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Austrian sauna etiquette

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Ok this seems the right place to ask the experts! I am off to Obergurgl early next year and the hotel has a spa, lots of different saunas and all is non textile (code for no swimsuits). Wifey is a bit 'middle class' about wandering around starkers. So any pointers, do you acknowledge other people, make eye contact or try to keep your eyes above the neck line? How do you maintain your Britishness but don' t let the Austrians know you are complete prudes?

Last time i was in a Swiss sauna with some mates on a ski race week, an Italian walked in with a towel around his waist looked directly into each of our laps, sized us up and let out a satisfied "eeeah" and promptly dropped his towel. We could hardy blame the cold weather!

Helpful advice gratefully received.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
If she's shy, she can just keep a towel wrapped around herself. Other than that just behave around/acknowledge others just as you would at any other time (assuming you don't make a habit of staring at peoples tits/crotches when clothed!).
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Aha ... At long last, my specialist subject ... Hehe he


It's rude not to look, and whatever you see, you must smile. - nodding appreciatively is also good protocol
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To break the ice just say "Servus" and then motorboat the one with the biggest airbags. wink
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Wear your robe/gown till you get to the sauna door. Keep your towel around you. It'll be so gloomy in there you won't see anything anyway. It'll not take a second to lay the towel on the bench and lay down and that's it. Job done.

I was in Grindelwald at the end of last season and it was my first experience of 'nude' saunas, and it was actually fine once you got used to it, to the point that the giggling brits with red faces poking their head round the door and running away very quickly looked idiotic Smile
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There is nothing more revolting than sweating into lycra or similar. Naked is best, or a towel if bashful.
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http://youtube.com/v/r3HrFjD4zXE
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After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Most naked people in Austrian saunas have bodies that one would prefer to see covered. So just do it. It really is the opposite of erotic.
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Pretty much anything goes ....


http://youtube.com/v/TD7q717J8-U
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Never seen the attraction, myself, of sitting and sweating, naked or otherwise.
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garystarling, for a sec there I thought your name was garystaring, which would have been a good start. Oggle the fit ones, they fully expect it. Tell wife to just go for it but, ahem, tidy up the landing strip (if applicable). End of useful advice.
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
pam w wrote:
Never seen the attraction, myself, of sitting and sweating, naked or otherwise.


Me neither Confused

The idea of being confronted with a small, steamy roomful of overweight German sausage doesn't appeal.
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So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
pam w, HoneyBunny, it's in not the sweating, it's in the cooling down and the relaxation. Has to be done properly to be fully appreciated.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
I find it to be one of the best ways to relax stiff legs after a day skiing, followed by a shower and you really do feel refreshed, far more than with a bath or shower alone.

Also, I've yet to be in a sauna with more than a couple of folk in it. In the one in the hotel in Grindelwald, certainly, it wasn't that busy


Last edited by You know it makes sense. on Mon 9-12-13 21:44; edited 1 time in total
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Not something I could do personally (I don't even like the sight of people in swimsuits), but I realise I'm the weird one.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Now that is a strange subject. We just go into the sauna - talk and enjoy - and that is all. Puzzled
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Quote:

tidy up the landing strip

last time I saw any quantity of naked German females (admittedly a few years ago) the overwhelming impression was of a healthy disregard for any such tidying up.

I have tried the whole sauna thing but I don't like the aftermath - I just feel enervated, rather than relaxed. Hot baths have the same effect and I can't remember the last one I had, though I enjoy a long hot shower. And as for those festering hot tubs....
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I remember having a fantastic uninhibited time at the Unisex Sauna in Finchley Road, Swiss Cottage, London, in 1972 ... with a lovely girl from the polytechnic I was 'studying' at. It was quite an advanced concept for its era, but just right for the times.

However, I was a third of my current age then. Am over it now, sweating at the memory.

Amazingly, the business is continuing to thrive ... now as ...

http://thaimassageswisscottage.co.uk/contact-and-location/

Maybe time to go back with the wife, towelled up and with those white slippers on.

