Zurich Is On The Slide

The weather is hot, hot, hot so what better way to cool off than sliding down a plastic tube whilst having cold water is forced up your nose. Actually i love a water slide and if you can get past the missing swimming suits and feelings of unbridled terror as the person in front of you blocks the tube it is a great way to spend a summers afternoon. Zurich boasts a few water slides in the public badi’s and, if you can get there while the kids are in school, you might not even have to queue. I have listed by length with the shortest first because in this particular case size does matter.

Sitting on the periphery of the city in district 12 is the outdoor pool at Auhof. This boasts a 58 meter slide which, due to its remote location, never has queues. Except on Wednesdays. Or at weekends. Or during the holidays. Okay, sometimes you can hop straight on…if you are lucky.

Things i like about the Strandbad Tiefenbrunnen. The entrance with the weird mushrooms. The five meter diving board. (you should see my swan dive. An elegant dream) The french fries. The 62 meter slide, directly into the lake.

The water slide at the outdoor pool at Freibad Allenmoos is a muscular 72 meters long and with an average speed of over 30km per hour you can scream, airborne, for 8.64 seconds before you land in the water with the grace of whale being dropped from a helicopter. 

My program at the Freibad Seebach goes something like this. Mop the floor with a few kids at basketball. (provided they are under 12 years old and short for their age) Barge to the front of the queue and slide down the 75 meter slide into the paddling pool. Steal a rubber ring from one of the kids and float serenely whilst being serenaded by their wailing…until their father tries to tear me a new one. Run away.

Since it’s reopening in May 2018 the pool at Heuried has been one of my favourite haunts. There are many reasons for this, the main one being the waterslide which is the longest in the canton. 132 meters of fun and swallowing water. The most fun someone can have whilst trying to keep their clothes on.

And if it's raining?

bad-altstetten.ch

The swimming pool at Altstetten is the perfect choice if the weather is bad. Not only is the water slide the longest indoor slide in the canton but the middle section is pitch black, robbing you of any orientation and is followed by a kaleidoscope of black and white tracks. Just like an LSD trip… at least that is what someone told me. Also there is the heated outdoor pool which is reserved for adults only..