Freibad Letzigraben and the Street Parade

With the arrival of our friend Torrey and Claire in Zürich, Dennis finally has some exercise partners once again.  They're the ones responsible for Dennis's moderate Crossfit obsession.  And today this morning they joined Dennis for a jog up Ütliberg. 

Joey was the only kid awake when Dennis took off with our friends, and he and I sat on the patio and waved Dennis off.  When Dennis vaulted over our patio railing, Joey gave a little "Woah!" under his breath: it's nice to know that we're still impressive to someone.  After the group took off, Joey and I looked at each other across the patio table.  "Well, what should we do now, Joey," I asked him.  He thought about it: "I dunno. Drink coffees?"  I like that kid! I do!

So we did drink some coffees, or at least I did, and I started gathering up our things for today's outing.  Nothing far-flung: it was going to be a hot day, so we decided to go to the next-closest public swimming pool, Freibad Letzigraben.  The pool is also a historical monument: it was designed and built in the 40s by a famous Swiss architect, Max Frisch, and the grounds, which encompass four different different swimming pools, also contain a museum dedicated to Frisch's work.

Hanging out at the edge of the wave pool

Alex, running from the waves

The pool is about two kilometers away, and it isn't precisely convenient to any of our bus or tram lines, so we decided to give the kids their scooters and walk there.  Which mean that we were all nice and warm and ready for the water by the time we arrived.  For some reason, Ella was in sort of a rotten mood as we packed for the pool, and, as she scooted, she was grumbling to herself and others, wallowing in the absolute bleakness and misery of her life.  But, by the time we left the pool, she was gushing, thanking Dennis and me for the Best Day of Her Life.

The excellent swimming pools played no small part in her change of attitude, I'm sure.  Her favorite was a large sport pool. For the second half of every hour, they turn on a wave machine in that pool.  Ella had a wonderful time, diving into the waves and pretending she was a Meerjungfrau. The water is still for the first half of every hour, and the life guards cordon off the diving well, which is equipped with three diving platforms, set at 3, 5, and a ridiculous 10 meters.  When the diving well is open, each of the platforms fills, mostly with 10- to 15-year-old boys, cowering on top and daring one another to take the plunge.  Occasionally, one of them does.

Alex's favorite pool is probably meant for kids just about his age.  It's wonderful, enormous pool, with a sprinkler on one side, and a slide shooting into a deeper edge, a couple of zero-entry play areas for the toddlers, and then, running along one side, a little lazy-river, a partially walled off alley with a strong current running through.  Fun, right?

Sitting on the divider for the lazy river

Alex, playing in the sprinkler

Most of the kiddie pool: the lazy river is off to the left

And, for little Joey, there was a baby pool with a little slide, and lots of umbrellas for shade.  And they've turned one of the changing areas into a little shaded kids' playground, filled with Ikea toys, things like a little toy kitchen and rocking horses.

We had sort of a late lunch/early dinner at the pool restaurant, where the food was ridiculously good for a swimming pool cafeteria.  Ella and Joey had their favorite hot dogs, but Dennis and Alex shared herbed-butter chicken breasts and salad. Oh, and there was beer. So, it was sort of the best pool, ever.

During our meal, Joey had us all in stitches as he pretended to be He-Man, Master of the Universe, raising his hot dog sword aloft and declaring "By the Power of Greyskull!" Like this:

We let the kids swim in the waves for a little bit after our lunch, and I was kind of talking big, saying that I could totally jump off that high board.  Dennis decided to call my bluff, and he told the kids that we could stay through the next wave cycle so that Mommy could take a dive.  When my big moment came, the kids lined up on the risers and Dennis led them in a chant of "Jump, Mommy! Jump!"

So, here's the thing: 10 meters is actually really high.  And I didn't have any 15-year-old boys up there with me, to spur me on.  It was just me and a tiny little preteen girl.  I tried to get her to go first, but she ran away. And at that point, my cheering section had drawn quite a bit of attention, too: as I looked out at the pool, I realized that all eyes were on  me.  So there was nothing else for it: I closed my eyes and stepped forward and...

I love the bald guy on the risers. Yeah. He thinks I'm awesome. 

On the way home: local kids, taking the community center pony out for a walk around the neighborhood.  I often
see the pony walk by our apartment window, and it makes me giggle, every time.

One of the reasons that we took the kids to the pool today is that we didn't want to take them anywhere near downtown Zürich or the Hauptbahnhof.  Today was the day of Zürich's Street Parade, the most popular techno street party in Europe.  Ravers would be coming from all over Europe and the world to our streets, and that wasn't something I really wanted the kids to see.

Me, on the other hand, I was a little bit curious.  

The parade started at about noon, and by the time I was downtown, at about 7:00, the last parade trucks were setting out, and everyone had been dancing in the hot sun for hours and hours.  I've heard that there were anywhere from a million to 1.4 million people crowding the streets.  Among these, I saw more than a few children perched on parents' shoulders, but I was really glad that we kept the kids far, far away.  For one thing, costumes for the street parades are kind of, ahem, revealing.

And most of them weren't even particularly imaginative: I saw an awful lot of girls dressed up as sexy nurses or sexy maids or sexy witches or other things that you might find in the grown-up section of those costume stores that always spring up at Halloween time.  And, there were many lecherous men with cameras, taking pictures of the girls.  Sigh. There was a definite ew factor. 

And, since everyone had doubtless been drinking and dancing since noon, and in the hot sun, the people on the parade floats looked more grimly determined than happy as they danced.

So much Abfall

Oh, and the trash.  Remember, mere minutes after parades run through Zürich, the city sends out their fleet of street sweepers to clean up the confetti.  In my mind, I imagined the sanitation department, revving their engines anxiously, waiting for midnight.  Because I scarcely ever see a scrap of paper on the Zürich sidewalks, but today the streets were completely covered with bottles and cans and food and other trash.  And it seemed like every square inch of the streets was sticky.  It was like all of Zürich had been transformed into a frat house party.

One of the parade trucks along the route

Right, so you might be getting the sense that, aside from the music, some of which I really liked, this just isn't my scene.  Clearly, I'm getting old. But I'm glad I walked around and saw it, all the same.  And, if you're as curious as I was, here's a little taste of what Zürich Street Parade looks and sounds like.