Langerei

This guide to the Langerei in Bruges sets a centuries-old cargo canal, once queued with wool, wine and timber bound for the sea at Damme, against the summer of twenty twenty-six, when the city opened a swimming pool right inside it. It follows opening day, when about three hundred people slid off floating pontoons into water two meters deep, among them a father who biked over with his kids instead of driving to the coast. You'll hear about the two swim lanes side by side, a fifty-meter lap lane left to serious swimmers and a shallower, lifeguarded stretch for families. Stand at the grassy bank between the two lanes to take in the contrast yourself.