Müller'sches Volksbad

For the last few years, the pool has had two lanes set aside for swimming and circle swimming is required.

A classic pool built in 1901 in the Art Nouveau style (Jugendstil) with a lion's head fountain spitting water at the shallow end and a bronze statue at the other. A swim here in one of the two roped off lanes would top off any visit to Munich. It is quite easy to find, being just down river from the Deutsches Museum on the Isar and a short walk from the Isartor U-bahn station. The water temperature was pleasant for lap swimming. Flip turns are difficult in the shallow end but that is made up by the incredible ambiance.

When you pay the admission fee you get a card. Just around from the cashier there is a bank of small lockers for valuables. The card goes into any of the lockers that still have keys with yellow key bands stuck in them. There is a small arrow printed on the card, which goes down. Each locker has a number corresponding to a full locker upstairs in the locker area. Place your valuables in a small locker here; shut the door; remove the key for use in the full-size locker with the same number, upstairs. Red keys are for personal changing cabins, which appear not to be used by the walk-in guests.

There is also a separate, smaller pool with special swim times for women.

A lovely pool in an opulent setting, but geared more towards the social than the lap swimmer… There is one lane with the rest left open, I found lap swimming was difficult as there was no sense of swimming down one side and up the other.

Very beautiful, but forget doing laps. The spa is hard to beat.