new bathing suit

I woke up late and the weather was still not very good.  it was only 68 degrees and I could feel a significant feeling breeze when I stuck my arm out the window.  but I had kept telling myself all weekend that I was going to go swimming so I was in a connundrum.

I put my new suit on and pranced around the flat in it for a bit trying to decide whether I wanted to pay to ride the tram out to the swimming pool, pay to get in and not swim because it wasn’t hot and then pay to come back.  finally I decided that I would just wear the suit around outside and see if the weather warmed up and maybe then I would go to the pool.

so I left the house looking beachy with my suit on under some bright coral jeans, a light tee, sunglasses and sandals.  I got a lemon ice cream and walked toward Heumarkt.  this way if I decided to just go home I wasn’t too far from home and I could take the tram that stops at Heumarkt if I changed my mind about the pool.

it was back and forth the whole way there.  yes, I am going; I have no other plans for today.  no, it’s cold and I will leave immediately.  yes, it doesn’t matter about the sun not being out because it’ll be fun to see the gigantic pool.  no, it’s not worth the money to just sit outside.  yes, no, yes, no.

when I got to Heumarkt, the exact tram I needed rolled in immediately and I just got right on.  so I went.

and it was very cool.  the stop I was getting off at was actually the stop for the big sports stadium (stadion) in Koln.  there were a lot of public parks and open areas for people to play pickup futbol and other sports and there was a big pool complex.  there are supposedly eight different pools at this complex.  I only saw six but maybe they also count the sauna or hot tubs or something.

six pools!  there was a big deep dive pool with a dive platform that had several different heights, a lap pool with starting blocks, a mid depth pool for just swimming, a shallow pool that had a big water sprayer that all the kids were going crazy with and two pools that the two water slides fed into.

it was a little too chilly for me to swim so initially I just sat outside in my suit and enjoyed the cloudy sun.  but eventually it did get a little hotter and I played around in one of the shallow pools to test the water temperature.  it was bone chilling.  but I persisted and swam in the mid depth pool for a while.  I also tried the water slide.  this was obviously more for kids but I thought I would try it anyways.  it was cool that there were slides but the one I rode on was just ok.  it was kind of slow.  but I did get my head wet when I slid out of it!

I sun dried for a bit and watched a futbol game going on nearby and eventually went back to Heumarkt.

I am so glad I went!  there weren’t as many people as I had hoped to see because the weather was less than stellar but it ended up being a great day and a fun diversion.  although use of the showers and locker rooms is pretty much nonexistent and I saw a lot of boob.