We went out on a day trip to Poseidon gardens in the middle of the week. We were little bit afraid of the hot termal water in the swimming pools in such a warm weather and we had also sunburn more than it’s appropriate in the hot water :) We had concern about the weather when we saw first time the only hill on the island covered with the grey clouds in the morning, but after breakfast, swimming in the pool and reading on the sun beds we set off for the trip towards the Citara beach and Poseidon gardens. We bought the tickets with entrance in the afternoon and decided to spent free time before it on the beach with huge waves. We swung on the waves. Water washed up us several times on the shore, but it was brilliant :)
Unfortunatelly, the batteries in our camera died and we didn’t have new one, so we had to walk back to the hotel. In the area of gardens everything was wonderful. We walked everywhere, took pictures and tried everything we could with regard to our sunburn. We were changing the sun beds and swimming pools and we also spent some time on the beach which was set aside for visitors of gardens. We had a nice lunch ( huge red melon, bruschetta with garlic and espresso) and we relished gardens till the evening.
Area of Poseidon gardens is quite big and build in the nature carefully. When you visit this place you need to take into account that you will spent three hours just with short review of the swimming pools. Cashier welcomed us cheerfully with very good english. It is possible to buy swimming cap (if you don’t have as nice hats as we) which is obligatory and you receive Poseidon gardens map, which is bilingual (italian, german). You can find everything in the whole area of gardens in these two languages. It is said that it’s because of german who used to come here like to spa for vacation which was overpaid by german insurance company and they used to spent here lot of money. It is not true anymore, majority of people here are italian and people here don’t like german too much. But I am sure that everyone can understand “toilette” even in italian language, so languages are not so big deal. The temperature of the water in the pools is from 15 to 90 degrees ( you can’t swim in the 90 one :), hovewer one italian lady tried this water with her hand and she immediately jumped aside….italian:)). There is no warmer water than 40 degrees in the swimming pools. This very warm water is used for Kneipp’s water cure - two pools connected with stairs with temperature of water 40 and 15 degrees Celsius. The aim of this cure is to alternate being in the hot and cold water and Andrej was able to dip himself up to his waist :)
Similar change between temperatures was used by Japanese cure. It was oval shaped pool, in which you walked around the centre. In one half of the way there was warm water, in the second one cold water. At the bottom of the pool there were stones, which gave the massage to your feet and therefore it was impossible to run away from freezing or too hot feeling in the water :)
Except these interesting swimming pools there was Ariadna’s swiimming pool with water of 38 Celsius degrees, and Ischia swimming pool with 34 Celsius degrees, where we spent the longest time. It was spacious with little island in the centre. We could sit there and be happy from the bubble massage. We also tried Afrodita’s swimming pool with water of 30 Celsius degrees, where little pipes with water flow were all around the pool. It was possible to turn around these pipes so we could directed it towards demanded part of our body. Colder water was only in the pool Adriano with 28 Celsius degrees and in the olympic swimming pool. It was wonderful to swim there except the fact that there was sea water, so it was quite difficult :)
There is a sauna in the top part in the lava rocks. It is also a great point for taking pictures of the gardens and you can dip yourself here in the pool with 15 Celsius degrees water to cool down after sauna. There are many sun chairs among the trees where you can relax far away from noisy swimming pools. You can eat in two bigger self-service restaurants and you can visit beauty or massage centre and do something good for yourself., but you need to pay extra for this service. The beauty centre and one of the restaurants are not outside but inside the building along with some pools and sun chairs. Thermal water is little bit radioactive, therefore children are not allowed to be in the pools with this water, but there are many of swimming pools where they can play and two of them are intended only for them.We also walked along the panorama path which offered us a wonderful view till we reached the sign - beyond this point only on your own risk. It’s really worth to see every secluded place, at least because of beautiful nature, which was everywhere around us.