Vatnahalsen sauna

Vatnahalsen Høyfjellshotell is a hotel on a lonely mountaintop, on the Flåm railway line between Myrdal and Flåm. This railway line is "considered one of the world’s best train journeys". It is indeed spectacular, going through mountains and running on the sides of beautiful, untouched valleys and high plains. And the hotel is a convenient place to stay along the route, if you don't want to stay in Flåm which has more services and hotels. In Vatnahalsen there's nothing except this one hotel, mountain views... also a zip line down to the valley, length 1380 meters :-) And there's s sauna.

Here's what AI said about the world's most beautiful train rides:

The hotel is a hiker's hotel, mostly. The rooms are quite basic but clean and comfortable. The hotel has all the necessary services, your phone works, there's WiFi, they have a nice restaurant for good dinners and breakfasts, they sell hiking gear, etc. 

There's even a swimming pool... but it was empty. I found myself thinking what this place looked like in the summer. Of course, it was the middle of the summer, but in the mountains it felt more like the fall. On the rail line from Oslo to Bergen there's plenty of snow around you, even in the middle of summer. Also visible on the mountains from Vatnahalsen. And it can be windy, and is likely rainy. In the opening photo in this article (above), you see how the water from the waterfalls either flies to the right side due to high winds, or even up in the air entirely.

The sauna was basic, like the rest of the hotel, but did its job :-) The temperature was just right. Their water-throwing bucket-scoop was a bit weird though, a water jug.

More about the hotel here and here. More about the Flåm railway line here. See also my other article about the underground rivers along the railway here.

To reach Vatnahalsen, take the Oslo - Bergen train line, and get off in Myrdal, and change the train towards Flåm, then get off on the first station which is Vatnahalsen. Or walk from Flåm :-)

Photos, first the pool and sauna:

Then the hotel itself, and views from it:

Then the zip line. Would you take it? 1380 meters long, 300 meters down.

Myrdal views, one station before Vatnahalsen:

And views from the Oslo - Bergen line, going at the highest point to Finse, 1222 meters above the sea level.

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) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of saunagoers or swimmers, all photos are taken from the outside or when the facility is closed or empty.

Underground rivers of Flåm

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These seem man-made, however.

The upper one near Kjosfossen is here: N 60.746953 E 7.135646.

The lower one in is here: N 60.806371 E 7.118091.

Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. 

Norway swim fail

Having hiked, caved, and skied I was ... not ready to sit in a packed airplane. A swim or at least a sauna would be so good! Initially, it looked like it would be possible in Norway's many swimming halls. But none of them turned out to be actually open, or open to public at all. Nor did the airport hotel let anyone except guests in their gym that would have had a sauna. Sigh. 

I tried to visit the Fjellhamar arena, which according to Google and the net was open, but ... was actually closed, couldn't even get to the parking lot. Also looked at a few other establishments nearby, and all of them were either clearly closed, or maybe some private or training facilities... it was hard to decipher the code about them. It isn't clear that Fjellhamar would have allowed me to go in either, it is possible that it too was only rentable to training groups. Or even if they had a pool at all, there really was conflicting information. Anyone know?

Fortunately, I was able to shower at the lounge at the airport. There's a separate article about the lounge here. In the end my co-passengers did not smell me :-) even if the finer sauna and swim experiences could not be found.

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) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Unspecified hole in Norway

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Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. 

Snø, again

After having skied in Snø on the last days of June, now I was about to fly out from Norway, but had some time. I decided to go to Snø again, to cover my July skiing :-) 

Article coming up ...

Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko.

Snø

Article coming up ...

The official home page is here.

Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko.

Martinlaakso swim

Another swimming hall visit! This time in Martinlaakso, a suburb of Vantaa. They have a nice swimming hall, and at least now in the summer it seemed almost completely empty. But open, unlike most of the other community swimming halls sigh...

They have a 25 meter pool and a kiddie pool. In the saunas there's ample space for showers, a bit cramped space perhaps for dressing, and two quite nice Finnish-style saunas. One is milder temperature, the other one hotter. I didn't detect a big difference though.

The city's official page for this swimming hall is here.

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) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of saunagoers or swimmers, all photos are taken from the outside or when the facility is closed or empty.  The pool picture is by Vantaan kaupunki, all rights reserved for them.

OSL lounge

As I was flying out of Norway's Oslo / Gardemoen airport, I got a chance to visit the lounge that Finnair had a deal with for people with frequent flier status: the OSL lounge. The international side OSL lounge (there's two, the other one is at the domestic side).

It was a nice and quiet lounge, with enough power sockets around. And open long enough for my delayed flight time. Some salad, soups, pasta, bread, and snacks were available. And a shower! I really, really needed this because I had been hiking, and had been unable to find a swimming pool or sauna open to the public anywhere on my trip from outskirts of Oslo to the airport.

Such bliss to be able to have a shower after a long day, before joining a flight. Probably also good for the people sitting next to me in the plane :-) 

But I ended up walking from one end of the airport to another and back to get there. The ticket said "airport lounge", and I didn't pay attention to the fact that the airport had a domestic and international section... or the "near gates E" note in the ticket. When I passed through security, I just saw "SAS lounge" to the right and "OSL lounge" to the left. At the very end on the left (a long walk), I realized that I was at the wrong place. So now I needed to walk back past the exit from security, and still forward to the other end of the airport, indeed near gates E. Maybe they could add some more signage, there was nothing at the security exit about international or domestic, or the other OSL lounge. 

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) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Volvo's 10 year paint anniversary, and ... a breakdown

 

Facebook reminded me that the Volvo came out of paint shop in 2015... and now it is 2025. Can you spot the difference? :-)

Also, we were driving home from the cottage and, as always, worried about the car lasting to the end of the trip. It almost did, just few kilometers from home it refused to run. At an intersection. Fortunately we got to a bus stop. Starting the car was difficult, and if it started it would immediately stop running if we tried to engage a forward gear. Reversing was OK.. hmm.... 

Anyway, after few minutes the car agreed to run home just fine. Even more odd. It was raining heavily, so this could be humidity related.

Here's the comparison.

Left is 2015 when it was just re-painted due to rust, etc.

Right is 2025. Not waxed, etc., but still clean-ish.

More car stories in the Planetskier blog series at Blogspot. The photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko.

Throwing water to the stove in the sauna

A common sauna discussion is the one about the effect of throwing water on the sauna stove, and how it affects the temperature in the sauna: whether it just feels hotter due to the humidity, or if the temperature actually rises?

I read an excellent blog article about the topic, from the Saunologia blog (link).

To begin with, there are multiple effects at play:

• Water on the stove will rapidly transfer heat from the stove to the air, in the form of steam and hot, humid air. This will raise the temperature.

• Longer term, the overall heat input from the stove does not change, the same energy is still put into the system through the wood burning in the stove.

• Humans feel increased heat, even beyond the increased temperature due to (1) hot steam condensing on colder skin surface, and (2) our natural cooling system (sweating) not being able to cope as efficiently with the increased humidity.

In short, there is an actual temperature increase, but it is perhaps not as big as one might think, typically in the order of few degrees, however, that and the interaction with human skin will make the sauna feel hotter. And can of course affect the skin negatively, if done in excessive amounts.

The linked blog article explains the physics of heat transfer from the stove, and how it affects the temperature and humidity in the sauna. There's an excellent Mollier diagram showing the impact of throwing water at a 80 or 120 degree sauna, and how it slightly increases the temperature and significantly increases humidity. The diagram is by Unto Hakkarainen:

Pictures from my cottage trip where one of these discussions happened :-)

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) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.