Amalienbad

The 33⅓-meter pool is in a gorgeous room. When I was there (late morning on a Saturday), it was divided into two lap lanes on the left, and a three-lane-wide open space on the right, which was filled with breast strokers. Of the two lap lanes, one was reserved for some mysterious letter/number code. I did see some teaching happen in it, but mostly it appeared to be unused. I swam my freestyle hour in the one remaining lane along with, annoyingly, three to four breaststrokers. Why weren't they in the big breaststroke area? Also, no proper waiting etiquette - multiple times I'd catch up to a breast stroker right at the wall, and they'd push off ahead of me anyway, when they should wait two seconds. There are no backstroke flags, but there are Ts on the bottom marking the lanes. I'm glad I swam here because I really enjoyed the 33⅓-meter length, but I would be reluctant to return unless I could know at what times it's less busy. It's clearly not a pool meant for or used by faster/training/freestyle swimmers.

Pool 2 is everything Pool 1 is not. Set for laps it has lane lines, trained swimmers, and is properly T marked at the end of lanes.

You're in a pool; make the most of it despite the crowded conditons and disinterested breast strokers.

The lack of lane lines made lap swimming a contact sport.

Architecturally interesting, but smelled of cigarette smoke from the café.

Definitely a breast-stroker’s pool, it's difficult to swim in a straight line without bumping into someone. If you keep an eye out it's possible to manage a crawl session.

The architecture is stunning.

No lane lines made lap swimming difficult.

Score: 4 on a scale of 10. There's no time when you can swim laps comfortably. Scores 4 because it has water.