Impivaara swim

By now, the nearest swimming halls that I have not been to is 1 hour and 45 minutes away. I picked Turku's Impivaara swimming hall as my destination in the west (in the east there was another one). This is a massive, massive swimming complex. I really liked the 50 meter pool, it was easy to swim a long distance in it.

But otherwise, despite the many pools.. I wasn't particularly impressed. Maybe it was the busy time, the hall seemed packed. But not as packed as in the shower and sauna area. For some reason this part of the hall is designed with so narrow spaces that you can't pass if a person is fetching a towel from the racks or opens a sauna door. Bad design.

But otherwise the pools are of course spectacular. There was an eight track 50 meter pool *and* a *ten* track 25 meter pool. And a jumping pool with 10 meter platform, a therapy pool, a cold plunge pool, kid pool, and a water slide. Two saunas (hot and mild) and one steam sauna. The biggest swimming hall I have ever seen, with all the facilities.

There's a nice cafeteria overlooking the pool area.

It has also been recently renovated, just sad that the shower and sauna spaces are so cramped. 

Tickets are 8,40€, a bit pricey compared to other community swimming halls which are more in the 6-7€ range, or even 5€ in some places. Website is here.

I have previously been to the Kaarina swimming hall near Turku, report here (alt. link).

This article has also appeared here. Read all swimming stories at planetswimmer.com and sauna articles at saunablogger.cool. Or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. The pool picture is by Turun kaupunki, taken from their website.

Car is back! Temporarily...

I got my Volvo back! Driving it now ... to the next repair shop. Body work is done by the specialists, and came unexpectedly cheap. A new door and many holes fixed. But the car will be illegal to drive tomorrow due to some other issues. So I am getting the tech part fixed in my usual repair shop and they will take it to the check up. Fingers crossed no heavy additional costs or new surprises at the check up.

This article is also published here. More car stories in the Planetskier blog series at Blogspot or Planetskier.net. The photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko.

Back in G.R.A.N.I.

I've been swimming around the country (and sometimes outside the country), which has been fun. But without my car -- which is being repaired, I can't go very far. So my local swimming hall it is in Kauniainen, or Grani as it is affectionately called. It was a nice weather to walk there in the snow!

The reason for the car going to repairs. Or one of the many:

I also now go to the office by train, which is nice because it gets me walking enough per day:

This article has also appeared here. Read all swimming stories at planetswimmer.com and sauna articles at saunablogger.cool. Or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. 

National Alpine Skiing Day Celebrations

To celebrate today’s National Alpine Skiing Day, I did a tour of four ski resorts that I have not been to: Ellivuori in Sastamala, Hiitteenharju in Harjavalta, Ruosniemi in Pori, and Salomonkallio hill at the Nakkila Golf resort in Nakkila. It took two days though 🙂The resorts are between Pori and Tampere, a corner of Finland that I haven’t spent much time in. 

Here's the advertisement about the day:

Very nice, from the long slopes and snowy forest runs of Ellivuori to tiny club hills, Ruosniemi's 30 meter vertical and the golf club’s 32 meter Salomonkallio being the smallest. Still a lot of energy and lots of kids having fun. Enjoyed much, like the other kids.

I also stayed at the Rantakartano for the night in Pori, by the river.. had a nice visit at the sauna even if it was a busy weekend to book a slot in the sauna due to the Bandy world championships being in Pori. And the next day, after all the skiing I visited Harjavalta's swimming hall, which was superb. Built in 2013, it has received awards, and looked stunning. It was a quiet day there as well, so I mostly got my own lane. Bliss.

Volvo was running smoothly for the 600 km round trip, but tomorrow … let’s see where it is going.

The ski resorts were:

Ellivuoren hiihtokeskus, Sastamala. More information from their home page and Wikipedia. They have six runs, on different sides of the mountain. There's a hotel and resort villas next to one of the slopes. Lifts are anchor lifts. They forbid skiing outside slopes, but still there are excellent routes through the forests next to the slopes. I enjoyed that part a lot. They also have several nice fire huts at the top and bottom of the slopes, and a brand new lodge building. And enough toilets at the bottom of all slopes. Ellivuori is west of Tampere, about 40 minutes and 47 kilometers from central Tampere. The coordinates are N 61.402303 E 23.065277.

Pictures below. Notice how there's skiing in the woods right next to the "no skiing outside the slopes" sign ... who is that idiot?

Hiitteenharjun hiihtokeskus, Harjavalta. More information from their home page and Wikipedia. The vertical is 45 meters. They are near Harjavalta's center. Run by the Harjavallan Jymy sports club. The coordinates are N 61.296092 E 22.147709.

They also train people to do ski jumping, so they have try-ski-jumping days for instance. Uh... I won't, that sounds dangerous :-) 

Pictures:

Ruosniemen hiihtokeskus, Pori. More information from the home page and Wikipedia. The highest vertical is 30 meters. They are just six kilometers from the Center of Pori. Very nice. Run by the Pori Slalom club. The coordinates are N 61.507474 E 21.872639.

Pictures below. Note how in the first picture there's a sign about the slalom possibilities ahead:

Salomonkallion hiihtokeskus, Nakkila Golf, Nakkila. The vertical is 32 meters. The coordinates are N 61.410280 E 22.060069.

Pictures:

My sauna & swimming places were:

Rantakartano, Pori. More information at their home page. The coordinates are N 61.492677 E 21.841620.

Pictures:

Harjavallan uimahalli, Harjavalta. More information from their home page. This is a modern, very nice swimming hall. The design is kind of like 1930's functional, white concrete design. But very well done, and in modern style. They won the Year 2014 sports facility award (link). The coordinates are N 61.310591 E 22.145812.

Pictures:

Other pictures, from Pori's church and my car:

This article has also been published here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. All swimming stories at planetswimmer.com and sauna articles at saunablogger.cool. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. The pool photo from the swimming hall is by Harjavallan kaupunki, taken from their website.

Kaarina swimming hall

The closest swimming hall that I have NOT been to is now almost two hours drive away, and this evening I went there. Kaarina swimming hall is a small community hall, 25 meters long pool with just four lanes. But two younger/older children pools and one therapy pool, so that was a surprise. Overall a nice visit.

The official web page for the hall at the Kaarina city web pages is here. Tickets are 7€ for adult visits, full price list is here.

There was a surprise at the end, though. Fortunately this happened when all of us were already out of the pool and dressing up as the facility was closing. An electrical break occurred, darkening the entire Kaarina area. (Reported by Yle here.) There was some emergency lighting in the swimming hall so it was easy to exit. But, the environment looked very spooky with no lights:

This article has also appeared here. Read all swimming stories at planetswimmer.com and sauna articles at saunablogger.cool. Or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. The pool picture is by Kaarinan kunta, taken from their website.

Grottes de Choranche

This was one of my early cave visits (besides the one at age 8 in Mallorca's Cuevas del Drach). Just a commercial show cave visit, but of course wonderful.

Choranche caves are in the famous Vercors cave area in France. The currently known length of the cave is 29,489 meters or more than 29 kilometers! 

More information can be found from the show cave website and Wikipedia.

Scenery in the area:

This article has also been published at Planetcaver.net here. 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. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. The brochure photo is of course about the official brochure.