summer goal: complete

I only had one official goal for summer 2010 in Germany: find an outdoor place in the Frankfurt area in which one may swim and that is reachable by public transportation, and swim in it. It might seem like I was setting my standards low, but this is not the case -- fulfilling all of those requirements was a surprisingly difficult task, requiring many rounds of questioning locals. As far as I can tell, the entire idea of "it is summertime, so let us go somewhere outside where there is cool, refreshing water, and submerse ourselves in it!" is a foreign notion for the immediate Frankfurt area.

But I persevered in my quest, and so on Saturday Megan, Lucy, and I went to Langener Waldsee, just to the south of Frankfurt, which is a former gravel quarry turned lake, and is fantastic and beautiful and bizarre. Where else in the world can you see, all at once, a beach, a nude beach, a yacht club, gravel quarry equipment, and planes taking off and landing at an international airport? Re: the nude beach, we'd been aware that Langener Waldsee had an FKK area (FKK = free body culture = clothing decidedly optional) but we hadn't realized that said FKK area would be separated from the regular beach by nothing but a flimsy little fence. See the sandy area in the picture above? That's the normal beach. See the grassy area just around the curve of the lake? That's the nude beach. Constant entertainment! Every time we looked across the way, we'd find something new to stare at: nudists sunning themselves on the wooden bathing platforms in the middle of the lake, for instance, or wearing nothing but hats and flip-flops to walk to the bathroom. Thanks, greater Frankfurt area. Stay weird.