I ordered a snow taxi, again

These are challenging times, these are September times.

I'm driving around Stockholm in Uber in a desperate effort to find snow. Had I booked my flights to return on Saturday, I could have gone to Hammarbyberg, a Stockholm city ski hill that has plastic skiing even outside the regular snow season. But as it were, I was returning Friday evening. Now there was just a few hours left, and my mission seemed to be going badly. I was at Ritorps ishall, with the plan to ski there and then have a swim in the next door nice swimming hall. But, there was no snow to be found on any side of the skating hall. 

Give up or continue the mission? But continuing would mean also missing the opportunity for the swim.

Still, continue, of course. The next stop was to take another Uber to Sollentuna, where there was another skating hall. And looking at the Internet, they had some kind of skating event the next day, so they must have ice. And therefore ice maintenance, and likely a snow pile outside. 

It took a while to get there, and even longer to find the snow pile, but it was there - in a narrow corridor between two halls. There was even an ice maintenance truck bringing more snow. A friend named the the snow pile Zamboni Peak, according to a famous ice maintenance truck brand :-) 

Skiing, check :-)

Now a walk to another swimming hall, a kilometer away. A nice walk along the shores in the parks of Sollentuna. Such a nice environment!

Sadly, when I arrived at the Sollentuna Swimming and sports hall, there was another setback. The hall was being renovated, not to be opened until some time in 2026. Sigh. Give up and pick up my luggage and go to the airport? 

No, I'd be too smelly after all the heavy climbing to the Zamboni Peak :-) But I could choose a close by hall that I had been to before, or one further away. I was torn, but decided to choose the further one. It was the Sundbybergs Simhall & Gym, such a nice find! There was a total of five pools. Two 25 meter pools, one regular temperature and another warmer. In addition there was a kiddie pond, kiddie pool, and teaching pool. Very nice.

Of course, I had again forgotten to take one of the twenty locks I had at home, all bought to lock the lockers in Swedish swimming halls. They don't have locks but you have to have your own. Fortunately they sell them, but indeed now I have a collection.

I also made it in time to pick up my luggage from the hotel, and to the airport - only to find out that my flight was two hours late. And when your flight takes off at midnight and the lounge closes at 9pm... Oh well, just first world problems. Arlanda airport was empty and I was able to sit in a nice place with power for my devices. After the flights I was at home 3am, but was able to sleep in the next day.

Locations:

Ritorps ishall, the first skating hall: link

Medley swimming hall in Solna (next to Ritorps ishall): link

Cyloq Arena in Sollentuna: link

Medley swimming and sportshall in Sollentuna: link

Sundbybergs Simhall & Gym: link

Video:

Skiing and Cyloq Arena:

Sollentuna:

Sollentuna swimming hall:

Sundbyberg swimming hall:

Airport:

My previous failure to ski in Ritorps ishall was here.

For more skiing stories, check out the Planetskier website! For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! And of course the Planetcaver for other stories in Blogspot! The photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of swimmers or saunagoers. Pool photos by the Sundbyberg city, all rights by them.

Hämeenlinna's swimming hall

Yet another swimming pool visit in nearby (max 1+ hour drive) swimming halls, as I've run out the ones closer. This time in Hämeenlinna. A large, quite nice swimming pool. The dressing room, shower, and saunas are really top notch. Really liked the glass walls in the saunas and the fact that they had not just a steam sauna but also an infrared sauna was really, really nice. Well done.

The pool areas felt a bit more dated, but there was certainly a lot of them. Two childrens pools, one cold plunge pool, two 25-meter pools, two therapy pools, and a jumping pool. Although the latter was out of action due to repairs. And of course, just outside this large swimming hall is a beach by the lake. Very nice!  

The hall is run by a company, Hämeenlinnan Liikuntahallit Oy. The official home page is here. Wikipedia also has some information. The hall itself dates back to 1976, though renovated in the early 2000s and late 2010s.

