Badi is good

Happy summer! 

Today is the last day of school for kids here. I went for my first 2025 river swim two weeks ago, so I’ve already been in summer mode. Even before then, we had a couple hot days, and for once, the conditions were perfect for revisiting a childhood summer staple: the Badi (sounds like “body”), the pool, specifically the Gartenbad Bachgraben.

The pool lifeguard reprimanded my sister-in-law and I for taking pictures of my niece in the pool: no photos of the pool because of data privacy. So here’s unidentifiable adults swimming in the river, my preferred Badi.

Switzerland is full of Badis, or open-air public baths. I got that definition from this Zurich site, which reminded me that a Badi doesn’t just have to be a pool; you can have lake Badis and river Badis. There are two river Badis along the Rhine, the Rheinbad Breite and the Rhybadhysli Santihans. More about those… if I ever visit one. 

Our local Badi, Gartenbad Bachgraben, or just “Bachgraben,” opened in 1962, in part to offload the number of visitors at another Basel area pool called Eglisee. It was designed by Otto and Walter Senn, and both the Bachgraben and Eglisee Badis have been added to the city’s register of historic places. It’s weird to see architectural photos of the changing rooms, but they do give me a new perspective. 

I could have gone to the pool anytime over the last two summers I’ve been here. When we visited Switzerland in the 1990s, we went to the Badi at least once a summer, bopping between three of the complex’s four pools (the fourth is for parents with babies and toddlers). It was within walking distance, and eventually, we were allowed to go alone, a freedom unavailable to us in the U.S. Even if we could have, the single, overcrowded public pool in Lancaster, Texas, couldn’t compare to the grassy, four-pool haven here. 

The main attraction at the Bachgraben Badi was the three-meter (nine foot – people, I do the conversion for myself, in the hopes anything will ever stick) diving board at the deep pool. Who had the nerve to climb the ladder and jump into the cold water below? As a child, I could do it. Across town, at the St. Jakob’s pool, there was a 10-meter board (32 feet!). I always wondered if I would dare to jump, but I still have never been. The city added a slide and a lazy river to the family pool at our Badi, and those were enough to keep us entertained. 

Now that I have an actual river for swimming, I choose the Rhine (free) over the pool. But my brother’s recent visit coincided with a steamy Saturday. A trip to the pool with my nieces seemed like the best way to revisit it. 

Everything was as I remembered, but smaller, the way the desks at your elementary school are tiny to your adult frame. The vast, green lawns surrounding the pools seem less vast, the enormous pools more manageable for grown legs. The lazy river has embraced its name – the two functioning jets gently propel you into the river, leaving you to swim the remaining curve. The slide is still popular, and the three-meter diving board still has a line of children and teens waiting to test their bravery. I did not join that line, nor did I try the new climbing wall that you scale and then let go of to fall into the water. My brother successfully climbed and jumped off the diving board. He is not yet 40. 

What most closely resembled my pool memories was the water temperature: shockingly cold. I love this – who wants to swim in bathwater temperatures when it’s hot out? 

Gradually, I started feeling more chilled than refreshed. I also noticed my two-year-old niece shivering, but still insisting on jumping off the pool edge into my arms, again. 

“Again! Mamo time!” (one more time), until I was so cold, I set a limit of “two more times and then Linda has to get out.” 

The adults needed the break. The nieces, too – both had been shivering for a while, though I think neither would have called a time-out. The two-year-old, heartbroken (furious?) and still shivering, sobbed all the way back to the towels, and kept on, voicing what I feel every time I bike by the pool and across the river, headed to work on a hot day: 

“I want to swim! I want to swim!” 

Today in German: Touri

It’s exactly what it looks like: “tourist” without the last two letters, pronounced “too-ree.” I heard it from one person, confirmed it with another, who then showed me a meme about Touris. A quick search turns up a couple headlines about “Touri Hotspots.”

Who doesn’t love to complain about tourists? Now, when they’re standing on the left side of the escalator, you can complain in German slang.

Sources

“Gartenbad am Bachgraben.” Architektur Bibliothek.

“Gartenbad Bachgraben.” Badi-Info.ch - this site has information on possibly every pool in Switzerland, including history, opening times, pricing, and photos.

“Outdoor pools in Zurich.” Zurich.com