Beachy

I grew up at the beach in Florida, and visit it each year in Maryland or Virginia. There we roll out our towels on the sand and lie in the hot sun; we read books, surf, play Frisbee. When I was a kid, there was one place where we could buy food: the Sea Burger, which served bad hamburgers, fries, soda and ice cream.

What we did not do at the beach was drink coffee. Or steins of beer. Or have espresso and pastries in the afternoon. Or meet friends for a game of cards at a café table near the water.

These are the things people do at German and Swiss beaches.

The two lakeside beaches I visited during my trip to Europe each had a perfect mix of sun and shade. Sticky sand in the bindings of our books wasn’t an issue, as we could choose to spread out our towels on grass. At Lake Maggiore, where we went to the Lido Locarno, the sand that was along the shore was fine, like ocean beach sand, and the water was clear. Sailboats and small power boats drifted out past a raft you could swim to, but the water was so cold I only stayed in for long enough to dunk my head and gasp, then get back out into the sun.

There was a playground for children, and an older couple playing cards at one of the tables set up under a bit of shelter where, in the U.S., a boardwalk might have been. We set up another table and took advantage of the free wi-fi to book a hotel in the next town on our itinerary.

Nearby, another table of two old women enjoyed cappuccino and pastry. A big-bellied, shirtless man on the other side held his beer glass up to the sunlight, considering what—its amber color? Anticipating its refreshing bite?—before taking another gulp. The locals greeted one another as they arrived as if these were the weekly routine.

There were young children everywhere, from babies to teens, but none of the sun-scorched, overtired screeching I associate with an American day at the beach. In fact, I didn’t even smell sunscreen. And although there was ice cream, there was no sugary-sweet smell of waffle cones or the scent of fried foods in the air.

Here at the lakeside beach in Kaiserslautern, a similarly bucolic scene surrounds us. We are camped out in the shade of dozens of tall birches in an enormous grassy field. There is plenty of shade—or sun—for everyone. Two pairs of people play badminton (no net). Earlier we tossed an aerobie (those middle-less Frisbees) beside some Americans playing catch with a baseball. On the water, a rowboat glides quietly; a few children splash in the shallows, and some swimmers congregate on the dock. The water is cold—68 degrees F, 20 degrees Celsius—but much warmer than Maggiore, so I swim briefly before getting out. It’s also browner, with an odd, slimy feel to it. And the “sand” looks more like dirt, plowed up in a neat rectangle beside the lake as if it’s ready to plant. We stay on the grass.

About 20 yards from the water is a group of tables at an outdoor, self-serve restaurant – as in, order fries or spaghetti or bratwurst and pick up when ready. Again, there’s a couple playing cards. Some friends drinking steins of beer. People eating French fries, with mayonnaise. There are showers and bathrooms and cabanas is you want to store beach chairs and rafts and inflatable canoes.

We have these sorts of things at some of our U.S. beaches, I suppose. Perhaps one of the differences, the open space for example, is due to these being lakes, and not ocean beaches. The sun is less scorching, the surf less frantic. There is some sort of calm over the scene that is generally missing at so many crowded American beaches in summer.

Also, nearly all the women wear bikinis, regardless of their age, and the men are in various lengths of shorts, from stretchy, just-below-the-buttocks style (just short of speedo-style) to knee-length and baggy. In the farther reaches of the closely-clipped, grassy field are a couple of nude sunbathers. No one seems particularly body conscious, neither preening about what babes and studs they are, or embarrassed that they don’t meet the expectation of a magazine-perfect body.

People are relaxed. We happily follow suit.