Kneipps

Kneipp water treatments are popular in Austria in parks and spas and you may see groups of people with their trousers rolled up paddling round in stone ditches. They are based on concepts developed by a German priest, Sebastian Kneipp, who believed that cold water can stimulate circulation. The idea is that you walk around in freezing cold mountain streams, causing the blood vessels in your feet to contract and the body is forced to respond by pumping warm blood to the frozen areas. If nothing else, you tend to experience mild pain followed by a pleasant tingling. There are Kneipps in the Russbach water park and on the lakeside at Wolfgangsee.