I was due to fly to Madeira. I’d been delayed on the train back to Paddington when it got stuck outside Taunton because of cows that had strayed onto the tracks. I felt like I was living in an episode of Brass Eye. Once finally in Madeira, I relished the Albatroz sea pools below the cliffs of the airport.
Brass Eye’s director, Michael Cumming, loves lidos too and made a film about Grange Lido in Cumbria, which campaigners are trying to save. I’ve been working with another director, Francis Hanly, on ideas for a lidos documentary about the beauty of Britain’s versions. Stonehaven is our most northerly, and on the day I went there, an Irn Bru and biscuits brought that homely place to life.
On recent trips to Europe I’ve been very taken by Dantebad in Munich. I watched a chain-smoking women leafing through the German version of Psychology Today on a white plastic sunbed, which was planted on the extensive lawns.
I’m puzzled by why everyone gets their heads in a spin about Budapest’s touristy spas and ignores the arch Palatinus Strand. This Art Deco treasure is architecturally striking with clean white lines and curved glass staircases, plus huge gardens.
But swimmers shouldn’t limit themselves to square pools. One of my favourite places to swim is Lake Bled lido, which is policed by a lady’s man lifeguard with a Paul Hollywood tan.
Markermeer in the Netherlands is accessed from a pontoon outside the De Durgerdam boutique hotel, while Gansehaufel (yes its name means “a pile of geese”) in Vienna is more like an inland resort, with long rows of cabins, cafes and giant chess.
Austria looks after its water and swimming in the Old Danube is perfectly safe. With wild swimming becoming more dodgy in Britain, the West Reservoir Centre in Hackney, London is a rare outlier – perfect for clean, open-water swims.
Sydney has a stand-out option (Photo: Bronte Pool/Tourism Australia)
Further afield, Australia’s pools are a flamin’ joy. Bronte Baths (closed until September for maintenance) is a tumescent pool smashed out of the rocks and skulking below sandy cliffs. There, I spoke to Therese Spruhan for my podcast, Park Date. She’s the author of The Memory Pool – a dreamy treatise on outdoor swimming’s place in Aussie culture. We talked about the champion swimmers Eveyln Whillier and Fanny Durack, who trained by the beach in this Sydney suburb.
But, of all the lidos, the one where you’ll find me the most is London Fields, with its colourful changing room doors. I love chatting to the staff: Raf, Lap, David, Giuseppa, Liza, and the whole lifeguard team. Sitting by the back wall catching the autumn sun with a Penguin bar and a lemon Fanta is one of my personal pleasures. Life is short and precious. What better way to spend it than by the pool, with a few lengths of front crawl and a sugary snack for afters.
London Fields Lido was built in 1931 (Photo: Roy James Shakespeare All Rights Reserved/Getty)
When I started doing stand up comedy last year, of course I had to include some jokes about how relentlessly middle class lidos are. My next project is writing a short fiction film, a lido love story, inspired by the amazing older swimmers often end up chatting to at various pools. They prove that swimming keeps you young.
Lido will be reprinted by Batsford Books in October, batsfordbooks.com.
Christopher Beanland presents Park Date Podcast, parkdate.co.uk.
Source link : https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/travel/ive-visited-more-than-100-lidos-these-are-my-favourite-places-to-swim-3192636
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Publish date : 2024-07-28 05:00:00
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