Hammam.........ahhhhhhhh!

A delicious sensory experience. What is it? It’s an ancient Arabic bath which consists of warm, hot and cold baths along with a wonderful stream room. It is decorated in the Arabic style by its geometrical mosaics, archways, latticework and columns.

As well as soaking in the baths, were you alternate from warm to hot to cold(oh so refreshing…no really it is and really good for you)you can choose to do a traditional “hammam” massage which is an exfoliation of the body and truly an amazing experience.

I was taken it to the main room where the large warm bath is and laid apon a octagonal shaped warm slap of marble. The therapist poured warm water over my body then I could feel something being put onto my back and legs but couldn’t for the life of me tell what it was but it felt wonderful….like light meringue being softly ladled onto my body. I was then scrubbed with some sort of glove that felt like it was gently but firmly taking the top layers of skin, dirt and road wariness away. Then warm water delightfully poured over me again and I was told to turn over and got to experience the front of my body as well…..nice to have two sides of the body! This time I peeked when the substance was ladled over me and it was a thick layer of foam from the soap she used.

Once done there I had the pleasure of receiving a relaxing massage while enjoying the smell of rose oil aromatherapy-my only complaint was that it wasn’t long enough-only 15 minutes. I then got to soak in the pools for at least an hour and a half. While soaking alternating form the different pools and sipping sweet Moroccan tea, I was able to appreciate the architecture, the candles and the sunlight coming in through the star shaped skylights. Also, they had relaxing music playing to harmonize with the sound of tickling water of the fountains.

I hope you now have an idea of my hammam bath experience. Oh and by the way, this was while I was in Cordoba. As you can guess that was the highlight and Cordoba is also a nice, picturesque city as well with an huge ancient mosque/cathedral that took about 300 year to complete. I also visited an old casa in the Arabic style as well as a couple of art museums.

I decided that 2 days was plenty in Cordoba so I’m moving on to Madrid tomorrow.
View my photos of Cordoba at www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/Cordoba
Also, I put my photos from Granada on the web and you can see those at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/Granada