Danube hosts Europe’s biggest winter swim carnival

More than 1, 700 people braved the frigid waters of the River Danube for Europe’s biggest winter swim carnival, a colourful German tradition now in its 42nd year.Participants slid gingerly into the water, a bracing 2.5-degrees Celsius (36.5 degrees Fahrenheit), and set off toward the finish line in the southern German town of Neuburg an der Donau four kilometres (2.5 miles) down river.Many let out an exhilarated squeal as they made contact.“This is my 18th time and I love every minute of it,” said 62-year-old metalworker Hans Hartmann, one of 1,760 participants from across Europe.“There is nothing like the feeling of swimming past the Neuburg skyline and hearing the fans cheer you on. If you’re in good shape and the (wet) suit fits then it’s not even that cold.”Twenty “polar bears” dispensed with thermal wetsuits and went in wearing just swimming trunks or a swimsuit, for a 350 metre- (1,150 foot-) long dip in the Danube. Rainbow-coloured clown wigs or tall black witches’ hats topped off the look.As they emerged from the water into an air temperature of minus seven degrees Celsius, a group calling themselves the “polar witches” stood shivering but invigorated in black bathing suits and spiderweb stockings.The idea of the Donauschwimmen, as the event here is known, was born in 1970 when the local volunteer lifeguard service wanted to test whether it was prepared to handle winter rescue operations, spokesman Roland Sammet said.More than 220 groups now participate including firefighters, soldiers, diving clubs and hobby winter swimming enthusiasts, with the oldest swimmer this year 73-year-old Wolfgang Merkel. They launched dozens of floats on pontoons alongside the swimmers, playing German pop music and decorated with the names of their towns, companies or favourite sports teams. Some floats had a political theme, protesting a recent dioxin contamination scandal with German eggs, the extension of the country’s nuclear power programme and even the eurozone debt crisis, with cardboard sinking ships labelled “Greece”, “Spain” and “Portugal – Dailytimes