Polar Bear Swim | schwingeninswitzerland

Scandinavia is known for its saunas. While we were there, we indulged and I developed a new addiction. They are amazing. I want one, maybe we should build a home sauna in our basement bomb shelter…

Traditionally, Saunas are wood paneled rooms (sometimes in cabins like the one below) with wooden benches that are heated with wood fired stoves topped with rocks. Today, many of the stoves are electric (for the heating unit). Infrared saunas exist, but the steam is part of what makes it so good.

You ladle water onto the rocks/stove to create steam. We saw shops selling fancy buckets and ladles all over Scandinavia. Since warm air rises, the higher the bench, the hotter the temperature. It gets really hot and you sweat out all sorts of toxins.

Locals claim that slapping the skin with birch branches enhances circulation. They also believe that the chlorophyll releases opens your sinuses. Being American, we didn’t beat each other with branches or didn’t go in the buff (although locals do both).

We did, however repeatedly cool off. Many take a cold shower. If there is snow, people will go roll around in it.

Our favorite way of cooling off spot was on the island of Grinda in Stockholm’s archipelago. We started by walking tentatively into the Baltic Sea and ended by taking giant leaps into it. Even though I hate Polar Bear swims, I’d jump in from the sauna every day if I could.

It is the middle of winter so I wasn’t expecting warm weather in Geneva, but I wasn’t really expecting this either. Europe is experiencing extremely cold temperatures. The weather forecast: more severe cold. The bitterly cold weather will continue through the weekend thanks to a dip in the jet stream that has allowed a large area of high pressure to move west from Siberia.

freezing in Geneva

Cold weather gear, check. Hats, scarves, sweaters, coats, gloves, mittens, long underwear, wool socks, boots, I have been wearing it all. At once. While drinking hot tea. Sitting underneath a blanket. With the radiators blasting.

The Jet d’Eau is off until further notice for obvious reasons

This weekend, it was -12 C (10.4 F) when we got on the chair lift to head to the much colder mountaintop. While the chair lift wasn’t warm, we are lucky because the cold snap hasn’t created major problems for us. Others have not been so fortunate:

Occupy Geneva has been disbanded, not because the government is broke it up, but because someone froze to death.

A Death In The Stronghold Of Occupy Geneva

An Eccentric Distantly Related to Occupy Geneva Dead At The Camp

In Eastern Europe, people got snowed into their cars and almost froze to death on roadsides. Entire villages and regions are inaccessible.

Courtesy of World Bulletin.net

In Hungary, people combed through a disused mine’s refuse pile with their bare hands to get coal.

Courtesy of MSNBC/AP

Hundreds of homeless across Eastern Europe and in Russia have also frozen to death.
Greece and Bosnia have declared states of emergency.

Courtesy AFP/Getty Images

London’s Heathrow Airport cancelled half its flights on Sunday.

There have also been some more (and some less) humorous stories about people’s experiences with the cold.

Our friend from Poland told us that they are leaving their cars running overnight because temperatures are so cold that they won’t start.

Bosnian snowboarders took advantage of a record snowfall and snowboarded down the streets of Sarajevo. People also snowboarded next to the Colosseum.

When I opened the paper yesterday, I saw a story about someone who went swimming in Lac Leman (Lake Geneva)!

courtesy of You Tube

In Belgium, temperatures of -10 C kept intoxilyzers, machines to test motorists’ alcohol levels, from functioning.
courtesy of BBC and AFP
Cars parked by Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) have frozen in place. They are stuck because scraping ice off can take the paint with it. Today, someone told me a story about this happening to an expensive sports car. The owner elicited professional help to melt the ice so he could get his baby to a garage.