Iceland
By Deborah, People’s Pool Founder
Iceland does pretty much everything right when it comes to swimming and bathing (and so much else). Outdoor pools are simply a way of life here. Every town has at least one, and pools are dotted seemingly at random all around the landscape.
As casually as we go for coffee, Icelanders go to the pool, and simmer with friends in the ‘hot pots’, catching up on gossip and putting the world to rights as the naturally heated geothermal waters soak away their stresses and strains, aches and pains.
I was lucky enough to visit for a few days in early March and managed to fit in a wallow in the legendary Blue Lagoon, as well as six swims in Reykjavik’s three main municipal pools.
The almost-natural Blue Lagoon (actually formed by overflow from a nearby geothermal power plant) is an absolute wonder, and a perfect way to unwind on the way in from the airport. This is the tourist’s luxury version of Iceland’s thermal waters.
Much more accessible and truer to everyday Icelandic life are Reykjavik’s municipal pools. The pools open from early morning to late evening every day of the year, and are free for those aged 0-5 and 67+.
Laugardalslaug is the largest pool in Iceland – an Olympic-sized pool with big, adjoining play and sports pools, a huge flume and ten hot pots. Sundhollin, the most central, is recently refurbished, with a cathedral-like indoor pool too. Suburban Vesturbaejarlaug is much more modest, but also has a volleyball pool and hot pots of various sizes and temperatures, and lots of original 1960s features.
Once past the initial culture shock of having to shower naked, communally, before swimming (it reduces the need for pool chemicals as well as being generally pretty sensible), a delicious experience awaits.
At Laugardalslaug, the air temperature was 2 degrees. At Sundhollin, sharp winds whipped across the surface. At Vesturbaejarlaug, it actually snowed.
But with the water naturally heated to 28 degrees, and underwater lighting for early mornings and evenings, each offered a perfect and atmospheric swim. And then of course, there were the hot pots. Ranging in temperature from 38 to 45 degrees, they’re a wonderful treat for body and soul and a great social melting pot.
Swimming is part of Icelandic life from cradle to grave. And Iceland is a fixture in the top five in the UN’s World Happiness Reports. We can’t help but agree with this BBC film that these two facts must be connected.
This lovely film shows that ‘A community without a public swimming pool, including a hot tub, is considered incomplete’.
And here, Kate Rew, founder of the Outdoor Swimming Society, picks out some of her favourites.
