My husband and I want to do the Limmat Schwimmen tomorrow and I was wondering if anyone had any inside scoop/experience such as:

*for the 25chf per person, is a float provided?
*do they transport your things to the end of the float or is there another way of storing towels/wallets, etc...

We just bought tickets kind of on a lark even though the official site, www.limmatschwimmen.ch is not very helpful with details ...

Thanks in advance for info - and if you're going to be there - have fun (I'll be the 8 month pregnant chick in the turquoise bikini...)

they do transport your things to the end.

im not sure about the floats.

enjoy though! im sure its fun!!

It's very pleasant to spend the best part of an hour bobbing along. You're given an alloted time and a barge will shift your belongings to the Oberer Letten, where there's usually würst and a warm drink waiting for you. They often offer a commemorative trinket such as a mug or glass.

It *can* get chilly if you're not used to being in the water, but never cold. All sorts of inflatables are used: most bring something daft to cling to and occassionally the organisers provide a beach ball or something small. All healthy stuff

thank you both for the valuable info -

we went and had a marvelous time - perfect weather and a good time had by all

Quite disappointed in this, it was fun but I wouldn't repeat it, half an hour queueing to get the start number and time (which was an hour and a half away) another queue after turning up at the allocated time. Heading down the river was fun then another half hour queue in a shaded tunnel wearing swim gear to get our bags back. Queue again to exchange tickets for tokens then another Q to exchange tokens for food, at which point I gave up.

Friends were unable to get a ticket and just walked up river and jumped in, by far the best approach, next year I'm taking a drybag for my gear and doing that.

It compared v poorly to the organisation of the Seeueberguerungen.

I have to agree rather.

The 40 minutes or so on the river was a lot of fun, but maybe not worth several hours of queuing... and i didn't bother waiting for the ugly commemorative glass or cheap wurst either.

Next year (if ther weather is good) I hope they focus more volunteers on the necessary services (ie, allocating times to ticket holders, returning bags) rather than on handing out glasses that are probably just going to be filling the Brokis or bottle banks by the end of the week anyway.