Skiing the Planet: January 2019

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Toti

Janne and I got to visit the Enrico Toti, an Italian submarine on our through trip to Milan.

A very interesting submarine. Odd paintings in the toilet, however:

At the museum there were also many other interesting things, from Leonardo da Vinci inventions to ships to cars. This fish-shaped car was an oddity among the exhibits:

The icemen don't speak much, be they Finnish Formula 1 drivers or ancient frozen dead guys from the alps.

Janne and I were on a trip to Madonna di Campiglio this year, to ski, but when he realized that the Ötzi museum is a two-hour drive away, we simply could not skip that museum. I had been reading about Ötzi for a long time, and he had just had a school lesson on the topic, so it was very interesting to see the actual frozen body... and all the belongings. I was really surprised by the amount of tech that he had carried, tools, clothing, even medicines.

It was also funny to see that precautions in the museum for ensuring that Ötzi stays frozen. If the building burns, the fire brigade has a procedure to take the mummy out and to the local hospital, that has an ice room ready. I wonder if there's a a do-not-resuscitate plan at the hospital for Ötzi :-)

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Madonna di Sauna

The Hotel Milano in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, was our home for couple of days after the new year. I used their sauna every day... a typical small hotel basement sauna.

But, quite good heat, "Sauna Finlandese". Surprisingly good, in fact. And no extra cost.

Boiling with the best Tokyo bay view

Huh, pretty hot weather. And hot sauna. Burning in both, almost. And thick carpets in the sauna! But what a view over the sea, Tokyo downtown, and the rainbow bridge.

Pretty nice to lie out in the pool, in cold weather, and admire the view!

I'm staying at the Hilton Tokyo Odaiba, and visited their spa every night. I don't have good Hilton status any more, so I have to pay to get to the spa (around 30€ for the first time, 10€ for the next). But well worth it.

There is the hot outdoor pool, a slightly less hot indoor large jacuzzi, a large and very nice oval-shaped indoor pool, a steam sauna and the hot sauna.

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Better Off Dead

Better Off Dead: This is the best teen movie, ever. Really. There's skiing, romance, crappy cars, great music, ... what's not to like?

"Ski that way, really fast. If something gets in your way, turn!"

"Two dollars!"

Available on YouTube here.

The picture is a poster for Better Off Dead. The poster art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the film, Warner Bros., the publisher of the film or the graphic artist. The picture is provided here in Fair Use manner. Text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Sauna at the Stockholm Hilton

Over the years, I've stayed many times at the Hilton in Slusseln, Stockholm. Usually it is priced too expensive for me to be able to book it for business trips, but this time it was on offer at the same price as my other alternatives, so I took it. I had a visit in the sauna early in the morning before heading to my meetings.

It was ok, not great. Oh well. At least the views from my for-some-reason-upgraded-room were great, to both sides of the building!

Photo and text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. The photos of pools and spas or saunas have all been taken with permission, when the facility was closed or when there were no guests present. And all sauna articles are of course available at the cool saunablogger.cool site!

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

It did start... barely

It did start... barely! Even on warmer conditions, the engine wants to quite, and does not run unless there's enough RPMs, until the engine warms up for couple of minutes.

But now I am on the road on this beautiful winter day!

Photos and text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Cold day in Volvoland

Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets: it is -23, will the Volvo start?

Volvo replacement

Volvo replacement... at least for now. Comes with extra exercise which is always good :-) Oh, and the repair shop decided to have holidays so no fixes yet.

Text and photos (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Its alive! Maybe...

Today I got my Volvo back from the shop again. It has had a well-deserved two-week vacation, having been broken before Christmas.

The problem was the generator chain, which was broken. In addition, the engine was running badly, but after changing spark plugs and their wires, it should now run better. That has been a problem I've seen, so fingers crossed that this will help many of the other issues I've had.

And only 300€. Sigh. Not sure I can afford spending 300-500€ every couple of weeks on the car...