Swimming Pool Rant

My daughter's first artwork on this rainbow paper, can you see what she drew?

Boulevard walks

It's summer and we live on the Spanish coast, the only logical thing to think is that we head to the beach very often. We do, but not to swim, we walk on the boulevard as these are practically the only longer parts to walk without going up and downhill constantly (read: mess up my knees again). I love walking there because of the hustle and bustle, people watching, listening to the waves and just enjoying the ocean breeze (if there is any).

I upped my walking game again recently when this back pain issue appeared because it's simply quite often the only activity I can do without making things worse. It's good to keep moving and at least then I know I will not make anything worse before I see the trauma doc again with the scan results.

Heat and water

With the heatwave from July and one currently going on (or coming soon, I'm not sure, lol) it's not a luxury to cool off in some water. As the beaches here are not my cup of tea, I'm not keen on getting into the water anymore after one failed attempt upon arrival the other summer. Yes, you read it right, we have not tried again simply because I know it will be hard to stand stable with these shitty kneecaps of mine, I prefer not to test my luck.

We tried moving to an apartment with a pool before summer and failed. We tried focusing on moving after this summer and will fail again because of needing another computer first. I'm fine with it, once the summer is over the cravings for water dipping will slowly fade to make place for a long boulevard walk anyway.

Finding a swimming pool

I was determined to find a public pool over having another attempt at the beach. I remember finding one in the big city last summer but we didn't have a car to get there and it was impossible to get there by public transport, I'm glad we didn't try either. You will find out why in a bit.

You'd expect there to be several public pools in the big cities (we had several in our Dutch town anyway so I expect even more here in Spain) but I could not find more than 1 outside pool. I mean our neighbor town has an indoor one as well but that's not what we were looking for in terms of cooling off from the heat so I didn't find that one optional.

The one outside pool looks amazing, it's clean and perfect for some hours in the pool, the entrance is only 1 euro as well. I mean, what else do you want, right? It's about 20 minutes from our home to get there and is located just outside the city in a neighboring little town of the capital. I was happy to find it again last week and Saturday was the day to go there. All happy and ready to have some water dipping moments and relax in the water, heck, I'd even try some exercises in the water for my back to get some relief.

No entrance

Upon arrival, we were met by a guy who explained in rapid Spanish to us that we could not enter, that I understood but the whole why part went way too fast, and above our heads some question marks appeared trying to process his response. Something with an app as well as paying with the app was also mentioned so I asked which app he meant to hopefully find more answers to my questions. App installed, and then he started to speak English and explained that there are only 10 tickets available every day for people not living in this town. I mean 10 out of 150 people, that's not much, is it if you have a family of 4 times two and then we arrive with the 3 of us, we are already out of luck as we would count 11 where 10 are allowed.

I asked him if we had a shot coming back the next day arriving at opening time, and he said maybe if you come within the first 30 minutes. Got it, we arrived 10 minutes before opening to find already 25 others waiting there. Sigh, I knew this was going to be another failed attempt. When we were inside the reception, the guy already put up the sign that it was full for non-residents of this town and he didn't even bother to tell us we weren't counted in those 10 tickets.

Daughter in tears

Of course, our daughter was sad that for the second day in a row, we went there without being able to access the pool. Honestly, we were both very disappointed as well because it was already 37 degrees and we were ready for a dip in the pool. We could not understand how in this whole coastal area there is just 1 outside pool like this one and only has access for 10 people not living in this little town every day. I mean it's not that you would be happy to stand in that bloody sun for an hour waiting to make sure you're the first one to enter. The sun was already burning as hell.

We have one water park as well but the entrance there is 25 euros for adults so you do the math what a few hours there costs. I've been told many times that it's not worth the money of the entrance as well.

Amazed by the rules

Which of these government people gets to decide how many of the people entering the pool can be non-residents and then comes up with 10 max a day when most families come with 4 people (or more)? We were told o come back during weekdays but my boyfriend already had a week off at the start of the summer and I'm not allowed to drive with my heavy meds. I feel properly screwed over now that I can't even have a decent swim unless I go for an indoor pool, which often feels worse than being outside because of the inside humidity at these pools.

Daddy to the rescue

Although my boyfriend hates beaches unless it's for kitesurfing, he decided to take her to the beach yesterday and spent a few hours there. The kid was happy and he said he will go a few more times with her this week, but as yesterday, in the evening when the UV index is much lower than in the afternoon.

End of my swimming pool rant, back to being positive!