Swimming Pools!

Even though I get enough daily exercise in my work life and walking the dogs (6 – 10 km per day), I do like to get a weekly session at one of our local swimming pools. We are spoilt for choice in Espoo, with 6 pools within 10 km of home. All have gym facilities, coffee shops/cafes and of course in Finland, usually 2 saunas in each of the male and female changing rooms. I usually buy 10 gym and swim sessions for €60 which is only €10 more than swim only. People of 68 or over living in the city can get it for free, and some with medical conditions can get a really good discount with a doctor’s prescription. The 10 sessions come with your electronic wrist band and can be used at any of the city’s pools, so it is all comfortingly good value. Special for me is the luxury of having the possibility of swimming in any of the three 50 metre pools, admittedly one of those is only open in the summer because it’s outside (and is heated).

First time I went swimming in Finland, I thought I knew what I was doing but I didn’t. In we went at the same time, the girls into the female changing rooms and me on my own into the male side. It seemed fairly straight forward to me. Clothes off and into the nice lockers. Costume on and with towel onwards to the showers.  Shower and then I was swiftly off into the pool. I did notice that the water temperature felt a lot cooler than good old Tenbury Wells pool back in the home country but nothing that couldn’t be solved by several lengths of vigorous breast stroke. Many minutes later, no sign of the girls. Swam around the pool a little maybe they were in a different lane. Identifying friends while swimming is always a problem for those of us who are very short sighted. No sign of them so I finished off my 20 lengths and decided to go to the sauna for a warm up. Got nicely toasty and didn’t feel like going back into the cool water and dried off and changed to go out. Not an inkling about where those girls were. May as well wait with a coffee and bun. Then I spotted them through the glass and in the water. I gave a reassuring wave. They emerged over half an hour later with a “where were you?”.  You see, I didn’t know about the Finnish routine, which I do now follow.

My mistake was the omission of the warm up sauna. After the first good shower, one takes nothing but a small towel into the sauna. The towel is for sitting on and considered polite in public saunas. After getting suitably hot the sweat is showered off and swimming costume put on for the swimming. Hence, everyone gets really clean before entering the pool and there’s no excuse because all the city pools supply soap. Once swimming exercise is completed, shower again, rinse the chlorine from the swimming cossie and off yourself. Then warm up sauna and shower yet again. A second visit but to the hot sauna is an option at this stage and a cool off shower. Dry and dress. It´s a Finnish ritual, and it´s wonderful to feel satisfyingly clean and exercised, especially if the gym came first and especially when it can be so cold and white outside. Obviously, the native girls completed the full Finn routine and we completely missed each other with my swift British shower and swim.