Marvelous Mainz (Pools #660 and #779)

25 March 2026

Mainz, Germany really is a wonderful city, nestled on the south side of the Rhine River, due south of Weisbaden and southwest of Frankfurt, this burg of about 225,000 people has everything I need for a productive business trip: an easily accessible main train station with decent hotels and reasonably priced (but good) restaurants in walking distance and two great public pools. Until today, I've always swum at the Taubertsberg Bad as it's an easy 5-10 minute walk from any of the hotels I stay at:

Pool #660 - Taubertsberg Bad (March 2024)

Taubertsberg Bad is a 50 meter pool, but they have a permanent bulkhead across 6 lanes to create a 25 meter lane swimming course and then more of a water-walking floating area on the other side. Technically, that should leave two 50 meter lanes, but they've always had a rope at the 25 meter mark of those whenever I've been there. It's a lovely pool with early morning swim hours and they remove the bubble in the summer (see here).

It's a great pool and I imagine I'll still swim here more often on future biz trips just for its sheer convenience ... and because I'm waiting for the day when they open the remodeled all-year-round, indoor pool (the constructions signs of which still indicate that it should actually already be opened by now):

But, I've always had my eye and sometimes had my intentions on making the ~30/40 minute bus trek to the Schwimmbad Mainzer Schwimverein to swim in their eight-lane, 50 meter pool. Something always got in the way ... meaning either a desire for sleep or an earlier than desired client meeting ... until today, when I finally jumped on the 60 city bus and made it there with enough time to notch a solid 3,000 meters before the 8am end to the frühschwimmer time.

What I found was a sparsely attended (3-4 swimmers per lane) beautifully clean pool with small, but synchronized pace clocks at each end of the pool, and a mellow, but committed vibe. The swimmers were close-to-universally competent (edging towards fast for a few of them) with great lane etiquette. The air and water temperature were perfect, and the universal change rooms were connected via an air locked tunnel to the bubble.

Pool #779 - Schwimmbad Mainzer Schwimverein

With no complaints about Taubertsberg Bad intended, this pool was a far superior training environment. I need to try to arrange my work-life to allow me to spend more time here in the future.

... and I need to remember to bring cash. The only downside of this pool, versus Taubertsberg's online ticketing / Apple Pass / digital check-in, is that they only take cash. It's a bargain at €4.50 ... but I have gotten so used to digital only currency that I almost didn't get in as I had brought no euro bills. Fortunately, in my "locker change canister" I had just enough to get me in for the swim with still a euro coin to spare for the locker!