Lufthansa banana bread vs. Finnair cinnamon roll

Had the Lufthansa 3.90€ banana bread today. It was ok, but really no comparison to Finnair's massive - and heated - cinnamon rolls that they nowadays serve in business class instead of champagne.

Conclusions:

• Business class: better than tourist class
• Finnair buns: better than Lufthansa buns
• Hot: better than cold
• Blogs: you should follow more of the highly impactful reporting about flying in the modern world on this channel! 

My previous report on the cinnamon buns was here.

This article has also been published in Planetflier.com here. For more flying stories, check out the Planetflier.com website! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot! Photos, videos and text (c) 2024 - 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Parc Naturel de Portneuf caves in Quebec

The Portneuf municipality is half way between Trois-Rivières and Quebec cities, on the north side of the St. Lawrence river. A bit north of them lies the Saint-Alban village and there is the natural park, Parc Naturel de Portneuf. And two wonderful caves, the Grotte le Trou du Diable and Grotte aux Cascatelles. The first one is a Quebec speleological society's organized touring cave, a wet wading cave. I was not able to do this tour, since it was out of the season. In any case, summer would probably be a nicer time to be deep in the water. The second one is cave by the gorge-like river Sainte-Anne, where a small stream has carved a cave to short-cut the gorge walls. 

The Grotte le Trou du Diable has (at least) three openings, in coordinates N 46.677038 W 72.094314, N 46.675057 W 72.091979 and N 46.674699 W 72.091523. The first one is accessible by climbing down the steep river walls of a small contributory to Sainte-Anne, the one coming from the cave. The other two are accessible through the society's grounds. The society's hut is here, subject to opening hours etc.

This cave is extremely dangerous if you don't know what you are doing and are coming with the guide from the society, given the amount of water in it. It is also tight from what I can see.

Some photos of this cave below, the first entrance here pictures below. There's actually two entrances here, one dry and one with flowing water:

The second entrance is shown here:

And the third entrance here:

Signs & surroundings for the cave:

Map of the cave Diable cave, as described by the society:

The other cave, Grotte aux Cascatelles, was hard to find. All the coordinates in Grotto Center and Wikipedia appeared to be incorrect, pointing to a swampy plains above and north of Sainte-Anne. I criss-crossed this area for an hour but did not see anything. And I didn't think there couldn't even be anything given the flat and and muddy landscape. But there's a cave that matches roughly what the cave map in Wikipedia shows, with two holes and a stream entrance from the top, and exit at the bottom of a cliff. The right coordinates are, I think, N 46.709885 W 72.079825.

It is hard/dangerous to access, though. The river is subject to sudden flooding from the dam just few hundred meters upstream. And while there are stairs down to the river bank from a bit nearer the dam, they have been marked as closed due to collapse dangers. Double danger!

Some pictures of this cave:

The environment in the park near the cave:

More information about Grotte du Diable can be found on the QC Speleo site and Portneuf Tourism site, and from Grotte Aux Cascatelles at the Grotto Center, a map from Wikipedia is here.

This article has also been published at Planetcaver.net here. 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. 

Long delay when a BA 787 turned around

I was coming back from Montreal, when the incoming plane turned around, reportedly due to one the GPSes failing, and that not being allowed for an overseas flight. This caused a six hour delay on our departure from Montreal. On the positive side we had lounge access to the Air France lounge (that BA uses) and amazingly they extended their closing time from 10pm to half past midnight to accommodate the waiting passengers. Well done!

Also, since the plane configuration changed, I was treated with an upgrade to economy extra. Thank you!

The Air France lounge had a nice sofa and a Concorde model... and I hit my head to it while plugging my charges in underneath :-) There was also a shower, came to much use after a day of skiing and caving and hiking.

Meal on the Montreal - Heathrow leg:

Meal on the Heathrow - Helsinki leg (Finnair). Looks a bit ugly but was quite good!

Here's the BA plane finally arriving to Montreal:

Montreal airport home page is here and the wikipedia article here.

This article has also been published in Planetflier.com here. For more flying stories, check out the Planetflier.com website! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot! Photos, videos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Montreal. Busses all the way.

Arrived in Montreal for IETF. Last leg on a 747, the bus, just in time before there’s a public transport strike. And the previous leg was a rare chance to ride a mobile lounge from the plane to the airport, before that a 787 and a 350 and a 740 😀 Was good to start discussions already during the trip, many friends on same flights and buses ❤️

Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport offers a peculiar throwback to aviation history: the mobile lounge. These boxy, slow-moving vehicles transport passengers directly from the terminal to aircraft parked on the tarmac, eliminating the need for traditional jet bridges or shuttle buses. Cumbersome and dated. But also a rare glimpse into the 1960s technology innovation.

Today, mobile lounges survive at only two airports worldwide: Montreal and Washington Dulles. What was once envisioned as the future of airport design has been almost entirely replaced by more efficient systems. They are still oddly charming. They may be slow, but they're certainly memorable. And for once, I feared more for something else to break than my cranky old 740...

I have not written previously about this airport, but been there many times. And I've talked about visits to Montreal for other activities, including biking to Mont Royal and exploring the Caverne de Saint-Léonard, as well as enjoying the sauna at the Fairmont the Queen Elizabeth.

To get here though I had to travel through Heathrow, for instance. Fortunately we had the pleasure of hanging out short seven hour layover in the British Airways business lounge. With all the screens, the horses, and ... no phone booths for conference calls???

But what I really liked was the long underground walking path from Terminal 5 to the satellite terminals B and C:

And before Heathrow, there was a Finnair flight on Airbus A350-XWB. For once I was able to upgrade, so business class breakfast was quite nice. But I ate it quickly and slept almost all of the rest of the three hour flight.

And before that flight there was the Helsinki-Vantaa airport ... here Tero taught us a new thing: from the Finnair Non-Schengen Business Lounge there's a backdoor to exit directly to the pathway towards the gates, without going back through the lounge checkin. Nice!

Here were my tickets for the flights:

This article has also been published in Planetflier.com here. For more flying stories, check out the Planetflier.com website! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot! Photos, videos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.