Free sauna, but $$$ for shower

Kinnerstugan, north of Visby in Gotland, Sweden, has a nice sauna. Plenty hot! And it is free... except that you need 5 crown coins for the showers.

Photos and text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. See all the sauna stories at saunablogger.cool!

Packing for Lummelunda

I'm on way to Lummelunda, Gotland for some caving. Uh... with some gear.

Photos (c) 2018 by Jari Arkko and Jonas Högström. All rights reserved. All Planetcaver articles and videos are available at the planetcaver.net website.

Den Haag Spa at the Crowne Plaza

For a work meeting, I stayed at the Crowne Plaza in Hague. It turned out that they had a nice spa area, with four different saunas and good pool.

More swimming and sauna stories can be found from planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool web sites! Photos and text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. All pool/sauna photos have been taken with permission, when the facility was close, and without other people present.

Leppävaara mining

Today's abandoned mine exploration was in Leppävaara.

Not a particularly big mine, though, barely noticeable. A quarry rather, in the Leppävaara's Kaivoskallio (mine hill). There's several places where they've quarried iron ore in the 1800s. The largest hole is in coordinates N 60.22640 E 24.79614. I also found a small ~ two meter cave under a boulder at the top of the hill in coordinates N 60.22669 E 24.79586.

The "cave":

Views from the hill:

All the urban exploration stories can of course be found from theurbanexplorer.net! Photos and text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Friisinkallio: More Espoo stones ... not so good this time

On Sunday I went biking with Jarmo to look at some more advertised Espoo natural wonders.

We found a nice (but spray painted) boulder. And then we searched for cracked granite, but when we finally found it did not appear as amazing as it had on the pictures.

Oh well.

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

Spreewald

While driving around in Germany, I had an opportunity to visit the Spreewald area.

There are nice kayaking opportunities. And a thermal bath! Amazingly, in such a flat and far-away-from-volcanoes-place! But it turns out that the thermal baths are due to a drilled hole deep to the ground, made in 1990s!

Nevertheless, very nice swimming at the Spreewald Therme!

Photos and text (c) 2019. More swimming and sauna stories can be found from planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool web sites!

Mäntyvihta (pine bath whisk)

Wow. This was something else, a vihta (bath whisk) made of pine branches.

I've heard of juniper bath whisks, but not pine ones. Due to today's garden work, I had easy access to the green, soft upper branches from a pine tree. And made a bath whisk.

I didn't expect much, except maybe a mess and resin stains. I did get those, but what a payout! The pine needles are much heavier than birch leaves, and hitting yourself with these whisks is so nice. And not needly at all, with the new branches that I used. Wow!

Birch:

Read more of my sauna articles from saunablogger.cool! Text and photos (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

The Espoo Rapakivi Stones

I needed some exercise, the weather was great, and there's a directory of Espoo's natural wonders in the Internet. So I went a biking tour to look at some of the Rapakivi boulders.

Rapakivi granite is a special stone, a common Finnish stone. The literal translation of the name is "crumbly rock", for its ability to deteriorate easily.

I went to see a large boulder near the Tillinmäki radio tower (first one below), one on Malminmäentie in the Espoo central park (above), and one at the end of Malminmäentie (last one below). The two first ones were most interesting, with the Tillinmäki one being most obviously crumbly :-)

In Tillinmäki the radio tower area is fenced off, and inside the fence there would be more interesting rocks that I could only photograph from behind the fence. The second photo below is one such rock, split in half.

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

The new A220

I had a chance to fly the new Airbus A220 plane the other day. Wonderful, efficient, hi-tech plane! And new airplane smell!

However, there's one bug in this airplane from a passenger perspective. Given that the aircraft is smaller than the typical 737s and A320s, it seats five across, divided of course as 2 seats on the left and 3 on the right side of the aisle. But given today's size of large-ish overhead luggage compartments, left side compartment door is so close to the people walking on the aisle that it is very easy to hit your head. Ouch!

The other interesting bit is that the entertainment system on each seat looks like a phone glued sideways to the back of the previous seat. Which it probably is...

Photos and text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. Read all my flying stories from planetflier.com or all my stories on any topic (skiing, caving, etc) from Blogspot or TGR!

Welcome to KAINUU

Quiet place, green grass, views, a rocking chair... at an airport. Hard to believe, but there is this lounge at HEL called KAINUU.

I've seen the room many times, walking by behind the glass, but never figured out where it actually is, or how to get there :-) but now I know :-)

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

Hot as HEL

Well, it isn't really a sauna, except that it is hot, it is packed with people. And it is a decorated bus at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport, affectionately known as HEL.

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

Lummelunda, here I come!

Lummelunda week is coming up AND I'M GOING AGAIN! WOOHOOO!

The above picture is from the very end of the cave that I reached last year, on a gruelling 7 hour cave crawl. What a view to see :-) Actually, it is pretty remarkable place. More on that later.

Photos and text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. All my caving and urban exploration articles can be found from planetcaver.net, theurbanexplorer.net and of course blogspot and TGR!

Corporate sauna in a Russian harbour

I attended a workshop at a private corporate facility in Kirkkonummi, and it turns out that there was both a very nice sauna, swimming place, as well as ruins from the Russian occupation times: a railroad leading to a rock, almost disappeared harbour pier. Nice surprise!

Photos and text (c) 2019. More swimming and sauna stories can be found from planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool web sites!

Lähteen sauna

My colleagues had organised an event at the Lähteen Sauna, in the area of the Lapinlahti mental institute. Ex. institute... and Lähteen sauna is as far as I know, the oldest still operating sauna in Helsinki that is still open to public.

Very good heat in the sauna! Apparently the easy access to water is kind of far away, however, even if the sea is right next to the sauna. Still, much recommended. 7€ for entrance fee, to be paid at the cafeteria inside the main building.

Photos and text (c) 2019. All sauna photos have been taken with permission, when the facility is closed, and/or when there are no other guests present.

EuroSpeleo, here I come!

Today I managed to sign up for the EuroSpeleo 2019, this time happening near Sofia in Bulgaria!

Last year's EuroSpeleo was so much fun that I have to do this again (photo course, moon milk, river caving, and more).

Photos and text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. See more stories from the underground worlds at planetcaver.net and theurbanexplorer.net!