Summer’s here. Finally. And what does the average Rostockian do on a hot summer day? Go to the beach, of course! That’s what I wanted to do last Friday when we had 32°C and the entire city felt like it would start to boil any minute. Actually, I’d been planning the entire thing with some friends since the previous Sunday, and I was kinda excited to finally do a proper beach day in Warnemünde again after my last summer when I was forced to put up with lying on gleaming white sand under towering palm trees, marvelling at the stunning Miami skyline under the hot Florida sun. Where was my beloved teapot; where was the picturesque Warnemünde light house I hold so dear? No impudent seagulls trying to steal any even remotely edible item from my bag; no jerk de-sanding his towel right next to my unexpecting face. Oh, nothing compares to Warnemünde!
Anyway, I was looking forward to it. However, when I got to the station, my best friend called and told me she was stuck in traffic, unable to move neither forward nor backwards with no chance of escape in sight because apparently every Rostockian and their grandma were trying to get to Warnemünde; I had a first inkling that this long anticipated beach day might not go entirely according to plan.
My premonition was right. For some reason unknown, every single train to Warnemünde was cancelled for the next two hours. Deutsche Bahn, you son of a …. certain kind of lady!
That beach day was unintentionally scrubbed, meh – so what to do instead? Luckily, my ever-so-genius mind produced a most formidable idea – I’d seen a bus stop called ‘Flußbad’ pop up on my public transportation app multiple times but never really thought twice about what that place was. But Fluß (=river) and Bad (=pool) could only mean one thing: Our last chance to take a refreshing dip that day!
The name says it all. The Flußbad is a public swimming pool in the Warnow river (anywhere else, swimming in the river is technically not permitted), which is open from May to September (depending on general and daily weather conditions) from 11am (2pm on school days) until 19pm. Admission is €2 for kids, €2.50 for students and €3 for adults. Check their website to see whether they’re open on a particular day. It’s about a 10mins walk from Steintor or you can take the bus number 23 to Riekdahl from there and get off at Flußbad.[mappress mapid=”244″][mappress mapid=”244″] It’s Rostock’s only outdoor swimming pool and, frankly, it’s quite cool.
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Upsides are:
• You don’t have to do the long ride to Warnemünde
• You won’t be attacked by cheeky seagulls
• You don’t have sand in any expectable or unexpectable place for three weeks afterwards
• You don’t have to walk half a mile to find a bathroom
• There’s shade, so you won’t get cooked alive if you forget your parasol
• It’s fresh water, so you won’t feel all sticky and salty afterwards
• They have hot and cold snacks and cold drinks for really decent prices
• The water’s a lot warmer than the Baltic Sea
• If you pre-book, you can use their fire pit for barbecues (which is generally not allowed in Warnemünde except for one tiny section of the beach)
• They have a diving tower
• There is a very low risk of being attacked by algae, sharks, jellyfish, submarines, abandoned swim suits (hey, it’s the Baltic Sea! Dare to go bare! ;)) or other deep sea monstrosities
Downsides are:
• It’s not the beach
I think it’s perfect for a nice cool down on a hot day without having to do the one-hour-odyssey from the city centre to Warnemünde.
See you down by the riverside.
Until then…
Cheerio, folks!
