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For the first time we had decided to watch the daring (or crazy?) ice swimmers. So we made our way to the Burhave dike on New Year's day - along with about 2,000 other visitors! It was freezing - the air temperature of -2 ° felt much colder and the wind drove the tears into our eyes. According to the announcement of Peter Diekelmann, who provided the entertainment with his mobile stage, the water temperature of the lagoon was not much better: just 2 ° C - brrrr!
As the event was supposed to start at 2 pm, everybody tried to keep warm by walking around - a human caravan circling the lagoon for a good hour. The volunteers of the DLRG (lifeguards) were keeping their well wrapped hands busy to free the swimming area of ice - the drifting ice flows were just over 2 inches thick and had to be cleared and crushed to make way for the first swimmers of the new year.
Finally it was time to start the event. After the presentation of all 46 hardcore swimmers on the stage it was: Get out of your clothes and step into your swimsuit / bikini! To make sure that at least the head kept warm, some were wearing wooly hats, others held umbrellas (surely not much help against the biting cold - but looked funny and held up their good humor). They were led by Neptune himself (Manfred Schmidthüsen) who decided to oversee the spectacle from the shore ;-). With a lot of screaming the swimmers plunged into the water and a few of the "old hands" even swam a few laps in the freezing water! Then they went back into the shelter of the tent with lobster-red bodies - some at quite a leisurely pace and barefoot! We ourselves left in somewhat of a hurry to go home and warm our shivering bodies and cold feet.
Hats off to the swimmers! They certainly won´t catch a cold that easy - if they survived the New Year swimming!
One downside - and perhaps a suggestion for improvement for the next year: Please ensure that there are plenty of hot drinks for younger guests too! While the mulled wine kept the adults nice and warm, a hot cocoa or fruit punch for the children would have certainly tasted better than the ice-cold lemonade on offer! With a warming soup from the cook-house, or a bratwurst and hot cocoa many of us might have stayed on for a while after the swimmers had done their bit ;-)
As the event was supposed to start at 2 pm, everybody tried to keep warm by walking around - a human caravan circling the lagoon for a good hour. The volunteers of the DLRG (lifeguards) were keeping their well wrapped hands busy to free the swimming area of ice - the drifting ice flows were just over 2 inches thick and had to be cleared and crushed to make way for the first swimmers of the new year.
Finally it was time to start the event. After the presentation of all 46 hardcore swimmers on the stage it was: Get out of your clothes and step into your swimsuit / bikini! To make sure that at least the head kept warm, some were wearing wooly hats, others held umbrellas (surely not much help against the biting cold - but looked funny and held up their good humor). They were led by Neptune himself (Manfred Schmidthüsen) who decided to oversee the spectacle from the shore ;-). With a lot of screaming the swimmers plunged into the water and a few of the "old hands" even swam a few laps in the freezing water! Then they went back into the shelter of the tent with lobster-red bodies - some at quite a leisurely pace and barefoot! We ourselves left in somewhat of a hurry to go home and warm our shivering bodies and cold feet.
Hats off to the swimmers! They certainly won´t catch a cold that easy - if they survived the New Year swimming!
One downside - and perhaps a suggestion for improvement for the next year: Please ensure that there are plenty of hot drinks for younger guests too! While the mulled wine kept the adults nice and warm, a hot cocoa or fruit punch for the children would have certainly tasted better than the ice-cold lemonade on offer! With a warming soup from the cook-house, or a bratwurst and hot cocoa many of us might have stayed on for a while after the swimmers had done their bit ;-)
