It was a Sunday afternoon and feeling horny, I set out with my new friend (of whom I’ll write more about elsewhere) to visit the baths. Hamburg is a town for the arcade (kino) crowd, and in nicer weather, outdoor sex, and I gather the baths have never been a great place to go. However, intent on fully researching the city for you my dear reader, I put down my DM29 ($12.50) and got myself inside the Dragon Sauna (Pulverteich 37) at around 4 pm. There are private rooms available at additional cost, but for DM29 you get a towel and key to a locker. No membership is required, though I gather one can pre-buy several visits at a discount.

There is something good to be said about the overall decor. Just about perfectly lit throughout, in some areas very dark while reasonably lit in others, it is far from a trashy run-down bathhouse. But you may find yourself, as I did, walking back and forth, round and round, hoping you’ve yet to discover the passageway that will take you into the rest of the club. For a city of 1.7 million, you’d expect this bathhouse to be larger. All told, there is the locker area, a nice wet area, an even nicer bar and sit-down to relax space, a handful of private rooms open to anyone, a series of reserved private rooms (maybe 12?), two very dark rooms including one with sling, and a steamroom. It is this last spot, the steamroom, where the action was to be found this Sunday afternoon.

Now I have to admit that I very much enjoy lounging in a steamroom, but really don’t like using them as a primary sex space – especially if you’re in a bathhouse that comes fully equipped with slings, dark rooms, etc., as opposed to, let’s say, a healthclub where the steamroom may be your only shot for a quickie. While I can see that the presence of steam adds an element of fun to the pursuit of sex, in the end it just seems impractical to exert yourself in a steamroom. Maybe I’m in the minority, but I can only tolerate being in a steamroom for a limited time and when you throw in the exertion of sex, I feel faint after far too little time if I’m getting fucked in a steamroom.

I suppose one can’t really fault the owners of a bathhouse if all it’s users choose to use only one area for sex, leaving everything else fairly empty. And speaking of the users, who was here this particular afternoon? I’d describe the crowd as rather diverse in a German sort of way. About the only non-white presence was from a couple of overly effeminate Asian men who were conversing in English. Most men varied from tall and blond, to average and blond, to short and dark. A few gym bunnies were present and they knew it. Ages were probably from late 20’s (my friend being the one younger meat, a mere chicken at age 23) onward with the elder guy hitting close to 50. It was a very gay crowd and not an especially friendly or frisky one.

If it sounds like I’m not recommending a trip to Dragon Sauna you’d be right on target. Maybe I should give it one more try and perhaps this time I’ll try to liven up the show by getting in the sling. Somebody needs to do something to energize this place!