I love the fact that I don’t pay for bottled water in Spain. I just fill up at the natural springs and drink what is, at many times of the year, snow melt.
There are many ways the waters of Spain can refresh you. People swear by its restorative powers. Some even claim it has cured them of long term health problems.
Early Bath
On tap in Lanjaón
I recall the first time I walked into the famous Balneario in the town of Lanjarón. A place known as the gateway to La Alpujarra and a location to which thousands of people flock to from all over Spain.
I’ve seen coach parties from points west, from the far north of Spain and even from overseas. They come to Lanjarón for the restorative powers of the spa water and for the vast array of health treatments on offer at the local Balneario.
You will recognise the clients as you walk past them on the streets. They are the ones wearing dressing gowns (I kid ye not). They may be wearing funny footwear, have towels wrapped around their shoulders and be carrying a bottle of water.
They are the customers of the Balneario which is currently expanding its client base and building a huge new hotel structure on the side of the main building. What a pity that the new building is being built with the usual lack of sympathetic architecture in modern day Spain.
Or, in a word, ugly!
Balneario, Lanjarón
But the original building is light and airy and a haven of peace.
The first time I walked in there, the reception area was full of people twice my age. They sat chattering loudly, as only the Spanish can do. Then a woman in a starched white uniform came up the stairs, blew a whistle loudly and silence fell upon the room. Without a word being exchanged the large group simply followed the woman down the stairs.
I presume they did emerge from the bowels of the building eventually, full of verve and vigour perhaps. It did remind me of scenes from the film ‘Cocoon.’ Maybe they were taken off to a planet made up of more water than earth.
I so wanted to go downstairs and see what all the fuss was about, but I suspected that I was too young to join in. That’s not the case now and, one of these days, I shall walk down those stairs and see some of the treatments in action.
Going round in circles
Heated swimming pool, Alhama de Granada
There are six natural springs in the Lanjarón health spa. Medicinal bathing in iron rich water is all the rage nowadays. There are a host of other treatments you can undertake, for a fee, at this and many other Balnearios in Spain.
Do you fancy walking around in circles… on stones? Well you can do that here. As you do so sprays of mineral water come from the walls and hit you all over. They calm and refresh you apparently (that’s the water jets, not the stones!)
There is what they call a dynamic swimming pool. Now I am neither dynamic nor can I swim, so this is definitely not for me. I skipped swimming lessons at school in the 1960’s but had they taken pupils to a pool such as this, maybe I would now be an accomplished swimmer.
There are lumbar jets and a cervical waterfall, whatever that is. You can have a thermal bath or shower. You can even have a nasal douche – I think I shall turn my nose up at that one, thank you very much!
There is a steam room (sounds good) and a Finland sauna (sounds dodgy to me). There are hands on body massages (yes please), regular saunas (nice), mud wraps (no thanks) and all the usual thermal beauty treatments (too late for me).
But it is the water, and the firm belief of some that it can cure or ease ailments such as arthritis, gout and bronchitis that leads to people travelling vast distances. And not just to Lanjarón. There are other Balnearios dotted around Spain.
Hot stuff
Hotel Balneario, Alhama de Granada
Like the one tucked away just outside the lovely town of Alhama de Granada. As well as the treatments indoors, and rooms for those staying there on a relaxing or recuperative holiday; the Balneario at Alhama has an exterior heated pool which is in use in all but the coldest months of the year.
The hotel Balneario sits atop the original Roman and, thereafter, Moorish hot baths. Today the sulphate rich water is heated to 47 celsius.
You can take a tour of the facilities for around a Euro between 2 and 4pm most days. Then you will see the original thermal water spars that date back to the year 1BC and the Roman occupation of Spain.
A free, hot and communal bath in Alhama de Granada
Just outside the grounds of the hotel is the river that runs through Alhama de Granada. Look down from the car park of the hotel and you will see people sat, in a state of undress, bathing in the hot spring waters. Try it. It’s free, and when did you last see a free health treatment?
Alhama de Granada itself is quite small but a splendid location for a walk, for spectacular views, for tasty tapas at bars such as El Tigre and for bird watching – an activity that draws many people to Spain each year.
