I had the opportunity to travel to Copenhagen last weekend for work (evaluating a study abroad program). A charming city. I did not have much time to swim, but did manage to find a pool downtown near the train station with the help of the concierge in my hotel.
Turns out it was the wackiest pool I have ever swum in. The pool was an ellipse into which had been set a second, rectangular pool, for playing around. The ellipse had a stripe on the bottom--a single lane, as if on a running track for easily distracted people. A complete lap equaled 100 meters. (Finally, a definition of a swimming "lap" that can produce no debate!)
The ellipse had a long major axis and a somewhat shorter minor one. The ends required fairly tight turning, and the long sides curved more gently, as you would expect. A bridge passed over the ellipse to provide access to the inner pool, and kids hung off it and dropped in the lap pool for fun.
I managed to swim 2500 meters, broken into 25 laps. Single laps were the best bet for two reasons: no push-offs! and timing turned out to be a trick. I tried to swim a fairly brisk clip, but would run into breaststrokers going three across, barring the way forward like a blockade. (It was not a Masters crowd, by any stretch.) So I'd finish a lap, then try to track the slow folks until they'd gotten to around 240 degrees, when I figured I couldn't catch them, then go. Anyway, it was a hoot.
I resolved to go back and shoot photographs, but I never got the chance. Alas, no visual documentation. But the name of the facility is DGI byen (I do not know the meaning of "byen"). I'm pasting in a link for reference, in case you ever find yourself in Denmark looking for a weird workout.
www.dgi-byen.dk/.../
Has anyone ever swum in a pool like this anywhere else? Could this be a common convention, ignorance of which proves that I'm a chlorinated provincial?
Alternatively, has anyone swum in other sorts of bizarre facilities? Share your stories of such places...
Canada going for Gold www.portageonline.com/index.php
When in Denmark did you get a chance to go watch the great curling that is going on there. My last visit to Copenhagen was in 1964.
Somehow I was able to pass up the hydro-bike. (???) The aqua zumba got by me. But it was fun in its way!
Failed to take in any curling, I must say. I did walk the city quite a bit, which was a real treat. Architecturally speaking, it was surprise: Lutheran rigor meets Baroque exuberance. Seemed perfectly balanced between the dour and the silly.
Kinda cool. I take it you didn't try the hydro bikes?
My pool has those bikes (treadmills too) and offers classes but I have yet to actually try it. I like spinning at the gym but when I am at the pool I just want to swim.
I swam in an elliptical pool in Korea but it was the opposite. They had a 25m lap pool in the middle and a massive elliptical lazy river around it with a bridge to get to the lap pool.
