Skiing the Planet: 2025

Sunday, January 5, 2025

Hörnerbahn gelbe Kugeln

We were going to ski in Oberstdorf. Seven kilometers outside Oberstdorf we had spotted a medium-size ski area, Hörnerbahn. It seemed inviting, so before heading to Oberstdorf slopes, we wanted to try it as well for an hour or two. Their main lift cabins looked like yellow eggs, quite striking :-)

Hörnerbahn is at the coordinates N 47.463061 E 10.227812. Their official home page is here, and the skiresort.info page is here.

This was in 2022, so masking rules were still in effect:

Slopes:

Ski route water crossing:

Porvoo swimming hall

Today I wanted to try a new swimming hall, and ended up driving all the way to Porvoo, an hour away from where I live. Porvoo is of course a wonderful historic city with wooden houses alongside the river banks. Their swimming hall was constructed in the 1970s probably, but then more recently expanded.

The hall as two different sides, the new (lower level dressing rooms) and old (2nd floor dressing rooms). Both sides have saunas, in the new there's a Finnish sauna and a steam sauna, and in the old one there's two smaller Finnish saunas and a steam sauna.

Their main pool is a 25-meter one, but there's also:

A jumping pool
Two kiddie pools
A fun pool with a wave machine, water slide, and a swimming channel
A large Jacuzzi on top of the fun pool
A cold pool

The official home page of the swimming hall is here.

Much recommended!

I just have outside pictures:

Then the entrance (at the top of this article, and below):

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.

Kivikko

First turns of the year in Greenla… I mean Kivikko, in eastern Helsinki. Nice powdery stuff with a firm rock and grass base underneath. Good day.

I don't understand how I've not been here before! A wonderful place. They had a snow gun running as well, so this isn't just natural snow.

The area is fenced off, but at least today the gates were open. If they are not open.. maybe you shouldn't enter? But there are also broken off fence part a bit higher up from where the gate is, and you may be able to enter underneath the gates, e.g., from the other gate at the top. In any case, be safe. There is no guarantee that there aren't under-snow dangers, people have reported high drops, always check out what you will ski or slide down on first!

Such a great scenery:

Video:

The slope is here N 60.241013 E 25.059824. The entrance gate is in coordinates N 60.241195 E 25.05802. And the parking spot that I found easy to use (200m from the gate) is in coordinates N 60.242133 E 25.058244.

Pictures, starting from the halfpipe:

There was a snow gun running (by the city?):

And the fence and gate:

In the summer, the hill is a frisbee golf track:

Menolippu kaikkialle - Ticket everywhere

I bought Anna-Katri Räihä's book "Menolippu kaikkialle" (one-way ticket to everywhere) for myself this Christmas. Have not read it yet, but looking forward to it! Anna-Katri is the first Finnish woman to have travelled to all countries in the world. That's quite an achievement, the few hardest ones must have been very challenging or even dangerous. Well done!

You can buy the book here, if you too are interested. More on her here.

I imagine she must have clocked in a ton of airline miles... and some places you can't fly to. But she is not just visiting places, she appears to be spending a lot of time in various destinations and getting to know the locals and the culture. That's great. Travel shouldn't be just a tick box exercise. I have to say I sometimes have that approach, sadly.

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) 2024 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

LOT to Balkans

Finnair flies to a lot of destinations, but one thing it does poorly is flying to Greece, islands in the Mediterranean, and countries in the Balkans except for Croatia in the summer. One can use Lufthansa of course, but I've been often disappointed with them canceling and delaying flights left and right. There's also KLM (which I have good experiences of, recently) and Air Baltic (which I have not tried enough, despite their nice new planes). However, combining a Finnair flight to Warsaw and onwards with LOT is also a good option.

I tried this for the Xmas trip this year, and .. went smoothly. Even my ski bag went in without payments, at least on the outbound leg where I checked in with Finnair.

Finnair Platinum lounge entrance on the Schengen side:

Hotel Ramonda pools and saunas

Hotel Ramonda (Хотел Рамонда, Ртањ) is named according to a flower that only grows on the mountain it is on, the Rtanj mountain in eastern Serbia. It is a luxury hotel that started out five years ago and has recently expanded with even more rooms and pools and saunas. It has outdoor and indoor pools and several different saunas.

