Friday morning was the first day of November. It was also All Saints’ Day, which is a religious holiday in parts of Germany. On this day, Christian Germans honor the lives of every saint. They also remember deceased friends and loved ones and visit their graves.

We were getting ready to go to breakfast on the morning of All Saints’ Day, when the door to our room suddenly opened. It was the housekeeper who, for some reason, didn’t knock before opening the door. It wasn’t a huge deal, since we were a minute away from leaving for breakfast, anyway. However, it did kind of reinforce the fact that the hotel may not be on par with what most people would consider “five star”. It has a lot of amenities, but some of the staff might need a refresher course on courtesy and delivering proper service. The housekeeper did apologize profusely. I’m just glad I was dressed!

Bavaria is a part of Germany where there are still many religious people, so many folks were definitely celebrating the holiday. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised, but I noticed as we were having breakfast that the hotel was playing several hymns over their sound system. I didn’t count how many hymns they chose, but it seemed like there were maybe four or five that played on a loop as we enjoyed breakfast. Hotel Fontenay has the usual buffet, and egg dishes are also available. If you want fresh juice, there’s an additional charge. The staff was so nervous about our lack of German fluency that they hunted down a room service menu for us that was in English. That was not necessary, as Bill and I can certainly speak restaurant English! But I give them an A for effort.

We both decided to have egg dishes on our first morning. I had “Spiegelei”– sunny side up eggs, with a side of ham. Bill had “Rührei”– scrambled eggs, with a side of bacon. I might have gone for the bacon, but I don’t like the way Germans usually cut it. It’s very thin and crisp. I like my bacon thicker and not crunchy. We also had fresh squeezed orange juice, which I could have sworn was priced at 3 euros in the menu. But the next day, we got a bill for 14 euros. The juice was 7 euros a glass! Oh well… at least it tasted good.

Breakfast:

After breakfast, we stepped outside to see what the weather was like. It was just slightly brisk and the sun was out, so I decided to ditch my cardigan. I didn’t even take my purse with me as we walked and talked, noticing all of the places offering Kneippen treatments and other spa services. Bad Wörishofen also has a salt grotto, where one can go and sit enjoy the health benefits of salt.

The Kneippen therapy is based on the benefits of exercise, good nutrition, and walking knee deep in cold water to stimulate the circulation. There are also baths meant for soaking one’s arms. Sebastian Kneipp’s philosophy was that good health requires us to create harmony between mind, body and soul. Bad Wörishofen has Kneippen stations all over the town which allow visitors to tread water and enjoy the health promoting benefits of the therapy. I did try soaking one of my arms at one of the public stations, but it was too chilly for me to consider walking in the pool!

Below are some photos from our first look at the town. As you can see, Kneipp is big business there:

As we rounded a block, I noticed the Sebastian Kneipp Museum. It was late morning as we passed it, but the museum didn’t open until 3:00. Maybe we should have tried to get back there to visit the museum. I do like to visit museums and learn about things about which I know nothing. But we ended up otherwise engaged.

Bad Wörishofen has a Kloster as well as a large Catholic cathedral in the middle of the town. Ordinarily, we might have ventured inside, but on Friday, there was a service going on. So Bill and I contented ourselves by taking some photos…

We decided to go back to the hotel to check out the spa. In retrospect, I kind of wish we’d gone to the public Therme, since it’s huge and has lots of wellness areas. But I’d also seen some photos of Hotel Fontenay’s spa, and I wanted to try it. So we went in to see the spa, so we’d know what to expect. I took a few photos. It probably would have been a good time to visit there, since there were only a couple of people using it at that time of the day. But we decided to go have lunch, instead.

The spa also has a steam room, various saunas that are not “textile free”, massage facilities, and other treatment rooms. There’s also a room where one can have tea and water. To be honest, the spa area could use a renovation, although I did enjoy the massage jets and rocks. We happened to visit later in the day and were joined by a family who brought their two very young children with them. While I remember what it was like to be a kid, I don’t think spas at expensive hotels are necessarily the best places for them to be. But that’s just me.

Anyway, I want to dish about our lunch… which was at a really nice restaurant by the train station. Originally, we thought we’d eat at a German restaurant that had opened its Biergarten, but the Biergarten was packed. So we kept walking until I spotted a place that had very good reviews on Google. It was also supposed to have a Biergarten, but it wasn’t open when we visited. It was called Unsere Liebhaberei (Our Hobby). We later ate at the German restaurant, and it was clear we made a better choice by walking further at lunchtime.

A friendly young man invited us in and we took a seat at a table at the back of the restaurant. I was immediately impressed by the creative menu. The waiter apologized that he didn’t have a menu in English, but again, that’s not really a problem for us. We’re pretty good at restaurant German. We sat near a group of four older folks who appeared to be having a great time being with each other. They seemed to be well educated, as they dressed well and I heard them speak several languages. The waiter joined in, speaking flawless Italian. I felt kind of embarrassed by our typical American foreign language skills… When the waiter asked us what we were doing in Bad Wörishofen, we explained that we live in Wiesbaden and were looking for a short break in a nice town. And the waiter said, “Yeah, this is a town where older people come to rest.” No doubt!

Below are some photos:

After lunch, we walked around some more and found a whiskey shop. Unfortunately, it was closed, because of the holiday and someone being sick. The shop also had a bar that opened at 7:30 PM. We probably should have tried to visit after we had dinner at the German place.

The weather was so nice that we decided to stop for beer at a cafe. It was during the typical late afternoon German coffee and cake hour, so we were among a lot of people enjoying cake while we sipped Weizens. The wait staff was similarly scarce at the place where we stopped, so we just had one beer… It was also getting chilly.

I’ve already mentioned the spa, which is what we did after our beer break. The spa was okay, but again, it looked a bit old and in need of renovation. And we were joined by shrieking urchins… I’m kidding. I do like kids. I just don’t love it when they’re hogging the hot tub. 😉

By the time we were finished with the spa, it was time for dinner. We decided to venture out to a restaurant, stopping first at a Greek place that looked and smelled promising. They were full, so we headed to Gasthof Rößle, which was also busy, but had a table for us. This was a typical German Gasthof, which a huge menu full of southern German delicacies. I ended up choosing a special– Wels Filet– a type of mild white fish that is well known in Wels, Austria. I knew that because we visited Wels in 2021, and learned about the fish there. I didn’t get to taste it during that visit, though, since it was during the pandemic. Bill had beef rouladden… and we drank lots of Augustiner beer!

I was afraid the Wels filet would taste like catfish, since I remember that was what it was compared to when I read about it. But it was actually very mild and pleasant. It reminded me more of trout or maybe flounder. I would order it again.

The restaurant was winding down at about 9:30 PM or so. I got a kick out of some of the other patrons. There was a large family who came in with four older kids. They spoke accented English among each other, so I’m not sure where they were from. I noticed they had a rousing game of Uno going on, which is not something we’d often see in the United States. At one point, the oldest kid, who looked to be a young teenager, said in English “Did you know that cannibalism could solve overpopulation and world hunger at the same time?” I was astonished by that announcement. I had a good laugh!

After dinner, we went back to the hotel. It wasn’t long before we were asleep again on the hard mattress. I was glad I brought Advil PM, even if I didn’t bring my own pillow. We won’t make that mistake next week, when we head to Belgium!