Reindeer burger and a hot sauna. Airport lounges redefined?

 

Only in Finland, and only in Helsinki, and only with Finnair. Nowhere else can you enjoy a lounge sauna and a reindeer burger in the airline lounge. Not too shitty. But then I had to squeeze myself into a small metal tube for travel.

This is the platinum wing of the business lounge on the non-Schengen side of the airport. See here.

Burger:

There was also a great invention in the lounge sauna -- the lockers had an electrical socket, which meant that one could plug in one's phone to charge while in the sauna. Well done Finnair!

For more flying, sauna and swimming stories, check out planetflier.com, 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) 2022 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of other saunagoers or swimmers and visit when there is simply no one else or the facility has been closed or booked only for me.

Jeskyně Postojna -- Czech Edition

 

Jeskyně Postojna famous, massive cave in Slovenia. We are on our way to a Jeskyně Postojna. But not the one in Slovenia... a smaller one in northern Czech Republic. This cave, Postonja cave, was named after farmers' shouts as they kept shouting for their sheep "wait little one" ("postüj malá"). While the cave is not huge, it was a very nice cave to crawl through. Soft, dry sand at the bottom... smooth, round surfaces, tiny holes to squeeze through. A great exploration, with also countless other smaller caves around in the so called Klokočské Rocks natural park. There must be thousands and thousands of holes here, wondering if everything's been researched and looked into?

We explored few of the smaller caves until we managed to find the proper Postonja Cave. We also took a 3D scan from the Postonja Cave and two of the side caves. Here are their locations and on-your-browser rotatable 3D models:

• Jeskyně Postojna (the main cave) is at the coordinates N 50.598900 E 15.209168. Here's a PDF map, rotatable model, downloadable model.
• Jeskyně Postojna první boční jeskyně (the first side cave) is at the coordinates N 50.599160 E 15.209729. Here's a PDF map, rotatable model, downloadable model.
• Jeskyně Postojna druhá boční jeskyně (the second side cave) is at the coordinates N 50.599317 E 15.209454. Here's a PDF map, rotatable model, downloadable model.

The second side cave in particular was a lot of fun. A straight and very tight on-your-stomach-pull-forward tunnel leads to a single round chamber. Nice!

The 3D models were taken using Polycam app and the lidar sensors on the iPhone pro models. PDF maps from the caves have been automatically generated using my "Cave Outliner" software. It is open source; feel free to use it for other caves as well!

This is by the way my seventh country where I'm doing 3D scanning, previously done that in Finland, Sweden, Austria, Croatia (so far unpublished), Germany, United States, and now Czechia. All my models are slowly appearing on my website list of 3D models as well.

Access. The main cave was difficult to find, by the way, among the many holes and a major cliff that we couldn't find an easy way to descend from. It turned out that the right path was to follow the big walking path, basically until you hit the main cave. There's side paths where you can explore the side caves, but the big path takes you to a gully that leads safely down the cliffs and also to the main cave.

Main cave photos above and below:

Side cave 1 photos:

Side cave 2 photos:

Other caves in the area (plenty!):

This article has also been published at TGR. 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, videos, and text (c) 2022 by Jari and Janne Arkko. All rights reserved.

Refresher course in communism and nuclear bunkers

 

I've been here before, but a refresher course is always good, plus I have the next generation with me, useful course for him as well. The Prague's communism and nuclear bunker tour is a good reminder of what oppressive things went on during the eastern block years in Czechosloakia and elsewhere. Fortunately, those times are past us. But in 2022, you can still feel the nuclear-bomb threats being made ... you guessed it, from the east.

May the dictatorship times never return, and the current dictators fall. And of course, may the nuclear holocaust-wielding evils go away.

But back to the tour.. it is very much recommended. This is surely the best tour to get in Prague! Expert guide, both in town & what went on previously, plus a visit to a deep bunker and an amazing amount of Cold War era masks, suits, and other memorabilia.

Interestingly, we also attempted to go the Cold War Museum and the KGB Museum. True to the nature of Cold War and KGB tactics, we were coldly turned away, apparently applications for a visit should have been filed in three copies in the Politbyroo six weeks ago, or that we should have visited at a time that the museum was not in the need of repairs. Well, communism certainly is in need of repairs :-)

The museums:

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) 2022 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Castles, castles... Czech edition

 

I had an opportunity to visit castles in Czech Republic this summer. The first one we went to was Hrad Trosky, the ruins of an amazing two-tower steep clifftop castle. What a magnificent, for defense business -only castle! The second castle, Hrad Kost was a more full-service one, and was used as an administrative base. With a torture chamber, of course. (Is there any other kind of administration???)

Hrad Trosky is such a radical, high-up-on-a-cliff castle that it was breathtaking. Literally, when you climbed the stairs to the top of one of the towers. Only one of the two towers is today reachable, the support structures and stairs for the other one are long gone. Yet, it looms high above the horizon. The castle can be found on Google Maps here. There's easy (paid) parking and restaurants, but a short steep walk to the castle.

Hrad Kost can only be toured on an organized tour (and in our case, in Czech only... but we can English-language printouts...) It resides in an area of interesting rock formations, at the cross section of three small valleys carved in the rock. The area itself is also interesting. The castle can be found here, and again there's easy paid parking. I also want to recommend the grill restaurant at the back of the castle, which makes really nice medieval-feeling meals...

Both castles are highly recommended.

Pictures from Trosky above and below:

Pictures from Kost:

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) 2022 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Korcula wall swim

 

Korcula is a wonderful historic town (on the island of Korcula :-) ) And there's a wonderful swimmable beach ... rocks just outside the east city wall, under the restaurant walking path. You'll be under pine trees, on rocks, with some steps leading to clear water.. can't get much better than this!

There are easy walking steps from the wall down to the rocks, in several places. Much recommended!

Coordinates: N 42.961585 E 17.137192.

Korcula obviously also has a ton of really good restaurants and other tourist services. There's even a red submarine if you are so inclined. But it isn't yellow.

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) 2022 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of other saunagoers or swimmers and visit when there is simply no one else or the facility has been closed or booked only for me.

They say the repairs would be easy!

 

Been looking for a better car, saw this on sale today, would it be a good choice? They say repairs are easy.

We visited Prague's Trabant Muzeum Praha Motol today. The museum is at Plzeňská 215 b, Prague, in a building looks like a car repair shop but the backside is a museum.

Much recommended, a truly great and detailed museum. Includes even a Trabant simulator:

Eww:

Sign:

Price of the car...

Translation of the price:

More car stories in the Planetskier blog series at Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2022 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Haimoon maauimala

 

It is good to jump into refreshing water after a long hike and cave crawl! Haimoon Maauimala to the rescue :-)

The coordinates for this place are N 60.46726 E 24.49452. There is no website, but another blog article can be found 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) 2021 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of other saunagoers or swimmers and visit when there is simply no one else or the facility has been closed or booked only for me.

South beaches on Vis

 

I had an opportunity to visit the Zaglav, Milna, Zenka beaches while on the island of Vis in Croatia for a few days.

The coordinates for these beaches are (approximately, and in the same order as above): N 43.0326 E 16.2288, N 43.0404 E 16.2308, and N 43.0431 E 16.2405.

Above and below is the Zaglav beach:

Milna beach:

Zenka beaches, from high above:

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) 2021 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of other saunagoers or swimmers and visit when there is simply no one else or the facility has been closed or booked only for me.