"Mongolia is kind of close, right?" Story about an attempt to ski everywhere in the world where there's snow. And in some places where there isn't. On and off-piste skiing on all continents, skiing into craters of live volcanoes, caving, climbing, photography, and travel.
I was going through pictures of caves I visited, and noticed that I had not published some pictures from the Suomenoja luge boulder that we visited in 2016... so here's some photos!
The boulder is here: N 60.15680902 E 24.70615906. There's a bit of space underneath, maybe could be called a cavelet (small cave, not classified as a proper cave).
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.
Another day, another new swimming hall to visit: Hakunilan uimahalli. Not a bad place! Very nice, modern saunas (incl. steam saunas) and many pools: cold plunge, main 25 m metallic pool, therapy pool with two sides, two kiddie pools. Congrats to Hakunila!
The swimming hall is also right next to the sports facilities (Hakunilan urheilupuisto), and the large outdoor area for walks to the south and east. In fact, if you keep walking east you'll be in the vast forests of Sipoo.
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. Sadly, this also means that I won't have any pictures from insides of public swimming halls.
Bärenhöhle: small cave by Central European standards, but a wonderful place to visit. And easy. A nice hike to a lush valley on a path and there you are. Water is flowing from the cave, dropping through the steps of rocks... moss has painted the cave green... there's a bit of climbing if you want to get to the end of the cave. Very nice!
Bärenhöhle is here: N 49.224340 N 7.615903. You can find parking on the highway above, as there are a couple of side roads. Just don't block the traffic through these side roads. One of them is large enough to be used for side parking.
I also did a quick scan of the cave on my iPhone's LIDAR system. You can access the resulting 3D model in here in GLB, STL, or BLENDER formats. Or if you want to rotate the model on your screen, click here.
Here's an image of the model:
I also used my "Cave Outliner" software (GitHub) to do a map based on the 3D model. Interestingly, the map shows the cave length to be 45 meters, whereas the Wikipedia page about the says only 37... I trust my measurements more :-)
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.
In this room in Tampere, Lenin and Stalin met for the first time. Yeah. What can I say? This is a historic site and hence worth seeing. Even if I don't like their autocratic, oppressive ways. Communism as implemented in Soviet Union caused misery and death. Stalin alone got tens of millions people killed and masses of the population sent to Gulags. His legacy unfortunately continues to drive today's autocratic despots, and allows these rulers to wage wars while having total control of their populations.
Given this, in the above photo I'm dressed up and ready to give these gentlemen a ride out of Finland :-)
The museum is largely framed in the same historic-reporting-but-very-concerned style. At the door there's an appropriate reminder about the Ukrainian invasion:
And the leaders' statues are presented in their appropriate pose:
The building itself -- the worker's party/union building in Tampere center is very interesting. It is an early 1900s design for sure, but also has some ship- and church-like elements:
What was fun were the lockers for the visitors. They represent famous people who have visited the museum. Paavo Väyrynen - an infamous failed Finnish politician with an unhealthy desire to lean for Russian alignment) - for instance, launched one of his election campaigns here.
Read more urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.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.
I've occasionally ended in a wide-body A350 flight flown by Finnair, on an intra-European route. Turned out that this week I got two experience two of them in different cities: Brussels and Amsterdam. The third route that they regularly fly is London Heathrow.
I happened to be able to use these flights because my conference in Rotterdam was somewhat difficult or expensive to get to. The prices for flying to Amsterdam for the first day of the conference were very high. But since the rail system in that part of Europe is in great shape, I explored the option of flying to a nearby city instead. So I found out that I can fly to Brussels and fly from Amsterdam on the way back.
And those flights were on A350s, I guess in part contributing to the low ticket costs with so many seats to sell. I also got an upgrade on one the flights on my perishable vouchers. Those vouchers expire at the end of the year, and I also don't fly enough to qualify for my frequent flier tier at the end of the year, so I won't be seeing too many upgrades in the future. Oh well. It was good while it lasted.
Of course, Brussels is further away from Rotterdam than Amsterdam's Schiphol. But ... even from Schiphol you have to take a train. On the way out it lasted about an hour. On the way in, coming from Brussels it took two hours. So in the end not such a big difference. I need to look into these options also in the future!
The main downside for flying to Brussels was, however, Brussels. It wasn't unexpected perhaps but we ended up waiting for for 45 minutes for our gate. And then when we got to the gate, we waited at least 20 minutes inside the boarding bridge for the door to be opened. This wouldn't have been such an issue otherwise, but I had a train to catch, and I needed to make it to make to my conference session in time.
Plus by now all that Diet Pepsi from the flight needed to be deposited somewhere, and there were no toilets in the boarding bridge. Also, there were really not that many toilets in the Brussels airport either, once we got there. When I finally found one, it turned out that all the five quick service stations were broken and roped off, and that two of the five stalls were also broken. Out of the remaining three stalls, one was occupied by someone having a loud conference call inside (!)
