Skiing the Planet

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Train ride to New Jersey .. for one ski run

Making my American Dream come true: working rail transport and a few turns in a shopping mall. Nice!

But let's start from the beginning. Here's my today’s program:

So, going to the US .. grab a reindeer burger at the lounge, the go fly with these views along the way:

I was in DC to talk about how to control what Generative AI can crawl from the Internet as input, and how content creators can signal what their material can be used for:

Once the business was over, it was early Saturday morning. Very early. And I had until the evening before my return flight was going to leave. So, 4.50am, anyone up for a US train system adventure? Taking a taxi to the Washington DC Union Station:

It was early enough that nothing at the station was open, and you couldn't even enter without having a valid ticket for a train. But then it was time to board the 5.21am train:

The train was on time, took a couple of hours to inch our way up from DC towards New Jersey ... with sunrise views along the way:

Finally I arrived at the New Jersey Penn Station. (Why are there two Penn Stations by the way, the more famous one being on the New York side... sigh it was confusing for an outsider.)

The taxi ride offered my closest view of the Manhattan skyline.

But why bother with Manhattan when you can look for the American Dream:

Now this is what I'm talking about:

And that, ladies and gentlemen is North America's only indoor ski resort, the Big Snow. In a mall, naturally. And equally naturally, whenever skiing is opening the dirtbags are lining up. And even more naturally, I cut the line and enter first:

By the way it was such a locals-only experience to book this adventure. It turned out that the web site for Big Snow didn't work for me, no matter what card I tried. I could make a booking, but fail at the end when I tried to pay. Asked help from friends, who were too busy. But on my layover at JFK it turned out that the silly website just wasn't working if you tried to use it from outside US. So I was finally able to make a booking. Thank God there was still space, phew. Can't miss skiing, can I? But why oh why do people add such silly location checks? Have they not heard of tourists wanting to book adventures? Sigh...

Of course, this being in North America, the two hour lift ticket cost more than 100 USD...

But no need to be negative. I'm finally making my American Dream come true: working rail transport and a few turns in a shopping mall. Nice!

Time to ski!

But two things are preventing me from enjoying this too much, just one run ... well a couple of additional ones. But I'm recovering from a major medical operation, and shouldn't exercise too much. And I'm also now starting to dream about this return train taking me back in time for my flights home … so I return the gear, change clothes and jump to another Uber back to the station, just in time for the last train that will take me back to DC in time:

Made it. There is a working train system and support services for the snow-needy.

Quite an adventure. I spent over five hundred on the train tickets alone, more than a hundred at the ski resort... maybe close to two hundred on various taxis... definitely more than a hundred per a short ski run. And *definitely* worth it!

There's video, too:

Early take-off from HEL

One of those early morning take-offs from HEL... and less than 20 hours since I landed home from an intercontinental trip. Feeling tired. But psyched for the work week, interesting things ahead! :-)

And it is so early. So early that the lounge is not yet open.

But it did open shortly before the flight so that I could enjoy a porridge at the new Finnair Schengen Platinum lounge.

My plane:

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) 2024 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Where in HEL is my luggage???

Clearly, this airport knows what questions their passengers might have!

Gotta love the HEL!

Sunday, December 8, 2024

Grani Season's Opening with Stored Snow

My November and December ski outings werer brief visits to Vihti - first one to open in my region - and Kauniainen - my local hill, opened today Dec 7th. Brief visits because still recovering from post-C additional health issues. Vihti was foggy snow spot in otherwise snowless muddy darkness, reported in the other article. Kauniainen was wintery as colder conditions have returned to the area. Both opened with help of stored snow from last year.

Ski center:

Lift:

Skiing:

Grani tickets:

Caver's X-Mas Party with Dresses

I hosted the fall meeting and Christmas party for the caver's association in Kauniainen. The theme was vintage clothing... I was maybe more vintage (clothing and otherwise) than the others...

Invite:

Party site and meeting:

Food preparation (mustard-maple syrup covered salmon grilled on cedar planks soaked in rosemary water):

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) 2024 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Saturday, December 7, 2024

The Final (?) Check-up

The check-up verdict is in: failed on 12 counts, 4 more “to fix”. Brakes, steering, leaks front and back, more brakes, more steering, more leaks, rusted hull, emissions, etc. 4500 to fix, with uncertain results. Six weeks of driving left before it becomes illegal. Sigh.

Fort George

What a wonderful visit in an 19th century fortress, a museum, and an excellent restaurant. With a view. And a sunset!

Fort George is a popular name for fortresses in the world, but this one is on the island of Vis in Croatia, protecting the entrance to the harbor of the main town, also called Vis. Wikipedia explains the history of the fortress:

Fort George was built by the British when Austrian Imperial authority in region was ceded to the French as a part of a humiliating peace settlement dictated by Napoleon. Fearing Napoleon would turn the Adriatic into a French lake, with free rein to launch warships from the Venetian Arsenal and expand his empire further into Europe, the Royal Navy was sent to the Adriatic with a regiment of foot and detachment of artillery to prevent Napoleon's ambitions coming to fruition. The British had used the island of Vis for its fresh water and safe anchorage for a number of years prior the committing defences to the island. In 1811 the French successfully raided the bay of Vis inflicting damage to the town and destroying numerous merchant vessels. It was hence decided that the bay of Vis needed protection from further such attacks. Initial defences were built on Host Island in the middle of the harbour, consisting of two 18 pound guns in a stone fortification. In 1812 Fort George was begun after the British Governor, Colonel Robertson, decided that the harbour needed greater protection. Fort George was to be primarily a light cannon and musketry defence and was therefore built to cooperate with three further Martello towers; towers Bentick and Robertson to the rear of the fort and Wellington across the bay. Like the defences on Host Island, these Martello towers would carry large cannon able of deterring enemy ships from approaching the bay. The defense towers and Fort George were built under the supervision of Captain Henryson using labourers recruited directly from the island and remained strictly under the jurisdiction of the army whilst the battery on Host Island remained under the control of the Royal Navy. The defences were completed by late 1813 and two years later were handed to the Austrians, who had begun reclaiming control of their Adriatic territories following decline and eventual fall of Napoleonic forces in the region.

Interesting! But indeed, today the fortress is a protected site, a museum, and a restaurant and a bar with incredible views from the top of the hill it resides on.

For navigation, Fort George is here: N 43.0737312 E 16.1965236. The official website is here, and the Wikipedia entry here.

Views:

Fortress:

The restaurant and the food:

Foggy November ski run in Vihti

November was running out, and on the last two days I had a party to organize. So today, November 28, was the final day to do my month's skiing. Fortunately, I had just today gotten my Volvo back from six months sitting at the garage, so I had wheels. Also fortunately, Vihti Ski Center had already been open for some time, despite all the other ski areas being closed and the weather being ... rainy... foggy... and all natural snow that had fallen earlier in November had already melted. Well done, Vihti!

But, I was also recovering from illness, so needed to take it easy. Just a couple of runs. Had fun though.

Skiing: