If you’ve been following me in my previous adventures, you know that I’m not only an avid runner but that I’m also trying to convert myself into a serious decent swimmer. For a long time, swimming has only been for me a makeshift activity when I was injured and could not run (which happened too frequently some time ago). At some point, I started to like swimming per se and decided to keep it in my sports routine as a cross-training activity. Then, every time I move to a new city, after wondering where to go running, I also wonder where to find a proper swimming pool.
Here are the swimming pools I tried and used to go to when I was living in Berlin, Paris, Vienna and Madrid.
Swimming in Berlin
Berlin, January 2018, my first real injury: shin splint, 3 months without running. The good side of it was that it forced me to find a replacement activity to stay in shape and maintain my endurance, and swimming appeared to me like the most obvious and easiest makeshift sports.
As I was living in Western Berlin, I tried two pools in Charlottenburg, that are next to each other but very different.
First try, the Stadtbad Charlottenburg alte halle (“the old pool”). A beautiful Art Nouveau building with a glass roof and murals on the walls. If that pool is worth visiting and great for a chill swim, it’s not appropriate for lap swimming. First, the pool is 25 meters long but they put a separation around 20 meters to make a children’s area. Second, it’s full of non-swimmers and you’ll have to avoid and swerve between grandmothers since there are no corridors. Third (and that probably explains the attraction for grandmothers), the water is surprisingly warm, actually too warm for lap swimming (first time is was feeling sweaty while swimming lol).
Second try then, the Stadtbad Charlottenburg neue halle (“the new pool”) next door. Nothing fancy, as it looks like any public swimming pool in France, but it’s clean, and the 50 meters pool is divided with lanes with proper swimmers.
Achtung: for most of the pools, you’ll need to go during specific “public” time slots, otherwise they are dedicated to swimming lessons. To find about swimming pools around you, prices and schedules, you can check this site (only in German unfortunately).
Swimming in Paris
I (stupidly) gave up swimming as soon as I could go back to running in April… And came back to it a few months later in Paris, when my shin splint was starting to come back after too many uphills runs in the Buttes Chaumont park.
My go-to swimming pool was Alfred Nakache, somehow hidden in a small street loaded with graffiti, somewhere between the Belleville avenue and Belleville street. I don’t have many memories about it, unless that it was relatively busy, but it was still possible to swim in corridors. I don’t have any picture of the pool either, just a photo of the street on the way out.
Swimming in Vienna
I kept swimming in my sports routine after Paris, and I used to go to the pool once a week as a cross-training session (at the university pool in Grenoble). When I got my second serious running injury, swimming became even more important to me as a way to stay in shape and keep my spirits up, and I started to go twice a week. So when I arrived in Vienna a few weeks after getting injured, finding a good pool became a priority.
I first gave a try to Amalienbad, a pool that had been recommended to me on an expat group. Amalienbad could be the twin of the Alte Halle of stadtbad Charlottenburg. A beautiful art deco building (even more impressive than the Berlin one), but hardly swimable. No swimming corridors, people to avoid all the time, warm water… keep it for sightseeing.
Second try, I randomly chose a pool based on Google map’s location, at the other side of the city but easily accessible by metro from my workplace. Donaustädter Bad was a decent 25 meters pool, with clean changing rooms, and swimming lanes with people swimming for real. The only annoying thing was you could get kicked out of your lane because of swimming classes for children, but still it was manageable.
Finally, Vienna was also my first attempts to swim in open water. Many spots are suitable and popular for that, whether on Donau Insel (in the “New Danube”) or in Kaisermühlen in the “Old Danube”. There are even some public beaches and swimming pools in both Neue and Alte Donau. You have to pay for entrance, but you have access to changing rooms, lockers, and a restricted zone for swimming with lifeguards.
Swimming in Madrid
Since I arrived in Madrid still stuck with that same endless injury, I quickly started to look for a pool around.
I can’t find anymore the first pool I tried (it was around Chamberi/Malasaña) but it was terrible anyway (too small, too expensive and time slots where too short).
I ended-up going to the posh Club Tejar de Somontes, because I had discounts with my school located nearby. The club is huge with plenty of sports amenities, including an olympic pool outdoor and a 25m pool indoor. The pool and the changing rooms were clean, modern and not crowded (I was often swimming alone indoors lol). But the entrance is quite priceya and the club is very (very very) far from the city.
A good option would be to check the public swimming pools (centros deportivos municipal), that are cheaper and well kept (there is more or less one per neighbourghood).
That list is not meant to be exhaustive, these are mere recommendations (or discouragement lol) based on my short experience in these four European capital cities. Don’t hesitate to share yours!