Anyway, I eventually got to use their facilities and made it in time for my train, in part because was a few minutes late. Good.
But sigh. My experiences in Brussels have never been one of great efficiency and organization, either at the airport or the city. Expect delays. Finnair A350 flights, however, they are great!
Here's the A350 leaving Amsterdam:
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.
Wiesliczka is a suburb of Krakow. Under it is a massive salt mine, extending to a depth of approximately over 300 meters, with the total length of labyrinth passages spanning over 287 kilometers. The use of the site dates back to the 13th century, where the locals would harvest salt from brine (salt concentrate) wells dug on the wetlands, as in photo below. Later in the same century the wells started to be extended as deeper mine shafts and tunnels. Wiesliczka is not just a mine, it is a massive underground world and site of art and history. It is also a well-deserved UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Salt has by now meticulously been carved out for over seven centuries, albeit the mining operations have ceased since 2007. Salt was turned into blocks like the one below, one such block being so valuable that one could buy the houses of an entire village with it:
The mine has an expansive network of tunnels, chambers, and salt lakes. As you descend into this subterranean wonder, the air subtly changes, adopting a salty tang, the temperature cools, and the daylight fades, replaced by a soft glow that illuminates the salt-encrusted walls, creating an atmosphere that is both eerily calm and awe-inspiring.
What I found particularly interesting is how the mine's chambers and tunnels had to be supported after excavation, to avoid the salt layers to collapse under the city above. Vast amounts of trees were cut in the forests around, and used as log supports. And those supports are massive, as you can see in the below picture.Amazingly, in the salty dry air of the tunnels, wood - unlike metal - stays intact for centuries. I was kind of wondering how this machine turned into a carbon storage unit, when trees grow above ground, but then get stored permanently without rotting in the mine below.
The real allure of the Wieliczka Salt Mine, however, lies not only in its vastness but in its extraordinary sculptures and structures. This is where miners turned artists, crafting an array of exquisite masterpieces from the translucent salt. Among the most awe-inspiring sights is the majestic St. Kinga's Chapel, a large underground church intricately adorned with salt-made chandeliers, sculptures, and bas-reliefs:
The mine also houses an underground lake, a wellness complex famed for its healing microclimate, and even a subterranean sanatorium. With its unique combination of natural beauty and human craftsmanship, the Wieliczka Salt Mine not just a geological wonder, it's a journey into the heart of Poland's historical, spiritual, and cultural essence.
Read more about the salt mines from the tour organizer's page or Wikipedia.
More from St. Kinga's Chapel:
Other chapels:
Entrance was via stairs, exit fortunately by an elevator:
Other views:
See also the video:
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.
This tunnel appeared on my walk while visiting Rotterdam. I was walking from my hotel to the conference venues, as a like to do to keep my step counts up :-) And as one expects, there are some waterways to cross in the Netherlands cities :-) I thought there'd be a bridge though. But no, it was a tunnel. It was only in the tunnel and later in Wikipedia that Maastunnel is actually 1070 meters long that crosses the Niewwe Maas.
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.
In Finnish there is an expression "heittää talviturkki" or "throw one's winter fur coat". It means the first time swimming in outdoor waters that year. For me it was as late as mid-May in 2023. Oh, and then there were some needles in my bath whisk...
Time to get to summer mode, then. Bathe hot lake, in the warm glow of evening Venus shining from the sky:
And pull the (toy) boat onto the lake:
The place was our summer cottage, a wonderful, beautiful place near the nature. But also a bit of a challenging environment to keep the buildings in shape, mice away, and continue to clean up the lot that had stored way too many things while my parents were maintaining it. Every time we go there we come back via the dumping grounds... and I don't have a trailer to take stuff away.
But, on to the main topic: how about a vihta, vasta, or a bath whisk? But the birch branches are not in full leaf state yet... spruce to the rescue!
If you think this is too many needles, that's not the case. I did not feel the needles at all. Until I went to the lake. And my skin had needle marks for couple of days. So ... fun but I can't recommend it for others, unless you like this sort of thing :-)
But, being by the lake was again incredibly pretty:
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.
I have both bad and fond memories from my childhood and the swimming pool in Kerava. The one bad memory is from someone stealing my pocket money at age 11 or something. Well lesson learned, about leaving money in pockets without lockers :-) Might have lost a whopping half a euro. This happened in the old outdoor pool setup that they had in the 1970s. But the many, many happy memories are particularly from the new swimming hall, one of the first ones in Finland that was built to "spa" like standards in the 1980s. I visited this place so often!
However, the swimming hall has yet again reborn after a long renovation, and is now in the 2020s standards, very nice place. Two saunas and one steam room. A main pool (25m), a kiddie pool, a cold plunge pool, and two-pool activity/warm pool area.
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 indoor photos, or 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.
We visited an old, not so big, but quite famous bridge in Finland. This used to be on the main road, but since the opening of the highway from Helsinki to Tampere, it is no longer getting as much traffic as before. The bridge is still beautiful, though.
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.
