In Munich, women are now allowed to swim topless in the outdoor pools. In other words, no one at the public utility company wants to say it so explicitly and perhaps even actively promote topless bathing, they prefer to formulate it in a complicated way, from behind through the changing room, so to speak. According to the house rules “General conditions for the use of the bathing facilities of the Stadtwerke München GmbH”: the “minimum requirement for the use of the swimming pools” is now wearing “swimming trunks” – for everyone.
Now you have to take a moment and be grateful that after all, swimming trunks have been chosen as the lowest common denominator. Because the World Cup mascot Goleo once impressively demonstrated how funny it can look when you’re only out and about in a top and no pants. A lion with no pants, with a t-shirt. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem friendly (which was probably intentional), but as if Geoleo was quite a Druffi and hadn’t found his pants in the morning after a long night at the club.
The DFB, like the public utility company, has learned something new: This week the mascot for the EM 2024 in Germany was presented. A teddy bear, still nameless, but with jersey and pants.
So back to the pool. Anyone who wants to go there at the moment will find that topless bathing is not the biggest issue – but the presence of pants is really comforting. Finding a parking space for your bike is so impossible that you wish you had pulled up in an SUV because at least it is air-conditioned. At least you’re wearing pants! Is the towel Tetris on the sunbathing area too much for you? Not too close to people with small children, not too close to the tattooed couple who are massaging each other so devotedly on the open meadow. But hey, at least you (and they do!) have pants on.
During the ritual walk to the outdoor pool kiosk, the line of people wraps itself around the corner, over the bridge past the baby pool, back into its own towel and up to Freising. After 30 minutes you look longingly into the ice chest – and you realize: completely empty? And now imagine not only having no ice cream, but no pants either. So: Thank you, dear Stadtwerke, for this new regulation!