Swimming Through Europe

I love lap swimming and so the challenge in our many travels throughout Europe is navigating finding and using lap pools.  But the reward, beyond working off all the calories from the bakeries we find irresistible, is to enter into an entirely local activity where each country, and sometimes each city, has its own customs and rules.

Some general observations and corresponding tips after swimming laps in various towns in the UK, France, Greece and Germany:

1. Expect to be flexible on your first visit. Lap pools are not quite as easy to find as I imagined.  While there seem to as many as you would find in US cities, the websites are often not as clear about hours of operations.  In nearly all cases I have learned to expect my first visit to more of an expedition than actual swimming as the hours posted on websites are not always accurate, or more frequently, the pool is reserved for swimming lessons. 

2. If you are staying for a week or longer and want to sign up for passes beyond a day pass, in nearly all pools you have to have a local bank account they can debit from rather than charge your credit card. In contrast, I have always been pleasantly surprised by how inexpensive, even for day passes, public swimming facilities are compared to those I used in the US.  In fact, in a pool outside Avignon I actually had the receptionist try to convince me the 4 euro charge was simply too expensive and I should therefore not want to swim.  When I explained that day passes in most major US cities are nearly three times higher, she shook her head in horror.  This hassle is typically not worth it unless you are in a location for more than a couple weeks.  In my case, we were in London for two months so I easily signed up for an on-line account with Wise the facility could use to charge me for those two months.

3. When you are using a facility for the first time, enter slowly and observe how the locals are handling shoes. Entering the facilities is another land mine of unfamiliarity.  In some pools you are able to walk into the changing rooms with your shoes on. In others you must remove your shoes before entering the locker rooms and often need to walk through a shallow pool of disinfectant liquid before you enter the locker rooms.  In others, the tradition is hybrid where you can walk in your street shoes into the locker, but from there must use plastic shower shoes to walk to the pool. The look of disapproval if you violate this norm uncomfortable.  

4. Every swim pool I have had the pleasure of using has lockers in the changing rooms, but require a refundable 1 pound, or 2 euro coin, so bring change. The locker rooms can be an initial shock for many Americans.  While a minority are set up like US locker rooms with separate men’s and women’s changing and showering rooms, in nearly all European pools I have used, they have communal men’s and woman’s changing facilities, and sometimes even communal showers.  In these combine facilities, there are numerous changing cabanas where you undress or dress following a shower, then step back into the main room to place your clothing in a locker and shower.  At the end, you reverse the process by taking a shower still in your swim suite and then change in a cabana back into your street clothes. In a continent where you can literally travel end to end only using a credit or debit card and never cash, having to have coins is a throwback.

5. Pack a speedo just in case. My first encounter with the requirement that only speedo-style suits are allowed in public pools came in France, which is actually the only country thus far I have run into this.  As I was about to dive into the pool an attendant came over and made it clear I was not allowed to swim in the typical type of board shorts that nearly all men in the US use to swim in, but rather must use a speedo.  In fact she pulled me over to a large sign showing a US style suite with a big X through it and alongside a picture of a speedo with a big check mark.  My pleas that no American man in his 60s would ever be caught dead in a speedo fell on deaf and uncomprehending ears.  Since it was my initial visit, she offered to lend me a spare one, the size which would make a dinner napkin look generous.  With no exaggeration, my retinas nearly burned out of my eyes when I saw myself in the mirror in this tiny bathing suit. 

6. Take a minute when you enter the pool to observe the lane customs. In my experience, the community pools in Europe are spotless, including the changing rooms, far more so than American pools.  They often have highly attentive lifeguards, and many lap swimmers are amateurs languidly doing their strokes rather than primarily dedicated swimmers who are timing their laps and sipping energy drinks.  But the rules for which lap to use vary greatly.  In some places there are clearly marked slow, medium and fast lanes.  In others no signs at all.  in London, despite the indicated speed of each lane, people seemed to use whatever lane was most free. In the pools I used in places in France, the lanes were unmarked which made swimming a bit more tricky as you could find yourself in a lane with both fast and slow swimmers so had to constantly be on the lookout not to bump into someone.  And in Germany, I found there were often 2 center lanes for fast swimmers, and two very wide lanes on either side, but which had no subdivided lanes so people were swimming in all sorts of patterns that made me feel like a cat on a hot tin room as I zigged and zagged.

7. Finally, one of the joys of my swimming experience, beside mastering local customs, occasionally making new friends, was learning about cultural oddities.  For example, in Germany, most indoor pools close the end of May through September and people switch to outdoor pools.  In contrast, in London they are open year round and people even swim in the Thames and the famous swimming ponds in Hampstead Heath year round. 

I encourage you to not set aside your passions while traveling as they often lead into local experiences you would not have otherwise and often some of my best memories.