Sauna Season

When we first walked past the big old, brick building tucked into our North Haarlem neighborhood two years ago, we thought that it was some sort of a museum. There were two bike racks out in front of the building and it had a small, clean reception area behind sliding glass doors. There were no signs, but I wasn’t speaking or reading any Dutch back then anyhow, so a sign would not have made any difference.

The place remained a curiosity for the next few months. We had no idea what it could be. Then one evening, after the days had grown shorter and it was already dark when we walked by the old building, we saw lights on in one of the windows behind a thick hedgerow. We were still a bit timid in our new surroundings, but our curiosity was peaked so we pushed through the shrubbery for a quick look. We saw a large room with a massive central fireplace surrounded by overstuffed couches and pillows. To the left of the fireplace room was a cozy dining area and behind it we could see a very comfortable looking bar. There were people lounging around, drinking wine or coffee. A few were eating meals. Everyone was in bath robes.

A couple of weeks later we were chatting with one of our new friends in the park. Marjolein is Dutch, but had grown up in America until she was 18 years old. We asked her about the old building.

“Sauna Van Egmond!” she said excitedly in answer to our question. “It’s one of my favorites! Would you like to go sometime?”

“Sure,” we said, not knowing exactly what a sauna was, but wanting to experience everything we could in our new country.

“You know that it’s all naked, right?” she asked cautiously. “You only wear your robe when you are in the restaurant. I know that Americans don’t usually like that.”

I looked at Beth with questioning eyes. We’ve always gone in the buff into our own hot tub, even when we have friends over. But that is still a private setting. She shrugged back to me, putting the response in my court.

Well, you know me, so we made a reservation three weeks later and the rest is, so to speak, history. We love the sauna! We go every 5 or 6 weeks and have been to several nice ones in and around Haarlem, but Sauna Van Egmond remains our favorite. Sweating it out in the Eucalyptus Turkish Steam bath or meditating under the stars in the Asian spice room always seems to put us squarely back into balance. In between the hot therapies, we plunge into the artic pool or jump under the jungle shower in the outside courtyard.

Our initial trepidation about nakedness seems so ridiculous now. Attitudes are very different about it over here. Nakedness is not about hard bodies and schoolyard snickering and you don’t go to the sauna for sexual gratification. Here, nakedness doesn’t automatically mean sexuality.

Think about that for a minute. That idea alone can lift a lot of societal crap from your back.

And let’s face it, in all honesty most people don’t look very good without clothes on anyway. Which I think is the point of being naked in the first place. You go to the sauna to immerse yourself in luxurious relaxation. And in my opinion, you have to shed the burdens, and stigmas, and social class of your outside world in order to really do that. Clothes are a great place to start.