Wednesday 18 January 2012

Swimming

As part of my keeping fit (I hope!), I go swimming about once a week at the Piscina Municipal de Girona. I only heard about the pool from the lifeguard at Celrà outdoor pool during the summer when it was about to close for the season. Previously I went to the pool at Salt, which is a "suburb" of Girona, but is was much more expensive, probably because it also included the gym which I never used. When one is used to cycling down country lanes, I can't understand the appeal of cycling and not going anywhere!

Anyway, back to Palau. On Wednesdays I meet my friends from Girona Grapevine for coffee in Girona and then I catch a bus to the area around Decathlon, Bauhaus and Media Markt. I always enjoy browsing around Meda Markt, even if there's nothing I need to buy. I have lunch at McDonald's (shock, horror) and then take the short walk to the pool, having wandered around the stores to let my lunch settle down.

Since I'm over 65, I only pay €31 a year for the membership at the pool which is great value. Normally there are six lanes open, labelled Slow, Medium and Fast but, on Wednesdays, there's an aquarobics class which takes up half the pool, so it's not the best time to go. Apart from concentrating all swimmers into three lanes, the class makes the water rather choppy; more like swimming at sea! Fortunately, normally there are only around six swimmers at any one time, so it doesn't get too crowded even with the class in action. I normally end up in the Medium speed lane but I can't swim more than 2 lengths without taking a breather. Maybe I should swim more slowly but I'm then in fear of sinking!

During the summer months, I go to the outdoor municipal pool in Celrà which is superb. One can easily avoid the busy times when the pool is full of children so I can swim several lengths without too much traffic!

Later.....
I added this paragraph after returning from my trip to Girona. I was at McDonald's and, as I looked up at their name on the side of the building, I realised I had left off the apostrophe earlier in this post. So I added it just now while no one was looking. This is a contentious issue in the UK at present with the book shop Waterstone's removing their apostrophe! You see, McDonald's actually belongs to someone called McDonald... I think.

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