«Hains» Freizeitzentrum Freital — Wasserwelten

Wasserwelten is the bathing section of the “Hains” Freizeitzentrum in Freital, Saxony, a multi-activity leisure centre at An der Kleinbahn 24 that also runs an ice rink, bowling, a fitness club, ball courts, a restaurant and a caravan site. The water is plain heated indoor pool water: the operator describes no spring, no thermal source and no brine bathing water anywhere in the bath, and the only brine on the premises is the open-air Gradierwerk in the sauna garden, which is a graduation tower for inhaling salt-laden air rather than a pool.

The operator lists the pools: a swimmers' pool with five 25 m lanes, a 20 m multi-purpose pool with two lanes and a current channel, an adventure toddlers' pool, a children's slide, and a relaxation pool with massage jets. Two slides dominate the adventure part. The tyre slide is given as 141.60 m long with a 12.24 m start height, an average gradient of 9.50 per cent and 0.35 m water depth, with a “Magic Cone” funnel element and black-hole sections; the double-tube slide is given as 113.80 m long from the same 12.24 m start, with two lanes inside a single tube so that two riders race side by side, with timing to the hundredth of a second. The operator states this double-tube slide is the first of its kind built anywhere. A minimum age of 8 is recommended for both.

The sauna landscape includes use of the indoor pool during public swimming hours. It comprises a steam bath at 45–50 °C, a log-house sauna at 80–85 °C with infusions on the half hour, a fireplace sauna up to 95 °C with infusions on the hour, a herbal sauna at 65–75 °C nebulising Himalayan salt, an infrared cabin at 35–42 °C and a bio sauna at 50–60 °C, plus two rest rooms, a roof terrace, a cold-water pool, a Kneipp pool at 10–16 °C and the sauna garden with the graduation tower, whose natural brine is stated at between 6 and 10 per cent salt.

The bath is open year round. Public swimming in the 20 m pool runs 06:30–22:00, with the 25 m lane pool available in narrower windows that vary by weekday because of courses and club use, from 06:30 on weekdays and 07:00 at weekends, until 22:00. The slides run 09:00–21:00 at weekends, on public holidays and in the school holidays; during the week they may be temporarily closed when few visitors are in, and open on request. The paddling pool closes at 19:00 on Thursdays.

The centre traces the bath to 1978, when the Schwimmhalle Hainsberg was opened because of a shortage of baths around Freital, with a 25 m five-lane sports pool and a teaching pool. Construction work from March 1997 produced the ice rink and then the “Hains” leisure centre under its present name.