I know I've already given you an "Angela gets naked with strangers" story but you're gonna get another...

Last Thursday, while all of you were gorging yourselves with turkey, it started to snow here. A lot. Now, you may think "huh... snow in the Netherlands... uuuuhhh duh... that seems normal" but I can assure you, it's not. According to Martijn, it only snows a few times a year... mostly it's just horribly depressing gray and rainy. (great for the psyche, let me tell you)

So, we woke up Friday morning to snow snow snow that continued through the day. Very beautiful. (and treacherous... nobody has winter tires here. But it's amusing too... these people still attempt to bike even when the roads are slick with ice and snow. Diehard Dutchies....)

I know you're saying to yourself, this is all well and good Ang, but where does the nudity come in? Be patient, I'm getting there...

The white stuff continued through Friday night and into Saturday. Again, we woke up to big fluffy flakes coming down. Martijn was very excited by the weather and proposed that we make our snow-filled Saturday special by... you guessed it... getting naked in it.

After a truly miserable grocery shopping experience, we headed to a local sauna/spa in a nearby town called Odenzaal. It was very plush... very comfy... and very much like the spas I'm used to in the States -- with one exception. The major focus is on the sauna so the clientele is pretty evenly divided between men and women. (and kids... there was a dad there with his young daughter and son. I think most Americans would freak out and think "oh my god... people are looking at my naked children!!! Let me assure you, no one here cares.)

We checked in at the front desk and headed to the coed changing room. Yup, there's no respite from the constant coed nakedness... you even have to dress and undress with each other. Okay, no problem. This I can do.

We undressed, donned our robes (you bring your own) and strolled out to the sauna area. I was immediately greeted with the sight of an elderly Dutch couple sporting nothing but tans and flip flops. (so THAT'S what I'm going to look like one day...)

M gave me a quick tour of the place and our options for the day. There are the footbaths (apparently this is how the Fins do it -- they start the whole process by warming their feet in a hot bath), the steam rooms (one's cooler than the other), the infrared sauna (relaxes the muscles), the rose sauna (smells nice), a room that is kept at the same temperature as your body and therefore promotes sleep, and a whirlpool.

But wait, there's more.

There's an ICE bath with real live chunks of ice floating in it. What the??!! Ain't no way I'm getting into that thing. Outside there's a swimming pool (hmmm... will that be chilly?), a hot tub (ah ha... this I like. This I can do), an outdoor ice cold mini-pool (um no. This i can't do), and a large outdoor sauna where they do a special sort of treatment which includes a man swinging a towel around in order to scorch you with extremely hot air. But then he serves you fruit, so it's okay.

And this treatment is how we started our day -- in a wooden box sweating our butts off with 30 other naked people. (Did I mention I had to walk, through snow, stark naked to get to that box? Tra la la la, this is all so natural for me... yes indeedy, here I go... put my towel here... stroll casually through snowflakes past 20 people in my birthday suit.... la la la... yes we Americans do this ALL the time.)

To make a long story... um... well... not as long, it was actually quite a beautiful experience. The snow made everything really serene and special and at one point Martijn and I were swimming in the pool alone while huge snowflakes drifted into our hair. It was a day I'll remember forever.

And I'm VERY proud to say that I did indeed jump into the outdoor icecold pool. And believe it or not it was quite nice. (uh, after I got out)