Free drinks all round
Drinking water is plentiful in Lanjarón
You don’t have to immerse yourself in the spring water of Spain to enjoy it.
You can simply drink it. Without question, it is the nicest water I have consumed anywhere.
I fill up my empty bottles at Lanjarón or in the village of Pinos del Valle in the ever so pretty Lecrín Valley south of Granada. Why buy bottled water when you can enjoy fresh mountain water or snow melt?
The longer one lives in Spain you realise the following:- if it is good for you and it is free; grab it with both hands. Whatever it is. That is why you will often see the Spanish queuing to fill up lots and lots of water bottles.
If you do buy mineral water over the counter, then the brand name will vary depending on where you are in the country.
Lanjarón is produced and bottled ten minutes from my front door though, sadly, the parent company is now a French one. I ask you, what do they know about mineral water?
If you are in Catalonia the chances are you will buy or be served a bottle of Les Creus.
If you go to the historic city of Cuenca (and you must) then expect to sip from a bottle of Solán de Cabras.
Water doctor
Girona
One of the nicest bottled mineral waters I have consumed in Spain was in the superb city of Girona. It is called Vichy Catalán. It complimented a marvellous meal, for they know how to cook in the north of Spain.
The Spanish obsession with curative waters is believed to have begun in Girona. In 1880 a doctor called Modest Furest I Roca bought a plot of land with a spring at Caldes de Malavella. He was fascinated by the water that emerged from the spring at a temperature of 60 celsius. It had a high mineral content.
Furest was not too ‘modest’ to open his own bottling plant and his water was sold by chemists from 1889.
The name Vichy was down to the French. The word stood for mineral springs and baths. Doctor Furest pinched the name from the French and, unashamedly, put the word Catalán after it. So was born one of the most popular of mineral waters, Vichy Catalán. It is a classic.
Today three springs rise from a common source but deliver three very different tasting mineral waters. This is because they pass through different rock formations on their route to the surface. Malavella and San Narciso mineral waters taste different from each other and different again from Vichy Catalán. That is due to the variation of mineral content.
Long ago the Romans were bathing in the waters of Girona. Today you can do the same at the Balneario Vichy Catalán. All thanks to a good doctor.
Water rules
Valencia
In Valencia, Spain’s 3rd city that has improved in leaps and bounds in the past decade or two, there exists a water tribunal – El tribunal de las aquas. What on earth does a water tribunal do?
This was set up by the Caliph of the far away Córdoba in the year 980. Today it still exists to settle disputes between landowners over water rights in the irrigated region of Valencia.
Predictably, perhaps, the tribunal is made up of eight men, each of whom represent one of the main canals that provides the Huerta (fertile land or orchard) with water. They meet every Thursday at noon in the square in front of the cathedral. They have been meeting for over a thousand years. Not the same eight men, obviously – although that would prove the water really is good for you!
Sharing water in the countryside
Their rulings are not based in any written law but woe betide anyone in Valencia who pinches the water of another. If a neighbouring landowner suffers financial loss because of the actions of another, the villain will be hit with a fine. Though I happen to think a season ticket to watch Real Madrid would be a more fitting punishment.
Using health treatments that employ curative waters does not come free of charge. But there are ways you can enjoy fresh and revitalising water in Spain without paying.
On a hot day stand under one of the many waterfalls located throughout the Spanish countryside.
Walk on water
Cortijo Opazo Gardens, La Alpujarra
Go on a walk such as the one I undertook recently in the La Taha area of the distinctive La Alpujarra mountainous region. Between villages such as Pitres, Pórtugos, Ferriola and Atalbéitar.
I walked on old roman roads, stopped off for a glass of lemonade and a tour of the the beautiful gardens of Cortijo La Opazo, and then refreshed myself by drinking the natural spring waters en route. It was a warm day so I did not hesitate to soak my hot head under the running waters.
I prefer still water in general but, on that walk, there was also a lightly carbonated water on offer from a tap. Free, fizzy and, I am assured by a devotee of aqua con gas; one of the best she had ever tasted.
So it is an all round thumbs up for the water in Spain.
You can bathe in it. You can drink it. You can use it to ease your aches and pains. You can even wash your nose out with it.
And that’s not to be sniffed at.
