A "premium walk", that sounds like a leisurely tour for a relaxed Sunday afternoon.

But the new, 6.7-kilometer-long "Kurdshadow" route is the youngest offspring of the demanding Wispertrail family, and this is shown immediately behind the Bad Schwalbacher Golfhaus by the first of a total of three sweaty climbs.

Like no other hiking trail in the region, the "Kurshadow" gives a deep insight into the splendor and misery of a city - the once fashionable spa town of Bad Schwalbach.

Oliver Bock

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Rheingau-Taunus district and for Wiesbaden.

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At the starting point in the spa park, the spa system is not only symbolically in ruins: the dilapidated moor packing house, which was built in the early 1970s, was finally demolished after years of delay.

Even when it was built, there was an architectural thoughtlessness in the 400-year-old spa park.

Upkeep for buildings overcharges city coffers

The ground is now being prepared for the construction of 30 condominiums.

The same property developer owns the neighboring Villa Helenenhof, which is listed as a historic monument and is to be renovated, even if nothing is known about its future use.

On the other side of the demolition site is the historic Moorbadehaus, built in 1905, which has also served its purpose for many years.

Here the bathtubs were once filled with the healing moor from Bad Schwalbach's moor pits.

A number of health reforms later, the pitiful remnants of the Bad Schwalbach moor therapy have found a place in a private physiotherapy practice in the former steel bathhouse.

It is only a few steps from the starting point of the hiking trail to the golf house.

Built at the beginning of the 20th century, the listed building in an idyllic location is in a deplorable condition.

Like so many buildings, its maintenance is too much for the narrow city coffers, which Bad Schwalbach did not want to admit for a long time.

The city is now aware of its limited options and has recognized that the cost of refurbishment is so high that there is probably no way around selling it.

Anyone who resists the temptation to play a game of mini golf on the 18 competitive holes at the golf house and instead follows the hiking trail signet of the "Kur Schatten" dives into the pleasantly cool mixed forest.

The ambiguous title of the hiking trail, which is well shaded by many trees, is already revealed in these first few meters: There is a dark shadow on the spa, and the city is having great trouble with the inheritance of a Hessian "state bath" that was forcibly transferred to it by the state of Hesse in 2004 maintain.

Forgivable variant of infidelity

The hiker does not encounter spa guests on this path.

"In the morning fango, in the evening tango" is no longer an issue.

Many of the often seriously ill patients hardly ever leave the remaining clinics.

And the electoral shadow that gave the path its name?

Health resorts and spas are actually unthinkable without it.

After all, staying at a spa far away from home promotes closeness to fellow sufferers – including those of the opposite sex.

The shadow of a spa is perhaps the most forgivable variant of the infidelity – limited in time to the spa stay.

The spa, town and pharmacy museum in Bad Schwalbach, which opened 20 years ago and is still worth seeing, dedicated an exhibition to the phenomenon of spa shadows back in 2006.

"The bath and the cure were healthy for everyone, because the mother and daughter, the maid and the dog were pregnant," was the saying in the 16th century in the spa towns.

The meaningful thesis comes from around this time: “For infertile women, the bath is the best thing.

What the bathroom doesn't do, the guests do.”