Yacht hotel. And a sauna. Obviously.

Spending the night right in Stockholm's old town? On a yacht? With an excellent sauna heated up just for you? For 1000 SEK (100€) a night? Enter Mälardrottningen... not bad at all!

For work, I need to stay in Kista, north of Stockholm a lot. But I try to vary my hotels just to see what's nice, and to test different saunas. This week I found that there's many boat hotels in Stockholm, and I decided to stay in town rather than up north. It takes a bit more time to ride the trains to the town, but the prices are quite affordable. For instance, it is cheaper to stay in the Mälardrottningen than in the usual hotel in Kista. And they don't even have a sauna!

Text and photos (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. Read more of my sauna stories at saunablogger.cool!

Iceland

Besides the hot pools, volcanoes, and caves, I also find Iceland wonderful in other ways. On my recent two trips, I managed to find some time for quick tours of some of the usual attractions near Reykjavik, on the Golden Circle for instance.

Loved the Gulfoss waterfall (above) and the Geysir area.

Geysirs:

Volcanoes:

Reykjavik:

Photos and text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. See more stories from the underground worlds at planetcaver.net and theurbanexplorer.net!

Crack between the plates

I knew that there are tectonic plates, but I had no idea one can walk in the crack between them. But in Thingvellir, Iceland it is possible.

There are also amazing waterfalls in the area, but those are kind of expected. Pretty to look at, though.

Photos and text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko and friends. All rights reserved. See more stories from the underground worlds at planetcaver.net and theurbanexplorer.net!

Hot lake

While driving around a bit after the meeting ended that day, I came across a modest looking community swimming pool in Laugarvatn. But it turned out to be a luxury sauna - thermal bath facility, the Fontana. And it was on the beach of a lake where the warnings say the lake water is boiling at some places. Care for a swim?

The saunas and steam rooms were stellar! There was one Finnish sauna and three steam rooms, with steam generated by the natural thermal water running under the floor boards in the steam rooms.

There was also a very, very nice restaurant, the Lindin next to the spa. I recommend their arctic char meal in particular, with the fish coming right out of the lake.

Text and photos (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko & friends. All rights reserved. And all my sauna and swimming stories can of course be found from planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool web sites!

Banksy tunnel

While in London, we happened to walk through the Banksy Tunnel, a pedestrian walkway tunnel where graffiti is ... tolerated if not legal. Pretty nice!

The tunnel is on Leake Street.

Photos and text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. See more stories from the underground worlds at planetcaver.net and theurbanexplorer.net!

Boozetunnel

Booze tunnel in Helsinki... not from prohibition times but built between Alko's factory and warehouse. Decommissioned, now as a reserve shelter. The tunnel is underneath the Ruoholahti mall, in floor -6... deep under everything else. So deep that it is even underneath the kid amusement park Hoplop in floor -5 :-)

Tero happened to notice that this was open for public tour today and sent me a note. Thanks!

Tunnels:

Not really sure what to think of this:

Stairs out:

Photos and text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. See more stories from the underground worlds at planetcaver.net and theurbanexplorer.net!

Rescue team

I was worrying about the fate of the locked-up snow, when all of a sudden, some guy in black clothing and black miniskis jumped over the fence and liberated the snow. Amazing!

Photos, videos, and text by Jarmo Ruuth and Jari Arkko (c) 2019. All rights reserved. My skiing stories can be found from Blogspot and Teton Gravity Research, as well as of course Planetskier.Net! This particular article has also appeared in TGR. Tämä artikkeli löytyy myös suomeksi Relaasta.

Today's car repair

Today's car repair: signal light wire loose. Fortunately 0€ (in a different shop than yesterday).

Photos and text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. Follow my adventures from Blogspot.

Leppävaara fortifications

Jarmo and I visited the Leppävaara area fortifications, inspired by Tony Hagerlund's excellent blogs about them. There's plenty of trenches and also bunkers! These are World War I era fortifications built in a circle around Helsinki. We also found a small natural cave under a boulder!

This was also my first biking of the year, in +20 degree sunshine and wearing shorts. Felt good.

We visited bunkers in three areas:

Laturinkallio (between Vallikallio and Galleria, the old Leppävaara shopping mall):

• Bunker 1, perhaps a gun position? In coordinates N 60.22424 E 24.81525.

• Bunker 2, a storage room perhaps, next to bunker 1. In coordinates N 60.22420 E 24.81539.

• An almost dirt-filled bunker 3 under the hill in in coordinates N 60.22379 E 24.81704.

• A collapsed bunker 4 at the top of the hill, in coordinates N 60.22402 E 24.81712.

• Large concrete block covering surprisingly (at least visibly) only one small room in coordinates N 60.22414 E 24.81602.

We also found a small cave under a boulder here in in coordinates N 60.22382 E 24.816466. There's enough space for a man to be under the boulder, but we didn't have the equipment to draw a map of it.

Vallikallio:

• Tunnel-like bunker (door welded shut) in coordinates N 60.22544 E 24.81858.

• A second tunnel-like bunker, but with a slightly open door in coordinates N 60.22555 E 24.81839. There was an entrance room and a big storage room after it. Worth visiting, in rubber boots.

• A blown-up bunker, remains only in coordinates N 60.22604 E 24.81769.

Nupukivenkallio, the hill south of the Leppävaara Urheilupuisto, between the school and fire station:

• Gun station 1 in coordinates N 60.22261 E 24.80645. One photo at the top of this post and another here:

• Gun station 2 in coordinates N 60.22256 E 24.80650.

• Gun station 3 in coordinates N 60.22222 E 24.80667.

Warning: As always, be very careful visiting these places. There are 10 meter cliffs, dangerous objects in the floors, slippery rock, and the danger of collapses. On one of the bunkers in Vallikallio I stepped on a large boulder that started moving. It was scary.

Photos and text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. All my caving and urban exploration articles can be found from planetcaver.net, theurbanexplorer.net and of course blogspot and TGR!