Schwimmen (Swimming)

I discovered that swimming in Germany is a little different from the states. The pool near our village opens early a few days a week with the only catch that there are no front desk staff available to answer any questions, so you are on your own. No big deal, right? The night before my inaugural swim, I started thinking.....I didn't see any signs resembling a men's and women's locker room. Huh. I must have missed that on my recent visit. I arrive early the next morning excited and somewhat nervous as all of the signs are in German. At this point my number one goal is to avoid entering the "ladies only" section by accident. I wait for another guy to arrive and then follow him downstairs to what I assume is the locker area. He enters a large glass door and enters what looks to be a normal dressing booth (the kind you see in department stores). Following his lead, I enter a booth and begin changing when I realize that I didn't see any "Herr" or "Frau" (Men or Women) signs when we came in. It is about this time that I remember that nudity in German is not a big deal as it is in the states. It's early and I'm not thinking clearly, so I disregard the thought and continue on. A unique feature of the dressing booths are the dual doors. You enter in one side and exit on the other side, which I discover leads to a room full of lockers. All changed up and ready for my swim, I begin my search for the route to the pool. I take 2-steps and wham, out comes a lady that had been changing next to me. OK, so the locker room is in fact co-ed. No worries. Pressing on, I wander around the locker room and finally discover a door leading out to the pool area. This facility is amazing: they have an inside lap pool, outside Olympic-sized pool, hot tubs, regeneration pools, kiddie pools, etc. I continue up the stairs to the lap pool and see that the rumors I have heard about lap swimming in Germany are true. First, there are no formal swim lanes, but rather people are simply swimming from one end of the pool to the other, taking care to avoid running into each other. Second, everyone is doing a version of the breastroke and keeping their heads above water. This, obviously, allows them to avoid running into each other and hence, no need to designate formal swimming lanes. Given I have spent the last 3 years improving my front crawl stroke that is centered around keeping my head down as much as possible, this should make for an interesting time. I spot a path of least resistance and begin to swim. I find that carefully navigating my way around large frog kicking-men in tight bikini speedo briefs makes the hour go quickly. After the workout I go back downstairs to address my final obstacle: locating the men's showers. With nobody to follow, I take an educated guess that the door with a shower head picture is where I should enter. Immediately through the doorway were two doors, one with a "man" figure. That was easy. Showered off, I ventured back into the c0-ed locker room, changed, and headed out to the car. I'm looking forward to my next workout in the pool where I may try some of the local traditions: the breaststroke.....because there is no way you will find me in a pair of tight bikini speedo briefs. I think we all agree that is one tradition I should never try.