I spent last summer vacationing in Europe. I started in London – it rained, travelled through France and stayed in an old converted remote farmhouse with its own pool and then travelled down through Spain to the Costa del Sol where I then spent 3 weeks in a villa high in the Andalusian mountains with stunning sea and mountain views and of course its own swimming pool. Both pools were unique and were self-builds. The swimming pool in Spain had been built by the villa owner, a great guy called John, who was an ex pat builder from London. The swimming pool he had built was 25 ft by 32 ft. It wasn’t square, the floor wasn’t level, the tiling wasn’t level, the slope of the floor wasn’t even, and you know, it was the best swimming pool I’ve ever been in. It was great.
I had travelled to Spain to see the area as its somewhere I had always wanted to visit on a vacation and do you know, I need to go back as I didn’t see a great deal of it. I spent most of the 3 weeks I was there in the pool. The swimming pool had what they call in England, rustic charm. The sides were not straight, the floor tiles were slightly uneven and the floor sloped ever so slightly from side to side but taken with the converted stables, now a villa, and the country setting it worked and worked very well. It was the best swimming pool I’ve ever been in. If I was building a swimming pool this is how I would build it. However, a swimming pool like this would not work with a new build house, it just wouldn’t suit it.
Take the swimming pool in France. This was much more of a modern pool but again was in a countryside setting so a really formal new swimming pool wouldn’t work and I’m pleased to say that this wasn’t a formal swimming pool although at least everything was straight like the sides of the pool. Again, the design was something I had never seen before. The swimming pool sloped down from the shallow end but at a certain point, the deep part fell away on all 4 sides to become 12 ft deep. However, it had an underwater ledge about 3 ft below the surface all the way round the pool. It was great for chasing the kids round the pool, or for them chasing me, and we had a fantastic holiday with 2 fantastic pools.
The trouble was though that although I had a very long vacation, I didn’t see a great deal of France or Spain except when we were travelling. The reason, well I’m sure you can guess. If not here’s a clue. I had 2 fantastic swimming pools. I am sure I can describe the swimming pools better than the countryside local to where I stayed. I’ll have to go back next year and try again but I know I’ll be distracted by the swimming pools when choosing somewhere to stay. Then again I could try a mountain cabin with a lake to swim in. That’s something I’ve always thought would be fun. It’s a tough choice, lake or swimming pool. Maybe I can try both or better still perhaps its time I built my own swimming pool at home.
