Laurinlahti beach

Stopped at yet another beach while driving back from home. Can't imagine I haven't been here before: Laurinlahden uimaranta (Lauri's bay beach). Very nice. Compact, clean, necessary facilities... nice water. Also good that they have a long pier to swim from, unless one wants to swim from the sand, like I did.

Tony Hagerlund's blog talks about the beach here. It is also called the Tyrskyvuoren uimaranta (Splash Mountain beach).

Coordinates are N 60.145928 E 24.636327.

Photos:

For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot and TGR! The photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of saunagoers or swimmers, all photos are taken from the outside or when the facility is closed or empty or there's no swimmers.

Metropolitan Sport Club & Spa in Madrid's Eurobuilding

While at a conference in Madrid, I stayed at the NH Collection hotel in the Eurobuilding. This hotel has a spa and gym. While it was separately paid and not inexpensive (30€), it was a quite nice for a hotel spa! Nice big Finnish sauna, a Turkish sauna, ice bucket, multiple pools, etc. The main pool was maybe 15 meters long and narrow, just enough space for 2-3 at the same time. But very much enjoyed this visit!

Link to their web page on the NH hotel side here and in the Metropolitan club side here.

By the way, I don't usually appreciate hotel restaurants much, but the "99 Sushi Bar" was just wonderful. Costs north of 100€ per person, though. Link here.

Entrance:

Pool:

Hotel:

Restaurant:

For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot and TGR! The photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of saunagoers or swimmers, all photos are taken from the outside or when the facility is closed or empty. The pool and sauna pictures are by the hotel, all rights reserved by them.

Sala VIP Dali -- Iberia's Madrid Airport Lounge

I was at a conference in Madrid. When flying out, my status at Finnair earned me a spot at the Iberia's Sala VIP Dali, their lounge. Nice experience overall. This was at breakfast time, and there was a decent breakfast foods available. I also liked the airport design.

The aircraft we flew on was wet leased from Iberia to fly for Finnair. Lunch was good. The only complaint I had was the the WiFi did not work on flight to Madrid, at all, either for free based on business class seat or for a fee. On the way back it didn't work for free, even if supposed to, but it did work if I paid for it. I don't know if this is a Finnair-Iberia thing, or the fact that my business class seat was an upgrade, not a properly bought one, or just some usual IT problems... guessing the latter is most likely.

Temperatures between Spain and Finland seemed awfully similar...

For more flying stories, check out the planetflier.com website! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot and TGR! The photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Midnight swim at the cottage

Arrived late from Madrid. And not only that, but the car's ventilation was broken, so drove to the cottage only late in the evening. Arrived shortly after 11pm, and did a swim at midnight. Such bliss, water was very warm but still cooled us down a bit, everything was quiet, the darkness had set in, lake had no waves. Nice!

For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot and TGR! The photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Ventilation ... no ventilation

Driving on a heatwave day, now back in Finland. Theres never been air conditioning in the Volvo but now the fan also has given up. Or the switch; no spare parts. Windows can still be opened.

More car stories in the Planetskier blog series at Blogspot. The photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko.

Deep lake rush hour

Syväjärven uimaranta, Kirkkonummi. A beach on the "deep lake" (Syväjärvi). In reality the lake is pretty small though. I doubt about its deepness either. Anyway, with almost thirty degrees and one of the rare sunshine-filled days of the summer, everybody and their kids appear to be at the lake. So am I!

The official page for the beach can be found from the Kirkkonummi web pages, here. But a more interesting review is on the Tony Hagerlund's pages, here.

The lake is indeed reported to be deep, but looking at the map, that maximum depth is actually just 3.2 meters. So not so deep. But still many people, at least on this day :-)

For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot and TGR! The photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take recognizable photos of saunagoers or swimmers.

Flåm bunkers and caves

While in Flåm (see separate articles about Vatnahalsen and the train journey), I noticed that there are some interesting places near the Flåm harbor. Today, the harbor is visited by massive cruise ships that flood the little town with tourists, but it is an old harbor and has seen a lot of history. 

For instance, the new church replaced the old one in 1670.. and at the beginning of World War II, German warplanes attacked an Estonian ship Begonia in the fjord outside Flåm.

The Krigsminne (war memory), a bunker or a gun station is here: N 60.866604 E 7.118450. Some extra info here.

The Dynamittlager (dynamite storage), a cellar used for storing explosives is here: N 60.867770 E 7.1199569. There's no other information about this than the Google Maps link. Just wondering if the blue containers have dynamite in them...

There's also a cave under the boulders near the Dynamittlager is here: N 60.867816 E 7.120017. The cave starts with a large room easily accessible from the entrance, but with a bit of a hole in the roof. Then it continues deeper under the boulders. I did not have suitable clothing for continuing further, but clearly it was possible to go further, the tunnel was just big enough for that. And there were some human left things further in the tunnel. 

The cave is likely 5+ meters long, but now I don't exactly how long.

One picture of the cave is at the beginning of this article, the others below:

Flåm views:

While walking in the village, I also noticed that there's a "floating fjord sauna" in the harbor. Sadly, it was booked and/or too expensive to try (they have both shared and private sessions, the latter were available but too much money). Maybe next time. More information here.

Author:

Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. 

Porvoo's Näsi mini-cave

Right across the river in Porvoo, there's a hill with a famous rock and an observation deck on top of it: Näsin kivi. A massive glacial boulder, moved by during the ice age. It is very interesting by itself, including some small crack canyons on its sides. But a hundred meters away is another smaller boulder, cracked open in two points. And there are two narrow tunnels in cracks, passing under the boulder.

The boulder with the cave is roughly in coordinates N 60.394459 E 25.654824. Näsin kivi itself is in coordinates N 60.393955 E 25.655243. Read more about Näsin kivi here.

But back to the cave rock. I of course scanned with my iPhone lidar, and used by Cave Outliner software to draw a map out of it. My scan was a bit hurried, and as a result I had to edit the map quite a bit before it corresponded to what's actually out there. But here's the map:

The full map in more accurate PDF format can be loaded here. The 3D model itself can be downloaded as well, either in GLB, Blender, or STL format. If you want to see the model and rotate it on your screen, it is easier to just click on this link so that you can do so on your browser. 

Here's a screenshot of the model:

Cave rock photos:

Näsin kivi photos:

Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.