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In
Copenhagen there is a place called DGI Byen. It's a sports and conference
complex that also houses a hotel, a restaurant and Vandkulturhuset
- the water culture house.
Vandkulturhuset is a series of modern pools that have great character. The best pool is called, pretentiously, The Ocean. Despite the terrible name it's a remarkable place because it's shaped like Piet Hein's famous super ellipse. Instead of swimming up and down you make a counter-clockwise circuit around it's 100 metre circumference. You need never stop or turn. It's a funny feeling. 
Inside the ellipse is the Sports Pool, a shallow pool for splashing and playing that has a secret: it's floor can be raised and lowered so that it turns into a platform. On important nights the pool hosts gala dinners, bigwigs sit on gold chairs, they banquet surrounded by a modern watery moat. There are more pools with wave machines, a Puddle for the littlest kids, and some activity pools that are a bit more familiar. But in another part of the complex is The Mountain Pool. It's seven sides host a climbing wall plus a sort of trampoline diving board thingie. I would love to bounce off this, but I am too afraid of breaking my neck or humiliating my fat old self in front of the excellent kids who play on it. Perhaps one night I might break into this pool and have a go, tentatively, and then more robustly. But why should I stop at that? The Mountain Pool also has a terrifying five metre diving platform, a see-saw, a running track and an underwater glass wall so that you can watch the action from outside. Watch me! Upstairs there's a spa. In the showers you can scrub yourself with salt and hay. I don't know why salt and hay are the things, but they smell good and they're pleasingly scratchy. The large sauna and steam rooms have glass walls - so luxurious. Water cascades everywhere from fountains, the overflowing plunge pool and, because this is the land of dark winters, there is a light box to remind you of the sun. This is a marvellous place. Let's go there together, let's have a party there. DGI Byen |
 
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