Location : Pousada Serra da Estrela (Historic Hotel, Portugal) (a separate blog will tell you more about this hotel)
I sink into the empty pool, alone for a short while. "Ahhhh," I sigh. It is a 'coming home' moment. A contentment beyond describable words.
The water is a very comfortable 30 degrees and I glide through the waters experiencing a release of tension that causes my emotions to overflow as tears. A cry from deep within my soul, not of sadness but of shear joy. This is my 'happy' place, in the warmth of the blue waters. Is it a reminiscence of being in my mother's womb - safe, loved, alive without life?
I sit on the steps within the pool, press a button and bubbles arise - a Jacuzzi. A neck and shoulder jet spray activated next washes away stresses and anxieties of travelling. I swim, I float, I enjoy the sensation of water all over my body, holding me, supporting me, loving me.
Somehow the water changes me from entering it to emerging from it. I am different afterwards, lighter, happier, cleaner, calmer. Relaxed, refreshed.
And then, as if that wasn't a treat enough, I have a massage. I was given an individually wrapped pair of paper panties (new experience but remember they were fashionable for a short while in the 1960's). I de-robe and lay on the couch, cover myself with the sheet and put my face on the towelled opening at the head of the massage table.
The obligatory music is playing and the masseur enters the room. She tells me she will start with a 'welcome' touch and uncovers my feet (another new experience). I try not to laugh out loud whilst she lightly touches the souls of my feet and then puts some 'scrub' on a few dry parts of my heels, covers them with hot flannels and presses my soles. Lovely.
After the back, neck and shoulder massage I am sat in a relaxation room, given a complementary cup of soothing herbal tea and left to take as long as I like to re-enter the hotel. Lying back on the sunbed I listen to the piped tinkle music and birdsong and think of family and friends back home. I let tears flow for them and hope it washes away their pains and troubles. For a brief moment and in silence I talk to loved ones gone from this world. It is though I am on a higher spiritual ground.
I open my eyes, wipe away the tears and drink the warming herbal tea. I am back in the world and ready to move on.
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