Week 1, day 2 & nudity

Day 2, week 1

I decided to brave the swimming pool and looked forward to a session in steam room or sauna afterwards, even went prepared with a book to sit and have a quiet read in the café afterwards. I had come unprepared with only my towel and togs, not realising that the changing room was one floor up, even though there was a men’s just outside the pool entrance. Apparently, it was advised to have sandals and a robe to go into the pool – pool etiquette I found out. Hmmm. This meant, wrapped in my towel, sans robe or sandals, I had to come down stairs past reception to get to the pool.

The actual swim was very relaxing and uneventful, I just relaxed and enjoyed some gentle water exercise. There were a couple of other people in the pool, one a woman, definitely post 60 going a sedate pace and one gent maybe even post 80, moving very slowly. I thought as this was my first bit of exercise in a very long time, I would just pace myself and thought if I at least outpace the 80+ gent I was doing ok. At one stage as I lapped him, it seemed like he wasn’t moving at all, intentionally or not, I don’t know. Do they teach CPR here?

I decided to have a steam and/or sauna after the pool. When I joined they had told me that the sauna and steam were nude and men women combined, with specific days during the week for women only. Me being a reserved New Zealand girl, I took this to mean it was your choice but the majority went without. Silly me. With no-one around to provide a dress code cue, I entered the steam room in my togs, had a lovely time, came out had a shower and rested for the required 10 mins and went into the sauna. Still no naked people to provide a cue.

I went into the sauna and settled on my towel. While I was enjoying the warmth and quiet, a stark bollock naked 60+ gent wanders in. Ok, here’s the clothes rule. He took one look at me and said “Oh, you are not from Holland no?” “Err no”. We sat in companionable silence, him naked, I prudishly clothed in my sensible one-piece swimming costume.

A little while later, I left and chalked it up to experience and wondered what I will do next time.