Shoes Off! – Refreshing experiences from the stream-bed to the barefoot park around Zsámbék Basin

Today not even the most determined walk in the world barefoot, as our soles are not used to trials, and it’s also true that it wouldn’t be safe to walk around this way everywhere. It’s a shame, really. We don’t have to be orthopaedists to know: training our soles is important from the point of view of our posture, our walking gait, our blood circulation, and our nervous system. This was also recognised by Sebastian Kneipp, a priest living in the 19th century who experienced for himself the success of healing through the skin. He got rid of his tuberculosis by taking baths in the icy Danube. After was cured, he dealt a lot with various water cures from baths to washing and compresses. His activity became world famous, and although many considered him a charlatan, his results are unquestionable.

Father Kneipp visited Alcsút several times, it is said that Archduke Joseph’s son, Archduke Joseph Karl of Austria always turned to him when he had health problems. In the park of the Alcsút castle a so-called waterflow was created under the direction of Kneipp, where ice cold water flowed. This was used by all the family all year round – according to the memories on hot days with a great pleasure, and struggling in the winter cold. Maybe it was the nearby sample of Alcsút that gave the idea to the village of Tabajd in 2008 to create the first barefoot park in Hungary. A part of the route that can be walked in about 40 minutes is a real Kneipp cure: it offers walking in water, since we walk down next to the small stream starting from the centre of the village, and it’s possible to wade into the cool water several times. Leaving the stream-bed running at the bottom of gardens, the way goes up on a hill – because of this and the several types of walking surfaces for families with small children instead of a pushchair, a baby carrier is suggested – and finally, we reach a playground. Meanwhile we can try what it is like to walk on pine cones, corncobs, gravel, wood shavings, logs beaten into the ground or sand. We can try walking on twenty different types of ground surface. It’s great fun, so it’s understandable and welcome that after Tabajd several barefoot parks were opened all around Hungary, which are also called Kneipp paths due to their effect similar to the original Kneipp cure.

If we want to walk in a stream – to the great delight of children – one of the best destinations can be Solymár close to Budapest. Paprikás stream is located on the end of the village closer to the capital, opposite the petrol station, and the walkway next to it leads back right to Solymár Castle. Anyway, it is a good idea to hide in Alsó-Jegenye Valley from the heat of summer; during the trip we can walk in the shadow almost all the way, so we can wait for the children to climb on the sandstone hill near the path several times, throw pebbles into the water, or gaze in amazement at the region’s largest waterfall, without having to urge them.

In the area of Zsámbék Basin there are several watercourses and small lakes – most of these are reserved for anglers – and after a wetter period one might realise that between the settlements, green marshy parts and reeds appear. In almost all the villages we find ditches, and streams that are sometimes flowing, sometimes dry, but in the centre of Etyek, at the Hungarian Fountain for example a high-flow spring has been bubbling to the surface for centuries (its water is not drinkable, but it’s still worth stopping in the wooded area). We can walk in soft marsh grass if we leave for a walk in Tárnok between the local fishing lake and Benta stream (this latter otherwise starts in Biatorbágy). The ingredients of a natural Kneipp trip are all given here: fresh green grass, groups of huge, unusually trees, soft soil and clean air awaits those who want to experience what barefoot refreshment feels like.