30 things - Start Swimming Regularly Again

I love swimming and I love that we have gotten Isabella into swimming at an early age. For almost five years, I hardly swam at all. I got into it when I was pregnant and then forgot about it again.

Well another good thing about this season in this country is the outdoor pool culture. Since Isabella's swim course came to an end, we've tried to take her every Friday. She loves it and it's a good chance for us to cool off and have a chat too.

I'm looking forward to keeping up this routine, watching Isabella enjoy the water and hopefully getting both of her grandmas into the pool soon too.

Freibad!

One thing I love about German culture at this time of year is the Freibad - or outdoor pool.

There are more outdoor pools than indoor ones in our area and today, with temperatures in the high twenties, I met my friend there for a little picnic with our babies.

In England, we would have maybe gone to the park or sat in the garden. I only know of one outdoor pool and that was in another county! Here, we had a ten minute drive.

At our local pool there are four pools - paddling, children, normal and diving, plus lots of space to sit with a picnic. I paid 3.20 (euros) and Isabella was free.

The water was a little cold at first but ones we splashed a bit, everyone had fun. Even though the place was packed, we had plenty of space.

It was fun and relaxing but I would recommend going with more adults than walking babies because chasing Isabella was exhausting at times. She's so social she wanted to play with all the kids in all the families.

While the weather stays this way, we'll try to go every week.

Baby Swimming

Today I went swimming with my baby girl for the first time and it was amazing. Nico has been taking her to swim group on a Friday morning for a couple of weeks and they both love it.

I love that they do that together but I really wanted to see her in the pool too.  Then Nico did some research and found out that the local pool has a baby swim on Friday afternoons so we went.

It was fantastic. She loves the water and she even dives! I love how brave and independent she is. It was also really nice to have some family time out of the house.

I can swim but not confidently and I've had my issues with water over the years and I don't want that for her.

Now I'm really looking forward to summer and lots more swimming!

Freibad!

Yesterday I had my first experience in a real Freibad (German outdoor swimming pool).  It took us an hour to get to the pool but it was worth the travel.  The complex had a number of indoor pools and slides as well as the outdoor pool to keep the kids entertained.  We set up camp by the outdoor pool.

It was actually surprising how the kids just got on with things and we had relatively fewer injuries and complaints compared to the two days before.  We expected it to start raining at lunch time but that held off until the evening so I braved the ice cold water myself and it was actually very refreshing.  I'd really recommend it but it's best to go at a quieter time.  The elderly ladies who were there for their aqua-aerobics were less than impressed by our group crashing their party.