{"id":5131,"date":"2013-05-22T09:56:25","date_gmt":"2013-05-22T09:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/?p=5131"},"modified":"2017-05-24T09:54:08","modified_gmt":"2017-05-24T09:54:08","slug":"ewok-swimming-at-thermal-park-garda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/ewok-swimming-at-thermal-park-garda\/","title":{"rendered":"Swimming with Ewoks at Thermal Park Garda"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Imagine buying a lovely dilapidated house<\/a> with extensive grounds, with a view to doing it up…\u00a0 Then imagine digging a hole to try to source water to keep the extensive grounds alive, and instead of finding cold water, you discover a thermal vein with water temperatures of up to 39 degrees….Wouldn’t you think to yourself, well my garden’s sooo big I might as well dig a ginormous thermal lake?\u00a0 I know I would have done, and this is exactly what the owner of Villa Dei Cedri did almost 25 years ago.\u00a0\u00a0 I think it’s fair to say that he wasn’t doing things by halves when he decided on a 5000 Square Metre Lake with hot pools and a grotto, complete with plenty of hydro massaging jets scattered about the place.<\/p>\n

And then, as he is obviously a generous soul, he opened a beautiful Hotel Spa, added an impressive restaurant, decided on great opening hours for day visitors (it’s open until 2am on a Friday and Saturday) stuck lots of deck chairs about the place, and opened it to the public… And a very nice place to spend a day out it is too (or a few days I should imagine!)…<\/p>\n

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The smaller lake<\/em><\/p>\n

I will also remember the day we spent there for another reason.\u00a0\u00a0 The Six Year old woke up that morning and decided that he was an Ewok.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Normally one to shun all things Star Wars, his Sister surprised us by deciding that he could carry out his Ewok dream for the entire day, she would name him Wijjy, and he would<\/strong> be her pet.\u00a0\u00a0 And so our day was decided. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Wijjy” (who had surprisingly agreed to the name) was allowed to go for a swim with his owner, but apparently needed to get a spear sorted out sharpish or he wouldn’t pass the Ewok test.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Taking his owner’s words to heart, “Wijjy” decided that he would begrudgingly go for a dip, but would much prefer to spend the time in the Forest Moon of Endor, searching for the necessary spear building equipment instead.<\/p>\n

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We managed to persuade him that all Ewoks love swimming, and luckily he felt it plausible.<\/p>\n

Getting in to the Lake (there are two by the way) feels a little strange at first. \u00a0 As you climb down the concrete steps of the bath house, and into these gorgeously warm waters, your toes immediately sink into gravel reminding you that this is not a swimming pool, this is a swimming lake – and one full of health giving properties at that (the waters contain bicarbonate, calcium and magnesium amongst other things).<\/p>\n

As friends of mine here will tell you, thanks to a fear of bumping into some aquatic creature, I don’t usually do lake swimming, but there’s not much chance of that happening here. \u00a0 And there’s not much chance of bumping into people either, it’s pretty spacious, and the children’s area was positively empty.\u00a0 Of course this probably fluctuates throughout the year, but it just added to the nice relaxed feel of the place…<\/p>\n

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“Wijjy” taking the Ewok test a little too seriously, threatening to harpoon his owner…<\/em><\/p>\n

After around an hour in the lake, “Wijjy” wanted to get out and get spear building, and as I wanted to explore the grounds, I gladly agreed to leave the other members of our party to it, and join him in the “Forest Moon of Endor”…\u00a0\u00a0 The gardens here really are spacious and beautiful, plus I imagine if you are lucky, you could find a corner to yourselves and not see another Ewok all day…<\/p>\n

Even if you’re not much of a swimmer, I think it’s worth coming here for the grounds alone – it feels like it should have botanical garden status with its impressive variety of mighty trees – it kind of reminded me of Kew Gardens, just with warm therapeutic waters, and semi-naked people!\u00a0\u00a0 All of us (even the Ewok) agreed that it was a brilliant day out, and well worth the entrance fee.\u00a0\u00a0 We will return!<\/p>\n

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Forbidden Amorous Effusions…. I love Italian…\u00a0 It sounds so much better than “No Heavy Petting” doesn’t it?<\/p>\n

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