Fischen: Small but pretty

Stinesser Lifte is a ski hill near our hotel near Obertsdorf on our January visit to German and Austrian ski resorts. A maybe a "hill", it is just a small hill. Maybe even smaller than my local hill back home. Ah, no, according to skiresort.info it still has 130 meter vertical difference, three times as much as my local hill :-) 

In any case, it isn't a ski lift to travel to. But if you're going to drive to the airport and have 20 minutes to spare, why not. We did, so I skied it. One more ski resort down, then :-)

And the weather -- snow storm -- was wonderful for the occasion. So pretty.

The official home page of the lift company is here.

Lift map:

Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2022 by Jari Arkko.

Cité de Carcassonne

What a wonderful ancient, wall-surrounded fortress and a medieval village on the top of a hill! Carcassonne is a city an hour south of Toulouse and an hour north of the mediterranean coast. Cité de Carcassonne is the old town.

The fortress from the outside:

Main castle views:

Inside the walled city:

If you pay the ticket to go see the main castle, they include an option to walk around the (almost) entire wall surrounding the fortress, more than a kilometer. Much recommended. Here are some photos:

The cathedral in the castle:

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) 2024 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Cyprus: Smuggling White Powdery Stuff over the Border

More countries. I am standing at the parking lot of Mt. Olympus in Cyprus, having just skied it. There's plenty of snow in the snowbanks by my car. North Cyprus is an hour and half's drive away. Sadly, there are no high mountains or ski resorts in North Cyprus. But could I pack snow in the trunk of my car, take it across the border, and ski somewhere? Let's try!

There were many steps to take, however... First off, I needed some containers to put the snow in. Then I needed to drive to Mt. Trodoos to collect snow. And then.. drive to Northern Cyprus. This involved crossing a border, and getting some special insurance for Northern Cyprus for my car, at the border. All the border hassle -- which indeed is usually a hassle -- worked surprisingly well.

And then I was in Northern Cyprus, but it doesn't have any mountains. I didn't want to ski on a flat surface, nor did I want to ski in a town with too many spectators. I looked for an areas of fields in the hilly countryside near the border. I came up with the area of Özhan, and drove there. Obviously I had no specific spot in mind, just needed to find a place where I could (a) park and (b) there was a slope and (c) the ground was not too rocky. I managed to find a grass spot with a slight slope after driving some kilometers.

Then it was time to spread the snow. Even though the trunk of the SUV was full of snow... there's almost nothing left once you spread it on the ground.

Skiing, done, the snow cargo was delivered to North Cyprus, and I was able to go back :-)

Video: 

I skied at N 35.250414 E 33.065788.

Packing the snow in south Cyprus:

Entered the different world of Northern Cyprus:

The skiing:

This article has also appeared in TGR. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2022 by Jari Arkko.

Ski Canaro: 43€ for one beginner ski run. Worth it?

I'm in a rush. But while I've skied in Andorra before, maybe there's an opportunity to ski in a new ski area, before exiting the country on our way to our next destination? Ski Camaro to the rescue. But it is a children's practice run. Is it really worth 43€ for the day ticket. And "no exceptions!", they said :-)

I'm kidding, that's obviously a silly question! Skiing is ALWAYS worth it :-)

I did get confused on the beginner lift though. It was one of those button lifts where the sticks stay on the starting point until they are launched by the skier. Usually this happens by pulling the stick forward or tripping a gate with your feet. But here... you had to press a big red button in a yellow box. I ignored it because it seemed like one of those emergency stop buttons that you also need on every ski lift. But it wasn't, it was the start button. Is this common? I have not run into it before...

Ski Canaro's web site is here. And while there would have been multiple ski areas to choose from, I wanted to avoid the sub-areas of Grandvalira where I've already skied at, plus wanted a quick entry and exit. Ski Canaro was in Soldeu, right on the road that was taking us towards France, so no extra time wasted. Good!

Coordinates: N 42.579118 E 1.659201.

Slopes:

Ticket:

My skiing:

Resort:

And back to the car and on to France:

See also my other articles about the Spain-Andorra-France trip, e.g., thermal spa, Aeroscopia, or my first cave in Andorra.

This article has also been published at TGR. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2024 by Jari Arkko.

Thermal spa and sauna in Andorra

I've been to Andorra couple of times before, but never had the opportunity to visit a sauna or do a swim. Now I did! Hotel Spa Termes Carlemany provided both! They are situated in an area of Andorra la Vella, by the river, where there's 72 degree water flowing from the ground. The water is also used to run interest pipe displays and art work.

We were on a Barcelona-Andorra-Toulouse-Carcassonne-Barcelone four-day tour. Wonderful times! See also my caving article from Andorra.

More pictures will follow here.

Sauna:

There was also a hammam:

And a relaxing area:

Jacuzzi:

Breakfast views:

Views from the room:

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) 2024 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take recognisable photos of other saunagoers or swimmers, and the facility was only booked for me.