Weidener Thermenwelt

The Weidener Thermenwelt is the municipal thermal bath of Weiden in der Oberpfalz, part of the town's leisure centre on Raiffeisenstraße next to the Hans-Schröpf-Arena and reachable on three city bus lines. The operator counts five separate pools. The largest is the thermal basin, filled from a deep borehole and held at 31 °C, which reaches from the hall through to the open air so that bathers swim outside without leaving the water. It offers underwater loungers and massage jets for those who want to lie still, waterfalls to stand under, a white-water channel with eddies and rapids for those who do not, and a fenced-off section where non-swimmers can use the water safely.

Sport has its own water. The 25-metre pool has six lanes at 27 °C and is shared with clubs and courses under a published lane plan; aqua-jogging belts can be hired at the desk for a euro. Next to it is a diving pool four metres deep at 26 °C, with boards at one, three and five metres and a seven-metre water-climbing wall at its edge — and when the sports pool is booked out, that basin takes the swimmers instead, with tower and wall closed for the duration. Children have two pools of their own: a toddler basin at 32 °C with water-spouting animals and a small slide, and a fun pool of roughly 65 m² aimed at three- to nine-year-olds, with several slides, waterfalls and boats. The two hot whirlpools at 35 °C are the warmest water in the house, and the 107-metre giant slide, which runs dark and then light through its curves, is the headline attraction.

The sauna world is unusually large for a town of this size. Four cabins stand indoors: a Finnish sauna at 85 to 95 °C at ten per cent humidity, a bio sauna at 55 to 65 °C, a eucalyptus sauna at 65 to 75 °C, and the Weiden sauna, named for the town and lined with willow branches, which runs at 90 to 100 °C and seats around 55 people for infusion events. Four more sit in the garden: a Finnish birch sauna at 95 to 105 °C, a herb sauna at 55 to 65 °C with copper-kettle infusions, a hay sauna at 75 to 85 °C and a root sauna at 85 to 95 °C. Between them, the snail-shaped rest house with its waterfall and birch trunks holds 25 loungers, hanging chairs and hanging beds. Wednesday is women's sauna day except on public holidays.