Here's mud on your thigh

It's a experience to bathe in the stuff in the Ardennes

Author: By Charles Parr, Globe Correspondent

Date: SUNDAY, May 17, 1998

Page: M4

Section: Travel

She smiled encouragingly, saying, ``Some of our patients hesitate a little before lowering themselves into what looks like a bath of melted chocolate.'' True, I was hesitating a little. ``It comes off easily enough afterward,'' she said. I put a toe in and then sank inch by inch into the thick, syrupy mass up to my neck.

``You needn't sit still. Move your limbs around, as though you were enjoying an ordinary bath,'' the attendant said. I wasn't sure whether ``enjoying'' was the right word. One couldn't even splash in the squelchy mess. Yet after a minute or two, it wasn't unpleasant. The mud was smooth and creamy, and I had a peculiar feeling of weightlessness.

``That's due to the high density of the liquid turf,'' said the attendant. ``How warm is it?'' I asked, conscious of sweat on my face, which I couldn't wipe off with a mud-covered hand. ``Exactly 40 degrees,'' she said, applying a cold compress to my forehead. ``A hundred and four in your Fahrenheit.''

The ``cure'' at Spa starts with a medical examination during which a doctor takes your blood pressure, sounds the heart and chest, bangs on your knees and wrists, and asks about your medical history. Next you sweat it out in the mud bath. Then you go for an initial shower, where the girl hoses you down to get rid of most of the mud. Then to a shower with sprays of hot water coming at you from all directions.

After 10 steamy minutes you're released, really clean this time. Then into a huge copper bath, filled with gassy spa water. Finally you dry yourself and lie on a bed, wrapped in blankets, for a relaxing, dreamy hour. I felt good afterward.

Spa, the one-and-only Belgian original, which gave its name to numerous lesser ``spas'' all over Europe, was immensely popular in our great-grandfathers' days but went out of fashion after the turn of the century. Now it's coming back into favor.

And Spa is more than a health center. Built on an open plan, with wide boulevards and spacious gardens, it's a holiday resort in its own right. The 19th-century buildings in the center are set among flower beds and fountains, tourists sip their ``waters'' at pavement cafes, and the municipal orchestra plays Strauss waltzes in the park to add to the air of easy gaiety.

Spa is surrounded by wooded hills, crossed by winding paths. Much of this area is municipally owned and nearly all of it is accessible to visitors. Guided walking tours (``excursion pedestres'') of from 5to 8 miles are available at regular intervals.

Other attractions include brightly painted ``baladeuses'' (trailers) to take you for an hour's tour of the town and nearby countryside, an 18-hole golf course, boating on the nearby Lac de Warfaaz, tennis, horse-racing and a casino. So you can stay for a week or so, sweat away your flab at the Baths and put it all back on again at a great selections of patisseries.

Brochures, a map, a list of hotels, and information on the best way to reach Spa can be obtained from the Belgium Tourist Office, 745 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10151. Telephone 212-758-81-30.