When summer finally rolls around, I, like everyone, like to head to the ocean. In Germany, ocean is scarce and one has to go to the very north of the country to get sandy beaches.

Instead of driving for 7 hours or so, we decided to head to a lake, about 37 minutes from home.

Aileswasensee is a man-made lake in Neckartailfingen. Funny enough, I had been here before, about 2 summers ago as we tried to find a spot to plant ourselves on a very hot day. We ended up walking one time around the whole lake, even past the FKK-Beach (the nude area) where I tried really hard to avert my eyes from the many bodies of different ages and levels of fitness. Back then we gave up and headed to a swimming pool with a grassy outdoors area. This time, our friends got there earlier in the morning and reserved everyone else a space. Perfect.

Arriving at 2.30pm we managed to get a 2-hr free parking space and found our friends chilling by the water. Now I have never really been swimming in a lake and the idea made me feel a bit grossed out because the water is always the same water and the creatures living in it only have a certain amount of space in which they can live.

I finally decided to go in because it was either enter the cool water or sweat it out on land. I was pleasantly surprised. The ground was sandy, something that I am used to and although the water had weird currents, sometimes cold, sometimes warm, it was a nice experience. I didn’t head out too far, knowing that my friends had felt some weird, slippery areas underwater, and can say that I would do it again.

There are some beachy sand areas that lead into the water, which made me feel more at home. It’s a bit weird going into water that is murky but it’s really not bad at all.

You can make it a whole day affair because there’s a kiosk where you can buy food and drinks and even get changed. Germans like to bring there dogs with them wherever they go, but in this case, thankfully dogs are not allowed in the lake.