Spain Blog #34: Granada: The Turkish Baths

A hot guy in a turkish bath

One of the most popular things to do in Granada is enjoy the Turkish Baths, since the entire area was ruled by the Moors until the 1400s. So, Tom, Gary and I (Rob) enjoyed an afternoon in the baths followed by a turkish massage. It was pretty amazing. In this blog, you'll learn about it (the pictures came from the Internet because we were not allowed to take pictures and we couldn't carry a cell phone in a pool!)....

WHAT ARE THE BATHS? It's a Moorish Experience in a traditional relaxing bath, in an underground setting (basically a cave). Granada preserves some of the oldest baths and the hammams in Spain. The Hammam is a steam bath and is made up of different baths each at different temperatures in several rooms and is a very traditional way of bathing and the massage.

The large pool with warm water

OUR EXPERIENCE: After entering, Tom, Gary and I were led into a locker room, where we changed into a bathing suit and showered. We were then led into a cave that contained 4 rooms, three of them with pools of water, all different temperatures. There was ice cold water, warm water, and extremely hot water. Each pool was surrounded by lanterns glowing with lit candles inside. That was the only light. There was also soft Turkish music playing throughout the caves.

ENDING WITH A TURKISH MASSAGE - We went back and forth between the hot and warm pools, skipping the ice cold one! After 1 hour we were directed to sit on a marble rounded stone (like a bench) that was warm. It was there we waited for a masseuse. Gary wanted the young male masseuse named Alex, but they assigned him to me... and I didn't complain, because he was really handsome and charming. Tom had a female masseuse and Gary got another man (whom he said was nowhere near as cute as Alex). Alex was also gentle and relaxing. In fact, I dozed off!
After the massages, we returned to the locker rooms, showered off and departed relaxed! It was worth the afternoon!

marble rounded stone (bench) we waited for massage

AFTERNOON DRINKS: We ended the afternoon with Gary sitting outside at a restaurant having drinks, talking politics (our crappy leader), family and travel. It was sunny and 80 degrees Fahrenheit- a perfect day to be outside. We later stopped in a store called "Mango Man" where we bought some clothes- I bought "skinny jeans" since all of the Spanish men were wearing them, and Gary said they fit my butt nicely. The jeans I brought were obviously baggy!

NEXT: DINNER AND AN UNUSUAL SHOW