IMAGES: ALAMY; ROAR PAASKE FOTOGRAFI
BADE S CHI FF BERLIN, GERMANY
There are few cities in the world that know how to do reinvention as well as Berlin. Having emerged from the long shadow of the Cold War with the fall of the Wall in 1989, the German capital embraces its past while keeping a firm and joyous eye on the future. Old Second World War bunkers have been repurposed as art galleries; restaurants have taken up residence in former schools, pharmacies and distilleries; and abandoned department stores and military stables are now clubs. Numerous urban beaches have breathed new life
into the city, too, and every summer you’ll find Berliners in deckchairs, enjoying the sunshine on a strip of sand by the River Spree. They’ve also found an ingenious way to get a little closer to the river: on the eastern bank of the Spree, beyond a complex of converted 1920s warehouses, lies Badeschiff (‘bathing ship’) — a heated pool, created from the shell of an old industrial barge, which has been submerged into the water. The atmosphere here changes throughout the
day. First thing in the morning, people appear for a quick pre-work swim, doing brisk laps of the
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100ſt pool before setting off for offices and studios. As the temperature rises, the main reason to visit is to relax rather than exercise. Groups of friends gather on the beach on the riverbank, eating lunch and chatting before walking across the wooden pontoons for their swim. They hang off the edge of the pool to watch ships passing on the Spree, with Berlin’s iconic TV Tower visible through the haze in the city centre. Some knock off work for the aſternoon and doze in hammocks or on towels laid out on the sand, rising only for another swim or a bottle of beer. At sunset, the floodlights come on and the pool
glows like a gemstone in the darkening waters of the Spree. It’s possible to swim until midnight, moving idly through the warm water as the lights of the city come on across the river — though Berlin’s famous nightlife becomes harder to resist as the evening progresses. A cocktail from Badeschiff’s bar, taken on the sun terrace, is just the starting point for a night at the venues lining the nearby Am Flutgraben canal. A few hardy, sleep-deprived souls will recover from their excess by returning the next day for a reviving dip before heading off to work once more.
arena.berlin/en/location/badeschiff
visitberlin.de
FROM LEFT: On Berlin’s River Spree, the Badeschiff ‘bathing ship’ is a heated outdoor pool that’s been fashioned out of an old industrial barge; Århus’s harbour-facing seawater pool is the biggest of its kind in the world
PREVIOUS PAGE, FROM LEFT: The Seine’s Piscine Joséphine Baker attracts frazzled Parisians when the city heats up; Iceland’s Sky Lagoon overlooks the coastline south of Reykjavík; the Rhine River is a popular spot for commuters to take a dip in Basel, Switzerland
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