Throughout Germany, massive indoor swimming pools are incredibly popular all year round. Although there are similar places in the United States, in Germany there is at least one in every town. When I tried to figure out why they are so popular here, I realized that the answer lies in some of the ancient Roman ruins of Trier!
Romans built “bath houses,” or giant indoor pools and saunas, in almost every one of the towns they established. This, of course, includes Trier! I visited one of the oldest Roman bath houses still standing called the Kaiserthermen, or the “King’s Spa.” Each spa usually contained three areas: the caldarium, which is like a hot tub, the tepidarium, where the water was warm but not hot, and the frigidarium, where the water was freezing cold. Some of the ancient spa in Trier was buried underground, but it has been excavated so that tourists and archeologists can now wander through the tunnels!
