Haarlem sauna

A week ago, when the weather wasn't this dark, doomy, pouring rain weather we're having today, O and I went to a sauna in Haarlem to celebrate our anniversary. I'd been wanting to go to a sauna/spa kind of place for awhile - in fact, we tried this idea for our anniversary last year, but the place we went to wasn't really what I had in mind. This place, though small, was what I wanted and we had a very relaxing day there.

Tha sauna is called Sauna van Egmond and it's in a residential area of Haarlem north of the train station. Though it's surrounded by houses (and even a church across the street; I wonder if they get on as neighbours), it was quiet and felt worlds away from anywhere. No, it's perhaps not as nice as some of the spas which are out in nature and have more space and greenness around, but this one was reachable by public transport and was only in Haarlem, so that worked for us.

I don't know what the building the sauna is in used to be, but it was a great place. There were all sorts of big open ceilings and stone walls and such. In the restaurant area, there was a big metal wheel up high in the ceiling that looked like a torture device, and then at one point it actually started to turn, letting out a big rope. Turns out it was the most complex system for a dumbwaiter to lift food up to a second level of the restaurant. Awesome.

Anyway, we arrived and got a bathrobe and towel each and then went to change into the robe. Yes, everything is co-ed and yes, most people just walk around naked (except in some areas where you need to wear a robe). I've gotten used to this idea by now, though I can remember thinking the idea was weird a few years ago when someone was saying that saunas here are co-ed and everyone is nude. I did swim nude for the first time last year at the place we went to for our anniversary, and that was fine really. This was fine too. I dunno, it just seemed kind of normal because everyone else was naked as well. Though not all; some people would wrap up in towels when they walked around and others would have their robes on, but in general there was a lot of nudity. And since no one else seemed very embarrassed, I didn't either.

The joke usually is that the people who go to a sauna like this, or to nude beaches, are the people you don't actually want to see naked, but it wasn't so bad at this place, meaning O and I weren't the youngest there or anything. I think the average age was a bit high, but there were plenty of people who looked to be in their 20s or 30s. There were some groups of girls who were just having a fun, relaxing afternoon together. There were many younger couples. There was even one pregnant woman. So it was quite varied.

They had quite a few different types of saunas, in varying degrees of temperature and humidity, so you could pretty much find one that you were happy with. My only previous sauna experience was going into a Turkish bath with O in our hotel in Budapest, and we ran out of there after a couple of minutes because we couldn't breathe anymore. At this place, we first went in a pretty standard sauna: quite hot and a bit humid. It was ok, but if you breathed in too deep, you did feel like your nostrils were burning. We didn't stay in there too long.

We next went in the one that was my favourite. It was a bit less hot and humid, plus it was a quiet room (no talking) and they had nature noises playing (running water, bird sounds) and in the ceiling were lots of little lights that changed colour. I laid on my back and just watched the lights and didn't think about much and quite enjoyed that. We probably stayed in for about 10 minutes. It's quite weird in the sauna because it is hot and you start dripping with sweat or condensation or both, but you don't really feel sweaty and the heat you feel in there is different than being in hot weather. I don't quite know why. It was a unique feeling. I would come out surprised at how soaked I was because in the sauna I didn't feel sweaty.

Outside in a little courtyard there were various cooling-off options. There were a couple of cold water showers, a pool of water with buckets you could use to dump the water over yourself, and an old fashioned metal tub that ice would dump into down a chute, and you could throw some ice on yourself, I guess, I didn't see anyone using it. O and I would just come out and sit in a garden chair that was out in the sun and dry up. The sun was great. It had been absolutely miserable on Saturday (much like today), but then it was all blue sky and sun on Sunday, so I sat in the sun feeling endlessly grateful for it.

We'd then pop into the pool inside, which was a lovely 34 degrees or so, so you could just walk right in it, no need to get used to the water. There was a nice jacuzzi in one corner as well.

After lunch, O and I had massages scheduled. His was by machine though. He reserved the hydrojet massager, which was like laying on a waterbed, and hard jets of water would spray up at you from below. You could adjust the strength of the water and how it moved around. He said it felt pretty good.

I had a proper human back massage, which I'd never had before. It wasn't as relaxing as I thought it'd be, the guy pressed quite hard, but it was needed really to get out some knots in my back and shoulder. I was sore the next day from it though! Yeesh. The best parts though were when he rubbed his hands fast together to warm them and then rubbed all the way down my back (doing this a few times), and when he massaged the upper part of my neck, at the base of my skull. Ahhh, that was good. When I stood up, I realized how relaxed I was though and how sleepy. I really could have just curled up and gone to sleep then, but O was waiting for me down in the pool, so I had to go meet up wth him. Next time, I'll plan to do nothing after the massage.

And we do plan to go back. Maybe make it a thing we do every few months. I'm thinking it'll be especially nice in the winter, after being tired of being cold all the time, to lay in the sauna and remember what it's like to be hot. We really enjoyed this place, it was quite comfortable to be at and the decor was quite nice as well, very soothing. The one thing that wasn't as good was their restaurant. I expect a sauna to have light, healthy food available, and they served more typical cafe food, so it wasn't the best, but it was ok. Other than that, I really liked it there, and it's so close and not too expensive for a day of sitting around and bobbing in the pool and popping into the sauna occasionally. I recommend it.