The weather has been unbelievably hot here in Germany this summer. (getting up to the high 90's). Now when we were back in the US I'd think "Ugh.. its so hot as i walk from my air conditioned house, to my air conditioned car, to drive to the air conditioned movie theater/mall/restaurant/etc". Wellllll... boy was I in for a surprise by moving here! Air conditioning?? That's what Germany calls a nice breeze. And your lucky if you get that.
You will not find air conditioning in most restaurants, movie theaters, etc. And there is no nearby beach to hop into the cool ocean. (nearest ocean is 7 hours away) So when Andrew and I are literally dripping just sitting in the 97 degree apartment... we realize we MUST get out! There are two options around Nuremberg: Lakes or Pools.
Lakes: There are some gorgeous lakes that are about a 3 hour drive down to the base of the swiss alps, we didn't want to drive that far for a day trip, so we went to Brombachsee which was only a 45 minute drive. This happened to be on 4th of July (which means nothing to anyone here) but we personally wanted to be out on the water to make it feel somewhat like home. Germans love their lakes, and I can see why, you can do a little bit of everything. They have boat rides, rafts, sail boats, kayaking, and stand up paddleboarding (what we tried for the first time!). Although the water was a bit murky... it cooled us off which was all we wanted.
Pools: There is a pool that is a 10 minute walk from our apartment in Nuremberg, so we thought.. on an insanely hot Sunday... that would be PERFECT for cooling off. Well, on Sundays in Germany when all stores are closed (everything) and its 95 degrees, we didn't realize that everyone else in the city would have the same brilliant idea.
Now I know this makes me sound like a self-centered American... but I grew up having my own pool in our backyard. So I don't think I was ready for something like THIS.
I have never seen so many people in and around a public pool. And this place was huge! One huge olympic sized pool, a diving pool, another 2 pools and a big slide (which yes we both went on). The only reason you see a bit of blue water in one of those pictures is that water was about 10 feet deep, so if you wanted some space you literally have to work for it and tread. Well it was definitely an experience!