[It's OK - I've been promised a skateboard for Christmas]

Anyway, back to nudity please ...
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Do not under any circumstances sit on the bare wood, always sit/lie on a towel. If you are on one of the upper shelves, sitting rather than lying, make sure your towel is also under your feet.
That is the one thing which will get you moaned at more than anything.

In the steam bath, if there is one, always rinse down the area you sat/lay on with one of the cold water hoses provided.

Use the cold shower afterwards, and then wrap up and relax in the Ruheraum (quiet room). Remember it is a quiet room, I take my iPod and kindle with me and a bottle of water. The headphones should not disturb anyone else, I use really good quality in ear ones.

As for the nakedness, after the first 5 minutes you really do not notice it any more as it is only de rigour in the saunas and steam rooms. Elsewhere men wrap a towel around them and most wear towelling bathrobes.

I find a lot of Brits quite silly about it all, as they never left the lavatorial joke stage most of us leave behind when we start school! I love relaxing after a long day of skiing and the best way I have found is in a Wellness area with saunas, steam baths and quiet rooms. My dive club here in Germany go to saunas en masse after we have been ice diving in winter, so bloody cold nobody is worried, we just want to warm up!


Last edited by Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do. on Mon 9-12-13 23:23; edited 1 time in total
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Saunas are said to offer great cleaning of the skin and relaxation.
http://www.pureinsideout.com/benefits-of-sauna.html

Shower before the Sauna. Best not to sit directly across from someone unless there is no other place to sit. You can position your hands or cross your legs to avoid a direct line of sight. Make sure you position your towel so that no sweat drops onto the seating (inc. under your feet). Leave footwear (e.g. Flip Flops) outside the Sauna. I find it best to have two towels - one to sit on in the sauna and one to leave outside the sauna for drying after a shower. I find just closing the eyes and relaxing is a good way not to come over as an English prude.
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garystarling, We went to Austria for our first ski trip in 98, with a German friend who knew the owners of the hotel, it had the usual health spa on the same basis as your looking at, and us Brits had the same pre trip thoughts that your having. During the first day where I did the beginners day 1 thing of falling and trying to get up again, and occasionally sliding in the direction I wanted to. I looked on amazed and in awe at a lady amputee flying past me on a single ski and blades on her poles a couple of times.
After our first day skiing, we went to the hotel spa, a quick dip in the pool was first which was chilly to say the least Shocked I got out pretty sharp and took a wander around the spa, on passing the sauna glass door, our German friend saw me and she called me to come on in Embarassed My nether regions were still in a state of shock and had hibernated some what, so with a quick drop of my trunks and a discrete "stretch" of my bits I opened the door and quickly sat down trying to maintain eye contact with her whilst feeling very British and awkward.
A couple of minutes later after a bit of naked small talk the door opened again, and in hopped without sticks, the lady who had been whizzing past me during the day. It was at this stage that I lost all feeling of being self concious and realised that no one really cares what you look like Smile
Do it and enjoy it, its OK Laughing
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Quote:

discrete "stretch" of my bits

Shocked Laughing
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Nope, you're still not selling it to me. I think most people (myself included) look better with clothes on!


LOL @ stretching your bits!
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As Samerberg Sue says, the golden rule is 'no sweat on the wood' so you use the towel to sit on, and don't allow skin contact with the wooden benches (except obviously when moving to/from the place you are sitting)
Apart from that, just go and do it and you will realise nothing matters.
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I initially thought this thread was a joke, then I continued reading! I honestly didn't know there was any such thing as a sauna where you have to be naked to go in.
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
I am no prude, and have no issues about pottering about in the buff in front of strangers, but what I can't stomach is bearing all in front of life long friends of the opposite sex, I.e. The chaps, who have spent years sniggering and teasing me about the size of my [ahem!] "frontage"....hee hee!

