Spa | Clune Gap Years

03/09/2025

Love a bit of architecture. Got it in spades here. The first bath house was built in 1870 as the waters were known to be beneficial. In 1913 they were proved to be medicinal… radon apparently. Stalin’s first visit was in 1920 and 3 spa houses were hastily erected using 4000 labourers. The Soviet’s ‘acquired’ the territory during the 1920s and declared it a Balneotherapy centre – treatment of medical conditions using mineral water. After WW2 there was an explosion of construction. By the 1950s there were 9 bath houses in Central Park and a further 22 sanitarium and wellness centres around the park.

At its peak there were 125,000 Soviet visitors p.a. There was even a direct train from Moscow. It was not just the party elite who visited. Every citizen had the right to rest and leisure. Good workers would buy a voucher for an inexpensive amount. About one third of a middle class monthly income. As well as baths there were entertainments in theatres, libraries and conference halls.

A bustling and thriving city. Lots of restoration and modernising in 1980s. Until 1991. Georgian independence. Visitor numbers dropped to less than 1000. Most of the buildings were abandoned and stripped of tiles, radiators … anything that could be reused or sold. Refugees from Abkhazia were housed here from 1992. Most of them were eventually rehoused the last ones officially by 2023. Although one building was full of clothes that looked like more recent squatters. And I was charged £1.25 by an elderly lady to enter one, where were living, to see the public areas.

I think we were lucky to be able to enter so many of the buildings. The Georgian government has tried a few times to ressurect Tskaltubo to top spa destination. Recently a number have been purchased and are being restored. Fences around some went up only this year. Stalin came here regularly on holiday. His bath house No. 6 is one of the few that is restored and operational.

We must have walked over 9k. The first park was through a huge beautiful park – Central Park. Loved it.

*One of the functioning bath houses in the park*

*Restored Bath house No 6 where Stalin had his treatments*

*This was a public bath house – each grave was a bath*

*Looked like squatters as no effort had been made to make the rooms home. They left piles of clothing. Here and in other hotels, the wallpaper in each room was different*

*Hotel Medea. It was recently cleared of inhabitants and a guard on duty to prevent people moving it. Now a major wedding photography venue – 2 lots whilst we were there*

*Medea must’ve been beautiful in its day*

*Some of the hotel / bath houses were for guests from specific jobs. This is metallurgist. Another was Miner. You can see which rooms are inhabited. I paid £1.25 to look at the public rooms.*

*The concert hall with not so grand piano*

*Think it was the dining room as kitchens nearby*

*When we left Tskaltubo, road hazards were cattle, pigs, horses, dogs, chicken and* *geese*

*We drove up to a peaceful ruin parking*

1145: Rammelsberger Bergbau Mine

Thursday 25th April – Saturday 27th April 2019

Happy Birthday Munchin and James!!

We ran where I’d walked the dogs yesterday, alongside one of the reservoirs. Packed up and sauntered all of about 10 miles to Bad Harzburg. The Stellplaz was one end of town, but right next to the TIC and the cable car. The EUR10 nightly fee included the Tourist Tax. We stayed 3 nights.

The high street is best part of 2 km long and lined with restaurants, cafes and clothes shops. We managed a couple of drinks and ice creams, every time we walked it! A special lunch was had on 26th as it was J’s birthday. The TIC had recommended a couple of restaurants (not high on the TripAdvisor listing, of course) and the one we picked was super. It allowed CO2 to join us and everything was really freshly cooked with quality ingredients. With it being asparagus season, we shared a creamy asparagus soup and J had asparagus with his tender Schnitzel. I went for the pan fried fish platter …. a bottle of good red and dessert. The whole bill was EUR100 incl tip, which we didn’t think too bad for the quality.

We caught the cable car up to the castle where fortified ourselves with coffee and cake (on a different day to lunch out, of course), before the downhill walk to the tree canopy walk. We took turns on this as no dogs allowed.

I got naked in public! Yes really! Strange as it may seem, it was less embarrassing to get stark naked than to keep my cosie on. Whilst J napped, I went to the Spa. Two prices, one included the 8 sauna complex, which I selected. I should have picked up on the ticket sellers, slight tone of surprise when an obvious foreigner asked for the sauna ticket. I swam and wallowed in the pools. Did a hilarious aqua aerobic class, where the instructor got us splashing as much as we could, and was massaged by water jets. Just lovely … time for sauna now. In I wandered …. oops … I was the ONLY body in a cosie … so off it came! Not sure I could repeat this if I was with anyone I know. Interesting to note that there were a LOT of older men, but only younger women. But I did feel really relaxed and clean after my 4 hours.

Oker Resevoirs where we ran.

We stopped a a small waterfall along the route.

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Birthday lunch. And in a shirt!

Birthday jumper.

Birthday Dartington Crystal tumblers. No slumming it in Jez!

CO2 wedged amongst legs in the cable car.

You can just see the Stellplatz.

Coffee and cake stop: I liked the blossom sun canopy and the phrase on the porch … ‘It’s good here”.

View of the Harz from the hill.

A musical talent! A big big for the motorhome … think he’ll stick to the guitar.

The tree canopy walk. Again another example of how the ‘Big Outdoor Playground’ that is Germany encourages all age groups to get out and into the countryside.

An 8 km contraflow. At 6km, to go was a :(, at 4km was a :- and then at only 2 km was the 🙂

Clune Gap Years

A journal and reflections of our motorhome travels

Tag Archives: Spa

Tskaltubo: Abandoned Soviet Spa

1145-1147: Birthdays in Bad Harzburg