Photos:

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. Pool photos by the website of Digitekno Oy, and dressing room photos by the website of Laattapiste, all rights by them.

I'm a fan of the tractor fan!

You remember by fan problem? The fan controls have now been rebuilt with parts for a tractor, plus some engine maintenance. Ten weeks until check up time, at which point .. who knows.

Also, earlier this week I managed to lock all my stuff in my repair shop loaner Audi .. keys .. access card … wallet .. computer .. phone. At 8 pm when everyone else had already left the office and the parking lot was empty. 

Apparently the car locks automatically after some minutes if you close the back door. And I had already put my stuff in. Felt pretty unable to do anything. Can’t call a taxi, can’t go back to the office, empty parking lot, can’t get inside home even if I walked there, etc. Managed to find someone still having a smoke in the office yard to call a taxi. And my son happened to be at home so I was able to get in and pay taxi with the little cash I happened to have. And then my other son called a taxi for me next morning so I could pick up backup keys from the repair shop. 

Long story but short lesson: you are totally outside the society without your phone. And never trust Audi!

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

Hanko's Luxurious Regatta Spa

I continued my quest to swim in more places in the evenings after work. Inspired in part by having a reliable loaner car that can take me 100+ km away without a need to worry about breakdowns :-) But obviously mostly inspired by the desire to swim in more nice places.

And this time it was SUCH a nice place. Indeed luxurious. High-quality setting built out of stone and glass, airy and full of natural light, a quiet environment with spectacular sea views in three directions. And if you're tired of swimming in the pool, you can always take a walk on the beach and swim there :-) 

There's a - for a spa unusually large - 25 meter pool, a smaller therapy pool with even warmer water, and a separate cold plunge pool (?) that wasn't operational when I was there. There's Finnish sauna in the dressing room areas for both men and women, and a separate infrared sauna that you have to book separately and pay extra for.

There's a reception where you can buy drinks, a boutique shop with clothing, make-up and necessities.

The spa is part of the Regatta Spa hotel, but in a separate building 150 meters away. The hotel is an old Jugend style building, built in 1898 and designed by famous architect Lars Sonck. It was built to serve the nearby spa that was built already in 1879. The spa flourished particularly in the first half of the 20th century, but was badly damaged in the Second World War, and demolished in 1945. Today a modern spa building serves those wishing to enjoy a high-quality spa experience. 

Interestingly, Hanko does not have a community swimming pool, the only one is the spa. But there are many swimming opportunities in the city on its numerous beaches. 

The spa and the hotel websites are here: link. The spa can be found on the map here, and the hotel here. More about the spa building and its history from the builders here.

Access to the spa is 36€, six times more than a typical entrance fee for a community swimming pool in Finland. But given the experience, definitely worth it!

But the spa is only accessible to hotel guests during the summer (mid June - end of August). The rest of the year anyone can enter the spa by paying the entrance fee. If you stay at the hotel, the smallest rooms cost around 180€ per night. While the room itself does not include access to the spa, you can buy access with a special (and variable) price. At the time I looked, this was 28€ so a bit cheaper than the non-guest entrance to the spa.

The hotel and hotel's car:

More photos from the pools & saunas:

Outside the spa building:

This is my fourth far-away swimming hall visit in a row. The previous ones were in Somero, Lahti, and Salo.

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. Indoor photos with permission/when the facility was closed.

Swimming in Salo

Given that I still had the loaner car for an extra day, I felt it was an opportunity to use reliable transport now that it was available. I drove to Salo's swimming hall (link) after work. A long drive, hour and fifteen minutes, but a nice hall!

They had *two* 25 meter pools (both six lanes), a warmer therapy pool, a water slide, a cold plunge pool, and children's pool. In the changing rooms there were two saunas, one hot and one milder. I'd argue maybe  one was too over the top hot, and the other one was too mild, but nice nevertheless. Overall very nice building.

