Pictured on the right, the beach on the River Promenade just below the cathedral is hugely popular on warm summer days and packed with sunbathers — so much so that it’s easy to forget you are over 300 km away from the nearest piece of coast. It is possible to take a quick dip, but stay very close to land as the current is strong, and keep in mind there are old world Chinese and Russian industries upstream. Usually there are some inflatable slides set up for kids.