After another sweaty cave exploration, I had to get the sweat off. I was returning from Punkaharja back home to Kauniainen, but splitting the drive to two days by stopping for the night in Mikkeli. I always love the underground swimming halls (like those in Itäkeskus or Tampere), so now it was time for another one: the Naisvuoren uimahalli in Mikkeli. Deep inside the rocky hill in the middle of the city, home to gyms, swimming hall, and WWII-era command centers. Interesting place, must be like Swiss cheese inside that hill!
The swimming hall has one 25-meter pool with four lanes, a children's pool, a cold plunge pool, and a jacuzzi. Managed to swim 900 meters in the pool, it wasn't too busy in the main pool but the jacuzzi was packed.
More reading here,
Tower at the top of the mountain:
Tunnels leading to the swimming hall:
This article has also been published at Planetswimmer.com here. Read the full series of sauna and swimming stories from planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. No photos of swimmers are taken in these articles.
This article was originally published in the Planetskier Blogspot article series.
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