The swimming hall feels modern and nice, but it was actually built in the 1970s, just that it was completely renovated in 2007 (reference: wikipedia). 

The hall is located in the a sports park that in 2025 was named according to the ex-president, Sauli Niinistö. More information about this park can be found here. There's a golf course, sports fields and arenas, dog park, frisbee golf track, padel hall, skatepark, playground, and of course the swimming hall.

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. No photos of sauna or poolgoers were taken. 

Two Bunch Palms Swim

Two Bunch Palms Resort is a luxury hotel in Desert Hot Springs, California. It is indeed a nice place to relax and swim in the shade of the palm trees, with spectacular views of the mountains around you. Even if kind of in the middle of the desert.

Their home page is here and the Google link 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) 2014 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. No photos of sauna or poolgoers were taken. 

Soidenkallion onkalot - swamp cliff holes

On the way back from the Lahti swimming pool visit, I stopped in Lapinjärvi to look at a cave that I had not previously been to, the Soidenkallion onkalot (or "swamp cliff holes" in rough English translation). This is a shelter cave formed through a horizontal crack and erosion at the bottom of a cliff. 

It wasn't particularly deep or super easy to crawl through given its low roof, but it was a cave alright. Nice quiet area to visit, too, and easy parking. 

Glad I went!

I knew about the cave through the Finnish Caving Association's map (accessible here).

Of course, the map doesn't magically have the information about caves, it comes from somewhere. Among other sources, the map incorporates caves listed in the book Suomen luolat ("Finnish Caves") by Kesäläinen, Kejonen, Kielosto, Salonen, and Lahti. They've spent decades collecting local knowledge about possible caves and went and checked most of them. Impressive!

But back to Lapinjärvi. There's actually three separate caves, the main cave and two small side caves.

The main cave is at the coordinates N 60.657354 E 26.023939. 

Inside it looks like this:

There are two small side caves, the bigger one of these is at the coordinates N 60.657490 E 26.023870. This cave is basically an unconnected continuation of the main cave, a few meters (maybe 5) of the crack under the cliff, going in a few meters inside.

The smaller one of the side caves is just couple of meters (maybe 3), a tiny roof shelter and then a continuation under some boulders. This cave is at the coordinates N 60.657892 E 26.023652. Photo:

I 3D scanned the main cave. The Suomen Luolat book indicates the size of the cave being 1-5m x 25m. I measured it as 29m wide and up to 5.2m deep.

The 3D model can be downloaded here, or rotated on screen here. A screenshot of the model is below:

I also used the 3D model to automatically (mostly) generate a cave map. The high resolution version of the map can be downloaded here, but the below image shows the main plan view part:

In the main cave there was an object that I didn't know what it was but ... I really didn't want to touch it. Please don't visit this cave or if you do, be very careful:

More photos of the main cave:

More photos of the first side cave:

More photos of the second side cave:

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. All rights reserved. 

Saksalan uimahalli - Saksala swimming hall in Lahti

Given the loaner car I have this weekend... I can extend my driving range beyond towing distance. Hence a visit to Lahti, for a Sunday evening swim at the Saksala swimming hall.

Quite a nice experience. I'm not sure if the hall is older and renovated or completely new, but it seems very modern except for lacking a therapy pool or a jacuzzi. There's a 25 meter main pool and a kiddie pool. In the saunas there's one sauna (maybe a tad hot for my taste) but no second sauna or steam room. Overall very nice, metal pools, everything's clean and new, building looks good, etc.

For more information, opening times, etc. see the home page for the hall in the Lahti website, here. See also the YouTube video. There's also a Wikipedia page here. As the Wikipedia page says, in Saksala there's in addition to the swimming pool a grocery store, pizzeria, barber and a grill kiosk.

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. No photos of sauna or poolgoers were taken. Pool photo is from the YouTube video by Lahti city, all rights held by them.