Huh, that's cool! But also very different cultures. LA might have saunas like that, but I personally have never been to one in the US, and in fact I am not sure I've ever been anywhere in the US where casual nudity was... okay. The closest is gym changing rooms, where it's okay to not have clothes on as long as you're clearly on your way to changing into other clothes, but I still would say that in my experience it's not normal to be walking around without clothes. (Different places are different, of course, even in the US, but I'm betting my experience is more the norm than not.)
Nudity in the US: yes, I know. Trufax: once I was with my mother in Mallorca, it was my gift for her 60th birthday, so we went in late Februar/early March, when it's lovely almond trees blossom time and the summer hordes are far away. At our hotel, when they gave us the usual intel about the do's and don't, it said: in the sauna, you need to wear a bathing suit because there are Americans in the hotel.
Also trufax: was at a lecture of Stephen Greenblatt's when he was presenting his book "The Swerve", and in the Q & A later, he mentioned how shocked he'd been when visiting the Englischer Garten in Munich about "The German passion to take off your clothes". (In the Englischer Garten, the largest city park in Munich, there are indeed a few spots where in the summer you see a lot of topless people. Just topless, mind. I thought: If this shocked him, I bet he's never been to Sylt, island of nudist beaches all the way.
Anyway: like I said, rule of thumb for Germany is: swim suits in public swimming pools (unless it's explicitly a nudist beach), but not in the saunas, unless they're explicitly marked for American tourists as saunas where you wear stuff.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (II)
Date: 2020-09-13 09:04 pm (UTC)Re: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (II)
Date: 2020-09-14 08:45 am (UTC)Also trufax: was at a lecture of Stephen Greenblatt's when he was presenting his book "The Swerve", and in the Q & A later, he mentioned how shocked he'd been when visiting the Englischer Garten in Munich about "The German passion to take off your clothes". (In the Englischer Garten, the largest city park in Munich, there are indeed a few spots where in the summer you see a lot of topless people. Just topless, mind. I thought: If this shocked him, I bet he's never been to Sylt, island of nudist beaches all the way.
Anyway: like I said, rule of thumb for Germany is: swim suits in public swimming pools (unless it's explicitly a nudist beach), but not in the saunas, unless they're explicitly marked
for American touristsas saunas where you wear stuff.Re: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (II)
Date: 2020-09-15 04:58 am (UTC)