Another Baltic Beach

This was perhaps the last day of summer - the weather report is predicting rain and cool temperatures for the next week. Typical, when I finally have time for vacation, the weather turns bad.

The closest Baltic beach is in Åhus, although I've had a house in Sweden for 10 years, I've only ever been to the beach in Ystad 'cause friends live there.

On approach the beach has a bit of a "Fifties" feel with the sculpture and the hotel on the beach, as well as the ice cream shop. Åhus is famous for three things: ice cream, Absolut vodka, and potato chips, the perfect place for a vacation! There is a sign that they are building a beach handball field to open in 2007, that should be fun.

This is a bit wider beach than most, so you will end up having people behind you and people between you and the water. Looks crowded, until you remember how thick the crowds are at the Wannsee...

The water is colder than on Fehmarn, but is very flat, so you can go out quite a ways. There is a nice bridge that helps short-sighted people not stray too far away and is used by the local kids for jumping into the water. I do hope the water is deeper near the bridge than it is where I am swimming.... The waves come sideways, so you can do a lot of swimming in place. All my muscles are sore this morning from all that exercise...

What do Swedes do at the beach? Get a suntan, read, play volleyball or tennis, or play with their mobile phones! I would have thought the sun would preclude the use of phones for much more than just calling people, but many sat for long periods of time, smiling goofily into their phones.

It is interesting to see the changes in demeanor at Swedish beaches. In order to change into your swimsuit you used to have to drape a towel around you and do this silly dance so no one sees your "private parts". Some still do today, but there are quite a number who just let it all drop and then get into their swim things, much to the delight of many of the middle aged men in the area. It was interesting to see many women in bikinis who wear not only my clothing size, but even larger sizes. They just let it all hang out! There are, according to Sydsvenskan, even nudist beaches now in Sweden.

There are a number of sweet little painted wooden changing houses dotting the beach. People pay to rent one so that they can change in a bit of privacy and then lock up their valuables. Not a bad idea, and it looks so nice with all of the different colors.

On the way home there is this bicycle parked in the middle of the pavement. It takes a minute
to register what the problem is. I don't really think that this is made for cross-country biking,
or for the Tour de France, but I bet the bike seat doesn't get stolen!