Decaying Glory. Reclaimed Glory.

Oh heavens, Kat and I experienced the single most luxurious day on this trip so far. We ended up staying another day in Amsterdam on account of a couch surfing mix-up in Rotterdam, and instead of spending all day making another tour of sugary Dutch morsels, we made discovered Dutch cultural luxury.

First we went to FOAM, one of the photography museums. They had this totally kick-ass exhibition by a South African photographer, Guy Tillim, called Avenue Patrice Lumumba. Lots of streets in Africa were named after the Congolese politician who was democratically elected as the first Prime Minister after Congo gained independence from Belgium in 1960. Many other African countries also gained independence around this time, such as Mozambique, Angola, and Benin. They built many new modernist buildings that symbolized the hope in the post-colonial future. Lumumba was then assassinated--no, secretly executed--in January 1961 and the idealism of a truly independent Africa faded. The modernist buildings that were used as government offices, luxury hotels, and schools decayed over the years and now stand as mementos of forgotten ideals. Guy Tillim photographed these buildings as symbols of the "inability to make Lumumba's dream a reality".

The photographs were amazing. Face flat amazing.

In one of Arden's travel guides to Amsterdam, I read about Sauna Deco. It said that almost everything from lamps, to railings, and stained glass windows were rescued from a 1920's Parisian department store that was undergoing a renovation. It was beautiful and absolutely decadent. They had two dry saunas, a steam bath, an infrared sauna, a cold water pool, an outdoor terrace, and cafe with fresh squeezed juices.

I've never been to a sauna before and the nice lady explained the lay-of-the-sauna-land by way of a series of goofy diagrams that really should have been in the Sunday comics instead. They began after the preliminary strip down and towel wrap.

step 1: rinse off in cold shower

step 2: enter the world of heat. if you lay down in the sauna, then sit up for 2 minutes before exiting the room to help with circulation (ie. don't pass out)

step 3: rinse off in cold shower

step 4: walk around for 8 minutes, preferably outside in the fresh air

step 5: jump in cold pool and swim, after taking a cold shower, of course

step 6: sit down for 10 minutes

step 7: start all over again

It was a constant rotation of hot and cold that kept shocking the system. And it was amazing. First it was the dry room, pool, then the wet, then a salt scrub-down, pool, then the foot bath, pool for two complete rotations that lasted for four hours. Around 7pm we had to call it a day because we were so hungry, but really, this could have gone on till closing at 10pm. We stayed away from the infrared sauna because, dude, what the hell is that? Sounded like cancer ready to happen.

There was virtually no one else there when we first arrived, and it was easy to imagine that we were living in an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. Plus it was nice to not feel self conscious as we putzed around trying everything that was offered. We emerged, several water weight liters lighter, so amazingly relaxed that I almost biked into a sign post. Nice to meet you, just call me by my middle name. It's Grace. It's nice to have one absolutely self-indulgent day on vacation...or two-we've already scoped out another bathhouse in Baden-Baden, Germany.