I've been here many times before, but doing it with my friends this time made me realize an annoying thing. We visited the Itäkeskus swimming hall, a wonderful underground creation. But... one of the nicest pools in a rock-dug hole was painful when kids were screaming at the full power of their lungs. And it is a massive echo chamber. In fact, the entire swimming hall is quite bad at acoustics; hard surfaces for the sounds to bounce off.
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September 2023, Itäkeskuksen uimahalli, Helsinki, Finland
Sauna (Normal, Steam); Swimming (Indoor, Water, Waterbody-Pool); Urban-Exploration (Bunkers)
If your caving friend was coming over for a weekend, what would you show about the Finnish caving scene? Here's our menu for a caving buffet, covering everything from ice saunas to block caves to cracks in granite, mines, limestone caves, to salmon meals to ... did I already mention saunas? Not to forget Sibelius for dessert!
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September 2023, Viking Glory, Stockholm, Sweden; Luolavuoren luola, Turku, Finland; Rotkoluola, Kaarina, Finland; Itäkeskuksen uimahalli, Helsinki, Finland; House Arkko, Kauniainen, Finland; Högberget, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Ansabunkkeri, Siuntio, Finland; Korkbergetin lohkareluola, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Hvitträsk cliff, Kirkkonummi, Finland
Sauna (Normal, Steam, Other); Caving (Basic, Rock, Morphology-Crack, Morphology-Boulders, Equipment); Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Crack, Equipment); Sauna (Normal, Steam); Swimming (Water, Waterbody-Pool, Indoor); Travel; Caving (Basic, , Rock, Equipment, Morphology-Erosion); Urban-Exploration (Bunkers); Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Boulders); Urban-Exploration (Historic-Sites)
I've been here before, but it is always refreshing: the Tytyri kaivos keeps having less miners but more and more tourists and elevator researchers. This time we found a treasure: a sauna in the depths of the mine, on level 80.
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September 2023, Tytyrin kaivos, Lohja, Finland
Sauna (Normal); Urban-Exploration (Mines)
Many years ago, I tried to find some skiing inVenice. No luck, could not score any snow from local skating rinks, so was unable to plaster the Calatrava Bridge with snow... sad... or maybe good. This year we went back there.
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July 2023, Venice, Italy
Skiing (None); Urban-Exploration (Historic-Sites)
I had only heard about the Postojna Cave before coming to Slovenia. But it turns out that there are many caves (of course) as well as many very interesting or famous cave sites. Right next to the Postojna cave, a 10 minute car ride away for instance is the Predjama Castle, which is world's largest castle built in a cave.
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July 2023, Predjama Castle, Postojna, Slovenia
Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Limestone, Morphology-Karst); Urban-Exploration (Military, Castles, Historic-Sites)
Piran is a medieval town on the coast of Slovenia. A wonderful town, clearly retaining its historic parts. The protective walls of the city date back to the 7th century, and can be toured for a nominal fee. Much recommended.
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July 2023, Walls of Piran, Piran, Slovenia
Urban-Exploration (Historic-Sites, Castles); Flying
On our tour of Slovenia's Piran, we also peeked on the Croatian side, and had a swim in the Polynesia Beach in the town of Umag. Little did we know that the ruins we started our swim from were actually the ruins of the Sipar Castle from A.D. 1000 or thereabouts. Some have even called this place the Atlantis of Sipar. Interesting!
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July 2023, Polynesia Beach, Umag, Croatia
Swimming (Outdoor, Waterbody-Sea, Water, Beach); Urban-Exploration (Historic-Sites, Castles)
This tunnel appeared on my walk while visiting Rotterdam. I was walking from my hotel to the conference venues, as a like to do to keep my step counts up :-) And as one expects, there are some waterways to cross in the Netherlands cities :-) I thought there'd be a bridge though. But no, it was a tunnel. It was only in the tunnel and later in Wikipedia that Maastunnel is actually 1070 meters long that crosses the Niewwe Maas.
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May 2023, Maastunnel, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Urban-Exploration (Tunnels)
We visited an old, not so big, but quite famous bridge in Finland. This used to be on the main road, but since the opening of the highway from Helsinki to Tampere, it is no longer getting as much traffic as before. The bridge is still beautiful, though.
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May 2023, Sääksmäen silta, Valkeakoski, Finland
Urban-Exploration (Bridges)
It does look very weird. For some reason I thought it was a water tower. It is in the town of Oberreid in the Black Forest area in Southern Germany, near Freiburg. But ... it is in fact a defense against against nuclear weapons and natural disasters...
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May 2023, Barbarastollen, Oberried, Germany
Urban-Exploration (Towers)
In the Kalemegdan park / Belgrade Fortress there's also a bunker. This is a bunker Tito ordered to be built, and it was constructed in early 1950s. It has two gun ports (now closed), and it is today an open museum that you can visit.
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May 2023, Belgrade Fortress Bunker, Belgrade, Serbia
Urban-Exploration (Ruins, Military, Bunkers)
It is an imposing, massive castle on top of a high hill. Worth a visit!
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May 2023, Burg Hohenzollern, Hechingen, Germany
Urban-Exploration (Castles)
Dockyard Garden is an old dry dock in the Yokohama harbor, cornered between some of the highest skyscrapers in Japan. Doors have been cut to the sides of the massive rock walls protecting the dock, to build access to nice restaurants at the bottom.
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March 2023, Dockyard Garden, Yokohama, Japan
Travel; Urban-Exploration (Harbours)
Only in Japan: They have a "candle lending service" at cave. And it is not like it is a dark, lightless place even without the candles - the Enoshima cave has lighting, but obviously the candles are a remarkable addition to the experience. On the other hand, since the candles are actual candles with actual fire, there is now a need to have a fire alarm system, if somebody accidentally sets the cave on fire...
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March 2023, Enoshima Island, Fujisawa, Japan; Enoshima Iwaya Cave, Fujisawa, Japan; Enoshima Iwaya Cave 2, Fujisawa, Japan; Enoshima Iwaya mini cavelet 1, Fujisawa, Japan; Enoshima Iwaya mini cavelet 2, Fujisawa, Japan; Shinto Shrine, Fujisawa, Japan
Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Limestone, Morphology-Erosion, Showtour); Caving (None, Rock, Rock-Limestone, Morphology-Erosion); Hiking; Travel; Urban-Exploration (Historic-Sites)
We had heard a rumor of a potentially previously unknown bunker in Siuntio. Let's call it the Hoivakodin Bunkkeri (Retirement Home Bunker). It turned out to be accessible -- if you don't mind passing through pieces of concrete hanging by rusting, twisted rebar. And it was a massive one! Another ZIF-25 model bunker, i.e., a two-floor bunker with several entrance tunnels and a side mountain gun port.
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March 2023, Hoivakodin bunkkeri, Siuntio, Finland; Ansabunkkeri, Siuntio, Finland
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers)
I saw something today that I didn't realize actually existed in our neighborhood. It takes maybe half an hour for me to get from where I live to Siuntio, and there's a nice castle, the Sjundby Castle (or Manor). It was built starting from 1417, by the rapids on the Sjundbyån river. It is not open to the public so maybe that explains why I haven't heard about it.
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March 2023, Sjundbyn linna, Siuntio, Finland
Urban-Exploration (Historic, Castles)