having experienced something special. Endless music sessions live in a world without phones and internet. Another band that used to play there was Gerry & The Pacemakers, the forerunner of the Mersey Sound, which was nearly wiped off the map by the tsunami Beatle. The singer and TV presenter Cilla Black was for a time in charge of wardrobe. Brian Epstein, Beatles manager, discovered that the girl had talent to do other things and threw her to stardom.

“Whenever they come here more Spanish. Its game day and Chris Baylis, director of the official shop of Liverpool, oversees the flood of supporters of a lifetime and last-minute assimilated those who are left dazzled by the legend of a team coached by Rafael Benitez and where Ferdinand Torres, Pepe Reina and Xabi Alonso are some of its brightest stars. And they have Anglo last name. One of its trade partners keeps Atletico Madrid pin on his lapel. I got in an exchange of badges with a fan so that exchanged pennants players on the field.

Anfield Road is a narrow street with buildings of limited height and brick red. Nobody would say that hidden in the suburb district stands one of the temples of the football world, home of the most successful club in England -18-league honors with an impressive international European Cups -5. The party Sunday liturgy is a manual: the supporters of Liverpool takes off the pajamas and wear the red shirt, it is not removed until the evening and the bravest will put a jacket over it rain or cold weather. The party is at 13:30 and arriving one hour prior to the vicinity of the stadium to get a hamburger or hot dog plus a few beers at the stalls next to The Kop, the legendary South Stand (Ernest Edwards, editor of the Liverpool Echo, named it in 1906 because he remembered the hillside Spion, South Africa, where in 1900 a battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers was killed by the Boers, 3,000 soldiers from Liverpool never returned. Colina, Afrikaans language is Kop). Visit the official store to buy merchandise, they sing the club anthem (the celebrated “You’ll never walk alone ‘Never Walk Alone”) and themes of their favorite players and, tucked into the cauldron of Anfield emotions, applaud your computer as if they were living in it. Football is enshrined with composing music for the soul of Liverpool sentimental.

The B-side of the disc is an ode to modernity, a bid to try to shake off the haze of a stormy history. Liverpool flourished in the eighteenth century through the slave trade, the ships did stop here while traveling from eastern Africa to Virginia and the Caribbean islands, where the “good” of mankind was changed for sugar, rum and cotton snuff. Later, between 1830 and 1930, nearly ten million migrants (mostly British but also from the Nordic countries) sailed from this port for America. During World War II springs had another boiling point by the transatlantic trade and the arrival of U.S. troops (over a million landed in Liverpool the day before D). The economic crisis of the 1970s and racial conflicts of the 80 city plunged into depression.

Albert Dock, built between 1841 and 1848, was one of the world’s first enclosed docks. Strolling under the colonnade of cast iron is a pleasure. The old warehouses were refurbished and give her space to museums, shops and restaurants. In the dock is, for example, the Merseyside Maritime Museum, ideal for more about the history pointed to above. Also, the Tate Liverpool, one of the headquarters of the Tate Gallery in London. And, of course, The Beatles Story, a refuge for homesick.

In the stunning skyline stands the bulk of the Anglican cathedral, the Gothic revival, which began construction in 1902 and was completed in 1978. The fifth temple in size of the world is the work of Giles Gilbert Scott, who is responsible for the design of the red telephone box, has become a symbol of this country. In fact, there is a booth on campus. Since the 101-meter tower will enjoy the best views of the city northward along Hope Street, is the metropolitan cathedral, catholic, which according to the original plans would have been larger than St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The war and economic decline forced to reduce its size. Its crypt houses later this year an exhibition of Le Corbusier, further evidence of Liverpool’s strong bond with the architecture.