News on top, Sand and cities don't naturally go together, but they're matched to perfection at lidos, pop-up beaches and metro lakesides from Paris to Prague, via sandy Vienna.
Unless otherwise indicated, these urban beaches are free and open year round.
Strandbad Wannsee, Berlin
Best for: Sun-worshippers
A 20-minute train ride
from central Berlin, on the banks of the Wannsee Lake, gets you to the
largest inland lido (urban public swimming spot) in Europe -- the
swimming and sunbathing areas together cover around 35 hectares.
Berliners have been
heading here with their beach towels since 1907 to kick back on the
1,275-meter stretch of sand, shipped in from the Baltic Sea.
There's beach volleyball and giant chess games, a water slide into the lake and a nudist area.
Strandbad Wannsee; open until September 29, 2013; admission €4.50 adults, €2.80 children.
Lido di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Best for: Celeb spotting
Venice has its own
version of Palm Beach in the form of the Lido (after which many,
generally less impressive European swimming areas are named), an
11-kilometer-long sandbar, reached by ferry, that separates the Venetian
Lagoon from the Adriatic Sea.
One of the loveliest areas is the WWF-protected sandy dunes at Alberoni. Rare bee-eater birds are often seen here.
Visit the Lido during August and you may spot George Clooney or Helen Mirren -- big Hollywood names come for the Venice Film Festival (August 28 to September 7, 2013), held at the grand Palazzo del Cinema.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Post Comment