A couple of weeks ago in a nice hotel in Switzerland, the men in the sauna and steam room area (which was rather compact and bijou) seemed to outnumber the women by about 5:1, and I thought there was a tad too much self conscious strutting about, utterly unwarranted by the state of the middle to elderly bods on display. Once you came out of the sauna and steam area into the general hot tub, you had to out your cossie back on. No way was I going to wriggle out of mine, and then wriggle back in to it 20 mins later all soggy and cold. Something the men never have to experience.
Pathetic excuse? Maybe Madeye-Smiley
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HoneyBunny, To do sauna means embracing the 'whole' experience wink If you get the heat/steam,shower and relax sequence correct,it is wonderfully relaxing.
You need to set the time aside,a 'quick dip' does not do it. I usually allow at least an hour,often more.In fact,its so relaxing,I usually fall asleep in the rest room Very Happy
As for the naked bit,people worry too much.Sure,you get the odd fit body,but most are just like you and I.......perfectly normal.......and flawed Toofy Grin
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Quote:

discrete "stretch" of my bits

LMAO.

The first time I used a wellness area I thought I'd been stitched up with regard to the rules, so went in wearing trunks. I felt more embarrassed then than in my birthday suit.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
HoneyBunny wrote:
Nope, you're still not selling it to me. I think most people (myself included) look better with clothes on!


It isn't about what you look like. THat really doesn't matter. You will undoubtedly see people in teh sauna who look worse than you do, and (unless you are a genuine body beautiful) almost certainly some who look better.

As you will in a "textile" sauna.

And anyhow, a swimming costume doesn't really make any difference to the overall impression of how you look, unless you have one with a lot of control built in.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
+1 /\
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Hyst, When I was 13, my sister`s Danish au pair took me swimming at the local town pool. She insisted that she didn`t need a swim costume, as it was normal in Denmark to swim in just underwear, often topless, and after all, her father was the national swim coach. It was the highlight of my adolescence. I am still waiting to visit Denmark, and I am still a keen swimmer 3 and a half decades later. Toofy Grin
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Pedantica wrote:
There is nothing more revolting than sweating into lycra or similar. Naked is best, or a towel if bashful.


+ 100%
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What is sauna about:

Yet, if no substantial progress is made on any of these issues, perhaps Halonen can employ the tactics of a famous predecessor in future meetings between the two sauna-loving nations. Urho Kekkonen, who served as President of Finland for over twenty-five years, was known for inviting both American and Soviet leaders and officials (although one assumes not at the same time) to his private sauna at the height of the Cold War, where he would reportedly leave them to steam until a deal had been hammered out. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was one such guest who famously bared all in the sauna together with Kekkonen. He was subsequently reprimanded for having done so on his return to Moscow.

It seems like there’s nothing quite like heat for softening up friends and adversaries alike.

Perhaps Halonen was thinking along these lines when, according to one Finnish news source, she kick-started proceedings with Medvedev by inviting him to her official summer residence in Naantali, in southwest Finland, for a dip in the Baltic Sea next summer.
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Hyst, and did they roll in the snow and thrash themselves with birch twigs afterwards?
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Saunas might make some people feel nice and relaxed afterwards but I don't believe in any of the other hyped health benefits (and for people with some heart conditions or unstable blood pressure they can be positively harmful). The idea that somehow you are getting rid of "impurities" puts me in mind of all the nonsense about "detox" diets which will be appearing in the press at New Year.
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pam w, Hot isn't the only type of sauna. And the aroma of Stone Pine is known to be good for the cardiovascular system. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it (properly)
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Bode Swiller, I love the smell of pine but is there any proper evidence that the aroma is good for the cardiovascular system? Or that saunas have any benefits other than a pleasant feeling of relaxation afterwards? I'm glad people enjoy saunas and that people make good money running "wellness" suites but I'm just as happy to have a shower then put my feet up with a good book. wink I sometimes do things I don't specially enjoy because they are good for me (e.g. turn down another glass of wine) but I don't see the point of doing something I don't enjoy, for which there is no scientific evidence and which, in one way or another, I have to pay for. I'm not "knocking" the enjoyment people get from a sauna, I'm questioning the claims of health benefits over and above relaxation.
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I doubt there are any health benefits, but I love the feeling of well-being after a sauna and even more after a steam room session (kinder on my sinuses, in fact very good for my sinuses.) I absolutely hate hot tubs, though, warm puddles of microbes. Skullie If there's nobody else around, I'll do my post-skiing stretching in the heat - works brilliantly.
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Pedantica, a feeling of well-being is a health benefit, shirley?
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