Rest day at the spa and beach

I'm not really a spa girl but in a place whose springs were talked of by Plato, Aristotle and Strabo, I had to give it a go. Especially as my muscles felt in need of pampering after yesterday.

I did a tour of the town early. Every single recommendation for food, sleep or spa in the Lonely Planet was shut. As were most other spas (spas is what Loutra does, eponymously enough).

After all the effort to get here, I decided to go the whole hog and visit the really posh place, one of Conde Nash's top ten spas in Europe, it seems.

First, I spent a few hours on the beach, reading and swimming in the fairly cool sea.

At five I headed to Sulla's Palace. Started by swimming in the ' sea water and hot spring water' pool. Not v good at sitting still, so swam on my back round and round a little island with a palm tree and sparrows. To avoid backache I alternated spin direction every few cycles. Hmmm fairly dull, really, a salty, warm swimming pool.

Inside was a warmer, hot-spring-water only pool. cascades and jacuzzis surged momently, every few minutes. Like standing under a waterfall, but less powerful and less exhilarating. Some fun trying to get the jets on my aching legs rather than shoulders as is intended. best bit was shut really but I sat in the dark trying not to be noticed. They called it a farmer's sauna, hot steam plus plants. Real plants hung in the middle of the sauna...rather nice.

Finally, time for the hot mud treatment. I did wonder how they take purportedly local mud and ooze homogenous sausages of it from a machine. Scalding! Leaned back and got wrapped in plastic and towels. V hot except for neck, which was rather chilly. Left alone to 'relax' I tried to pull the blanket up with my teeth. Got a mouthful of mud. surprisingly non-salty. Spat it out and wiped mouth on blanker as surreptitiously as possible. Still a cold neck so wiggled a lot to spread the hot mud. Quite fun squelching fingers. Felt more like torture than relaxation. I'm not good at sitting still. Relaxing tones in the background seemed to be based on the theme from Mash, 'Hey Jude' and Simon and Garfunkel. hmmm

I was unwrapped and popped in a hot bath with water jets. This really was torture. Does anyone do this more than once? It bubbled on for ages, me clinging to the sides of the bath for dear life (there was a footrest arrangement but I was too short to reach.

At last it was over. The massage that followed was the best bit, a deep massage that got at my tired muscles.

Well, it was an experience. The massage is the only part I would do again. Am still intrigued that this is supposed to be relaxing. I must be doing it wrong...