On the old side there's a Finnish sauna and a hammam, a jacuzzi, a medium-size blue color lit pool, and a cold outdoor pool. On the new side there's two Finnish saunas, a hammam, a cold indoor pool, a big green-color lit pool, and an indoor-outdoor warm pool. And a big cold outdoor pool, both outdoor pools being again lit in green. Very nice!

The cold outdoor pools were really cold, ice forming in them despite the constant circulation of the water. I did not try them this time, I've been having some heart problems so wanted to spare myself from the cold shock.

I really liked the pools, particularly the indoor-outdoor hot pool in the new side. Or the big pool on the new side. But the old side is likely empty when you visit, so more private. Both pool areas come with staff overseeing them, towels, and bars where you can order drinks and fruit snacks. Nice! And in the rooms you have good quality bathrobes, but do bring your own slippers. The ones provided by the hotel are throwaway ones, and are dangerously slippery on wet surfaces.

This hotel is much recommended. The hotel's official page is here. Prices for rooms are still quite affordable by western standards, around 200€ for half-board accommodation. The rooms are quite nice, with big nice balconies overlooking the pools and mountains. If you have a choice, book a room on the new side, as they are similar but slightly larger rooms.

Read more about the Rtanj mountain here. It is 1565 meters high, a pyramid-shape, striking mountain. It is a popular and challenging climb. Apparently it is also the site of rumored ufo sightings :-)

Saunas (new side first, then old side):

Outdoor pools (new side first again. not the ice forming on the large pool):

Indoor pool (old side):

Hotel:

Environment and the Rtanj mountain:

Count adventures, not calories

True wisdom from Iberia!

We were on a Finnair flight from Helsinki, flown by wet-leased Iberia planes. The setup was a refreshing change to Finnair's menu. I loved the wisdom, and my Mediterranean snack :-)

Saturday, January 4, 2025

Bogovina Cave

The Bogovina cave is a karst/river cave in the village of Bogovina in eastern Serbia. In local alphabet the name of the cave is Боговинска пећина. The cave is (depending on source) 5020 or 5892 meters long, up until few years ago it was Serbia's longest cave. It is a show cave, that is you can't enter on your own but need to arrange the local tourist office to give you a tour. The show cave part is half a kilometer long, consisting first from an excavated tunnel and then the cave proper. The stalactite formations in the cave are wonderful, but at the end in the Hajduk hall they are especially spectacular.

Hajduks are mythical Serbian freedom fighters, heroes. See here for more information on them.

This year (2024) the cave had been suffering from a two-year drought, and only recently the stream running through the cave has filled up. Filled up so much in fact that rushed like the rapids in some places, and in other places covered the built up walkways. Rubber boots would have allowed us to continue to the end of the cave, but I had my leaky hiking boots with me this time, so I took off my shoes and waded through the water to get to the end of the cave tour. It was refreshing (5 degrees) but much worth it, since the absolutely greatest sights in the cave were at the end :-)

Coordinates: N 43.897102 E 21.925390. The semi-official web site is here. There's a good Telegraf.rs article here, and the (Serbian) Wikipedia article is here. The admission fees are symbolic, as the Telegraf article puts it: 300 dinars or about 3 euros. But, while the Google Maps entry for instance claims that the cave is open, in practice there isn't anyone there and the cave is locked and dark. At least that was our experience in the winter time, maybe different during the summer. Ask your hotel call them and arrange a tour, or call directly on the local number 06 90215191.

The town of Bogovina is a nice but declining coal-mining town, as the mine is about to close or perhaps already is. You drive through the town to get to smaller roads and eventually enter the cave facility. There's good signage along the way, but the roads can be tricky if there's snow. The cave area has an old park ranger house (abandoned), a bit space for parking, a ticket sales hut, and lounging area with some cover for the hot summer months.

Proper caving tours beyond the tourist section may also be available according to many sources (e.g., the Wikipedia article), but I didn't have time for that this time.

Hajduk hall:

Cave forms:

Broken cave forms:

River flows in the cave:

Halls:

Bats and other nature in the cave:

Entrance:

Original entrance (to the left and up from the tourist entrance above):

Village:

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.