At my advanced age, most birthdays slip by unremarked, unless they end in a 5 or 0 and you get to move up and age group.  I spent my 50th in Byron Bay, but the last time I was so far from home was 1997.  We were cycling across the US, and found ourselves in the blink-and-you-miss-it town of Glidden, Wisconsin. Ian treated me to dinner at the best/only restaurant in town, where the only menu items were burgers, and the only show on TV was The Fishing Channel.

Today will certainly be up there with the memorable ones.  After a sleep in and leisurely morning (becoming a bad habit), we donned warm clothes as the temperature had plummeted overnight. Our destination was the Hansedom, where we spent the next four happy hours. They even let me in for half price as a special birthday offer!

Hansedom features a huge thermal pool complete with waterslides and hot tubs. Every so often it becomes a wave pool.  It was full of kids all having a great time.  We headed first to Sauna World, a separate complex of various steam rooms, plunge pools and dry saunas.  Here we discovered that European style saunas meant bathers verboten.  When in Germany …  We sampled a steam room, a Swedish style sauna, a Lapidarium and a salt crystal sauna.

Having sweated every toxin out of our bodies, it was time to hit the pool, where we swam, splashed and slid for the rest of the afternoon.  It was wonderful.  No photos, so google Hansedom Stralsund and see for yourself.

Ian has just found a supermarket which is GF heaven so we are off there next.  For Elana’s benefit, he is now on level 10.  Yawn.