Skiing the Planet: May 2023

Sunday, May 7, 2023

Burg Hohenzollern

It is an imposing, massive castle on top of a high hill. Worth a visit!

Here's the website and the wikipedia article.

As my friend Mark pointed out the entrance arrangements are a great example of defense in depth, or perhaps even about paranoia... there's multiple doors, multiple layers, always positions to shoot down on an advancing attacker. Nicely done. Very nice to look at, too.

Some pictures from inside:

More pictures from the outside:

And last but not least, dungeons discovered only recently, in the 2000s.

Read more urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot or TGR. Photos and text (c) 2023 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

No sauna power for me

"The sauna is only open until 10pm". But I was coming in later, so I wanted to know if I could use it in any case. They said I could, if I was quiet. However... I couldn't turn the sauna on.

Not sure if that was because the power was cut off due to renovations elsewhere in the building (and a nearby gym room was gutted, too) or if there was a timer somewhere.

Well, I've been in this sauna before, so ok ... not sauna this time.

All this is happening at the Schloss Dagstuhl, a center dedicated for organizing Computer Science workshops. It is a superb place, mostly because it gathers people around the castle as it is not easy to find anything else nearby. So the discussion continue through the evening and to the night, in the wine cellar, and sometimes even in the sauna. But not int he sauna this time, then!

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) 2023 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of other saunagoers or swimmers and visit when there is simply no one else or the facility has been closed or booked only for me.

May 1st at the Finnair Lounge

Wow. Munkkeja (donuts). Traditional May 1st delicacy.

Then, in the air I had received a nice upgrade. Here are the meal and sky views:

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) 2023 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Trust me, it is NOT a watertower

It does look very weird. For some reason I thought it was a water tower. It is in the town of Oberreid in the Black Forest area in Southern Germany, near Freiburg. But ... it is in fact a defense against against nuclear weapons and natural disasters...

It is called Barbarastollen. Right behind it is an old mine, archiving Germany's cultural heritage and safeguarded for natural and man-made disasters, 400 meters underground. For more information, refer to the Google Maps page and this article. The archive is described also in a Wikipedia article here.

Only crappy parts with this car

While I was away, they replaced the door with a used one from the car wreckers. It is dark so hard to see, but initial reaction at home is that it doesn’t fit because “it is clean and not rusted at all unlike the rest of the car”.

Leaving the car, hoping for a fix

I'm going for a business trip, and I'm dropping the car off on the way to the airport. Let's see ... this could be expensive...

Monday, May 1, 2023

Happy 1st of May!

Traditional 1st of May celebration, on skis. This time on my local hill.

Here's the video:

More pictures: