THE URBAN EXPLORER

Welcome to The Urban Explorer blog! We have stories about urban exploration from around the world, from interesting public places to hidden, exploded bunkers with rebar pointing all the wrong ways.

More urban exploration-related articles:

Gorgas Creek Cave
Cave in a park in Philadelphia? Unreal...
Full story
(TGR version)

July 2019, Gorgas Creek Cave, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Caving (Man-Made); Urban-Exploration (Tunnels, Quarries)

Corporate sauna in a Russian harbour
I attended a workshop at a private corporate facility in Kirkkonummi, and it turns out that there was both a very nice sauna, swimming place, as well as ruins from the Russian occupation times: a railroad leading to a rock, almost disappeared harbour pier. Nice surprise!
Full story

June 2019, Corporate Sauna, Kirkkonummi, Finland
Sauna (Normal); Swimming (Indoor, Outdoor, Water, Waterbody-Pool, Waterbody-Sea); Urban-Exploration (Ruins)

Leppävaara mining
Today's abandoned mine exploration was in Leppävaara.
Full story

June 2019, Kaivoskallion louhos, Leppävaara, Espoo, Finland; Kaivoskallion siirtolohkareen alusluola, Leppävaara, Espoo, Finland
Urban-Exploration (Quarries); Caving (Man-Made)

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!
Full story

May 2019, Leake Street, London, United Kingdom
Urban-Exploration (Tunnels); Caving (Man-Made)

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 :-)
Full story

May 2019, Ruoholahden kauppakeskus, Helsinki, Finland
Urban-Exploration (Tunnels); Caving (Man-Made)

Underground Tallinn
I had an opportunity to visit Tallinn for a couple of hours yesterday, and the obvious question was whether there'd be anything underground to visit. And there is, Kiek in de Kök bastion tunnels. But, they were closed on Monday. Luckily, however, we run into an old bunker under the Tallinn Meremuuseum.
Full story

April 2019, Tallinna linnamüür, Tallinn, Estonia; Bunker under Eesti Meremuuseum, Tallinn, Estonia
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers); Caving (Man-Made)

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!
Full story

April 2019, Bunkkeritunneli 1, Vallikallio, Leppävaara, Espoo, Finland; Bunkkeritunneli 2, Vallikallio, Leppävaara, Espoo, Finland; Romahtanut bunkkeri, Vallikallio, Leppävaara, Espoo, Finland; Bunkkeri 1, Laturinkallio, Leppävaara, Espoo, Finland; Bunkkeri 2, Laturinkallio, Leppävaara, Espoo, Finland; Siirtolohkareen luola, Laturinkallio, Leppävaara, Espoo, Finland; Bunkkeri 3, Laturinkallio, Leppävaara, Espoo, Finland; Romahtanut bunkkeri 4, Laturinkallio, Leppävaara, Espoo, Finland; Iso bunkkeri, Laturinkallio, Leppävaara, Espoo, Finland; Tykkiasema 1, Nupukivenkallio, Leppävaara, Espoo, Finland; Tykkiasema 2, Nupukivenkallio, Leppävaara, Espoo, Finland; Tykkiasema 3, Nupukivenkallio, Leppävaara, Espoo, Finland
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers); Caving (Man-Made)

Abandoned fish factory
On our search for thermal baths in Iceland lead us to Hjalteyri on the northern shores of Iceland, north of Akureyri. We found an abandoned fish factory with storage tanks for fish oil and herring. It was fun to explore, luckily there was no rotten fish smell left :-)
Full story

March 2019, Hjalteyri, Iceland
Urban-Exploration (Industrial, Silos, Smokestacks)

R2-D2 bunker
A bunker. A ventilation shaft. R2-D2 mod. What's not to like?
Full story
(TGR version)

March 2019, R2-D2, Folimanka Park, Prague, Czech Republic
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers); Caving (Man-Made)

Communism and bunker tour
Lets say that the tour guide was not a big fan of communism.
Full story
(TGR version)

March 2019, Parukarka Park bunker, Prague, Czech Republic
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers); Caving (Man-Made)

Train to HEL
I took the train route to the Helsinki-Vantaa airport this morning, wanting to both see the deep underground station and to test the route should my 27-year old car some day not work :-)
Full story

February 2019, Helsinki-Vantaa, Vantaa, Finland
Urban-Exploration (Tunnels, Railways)

The Milan Cathedral
Janne and I visited the cathedral of Milan, Duomo di Milano. This magnificent piece of art, construction, and religion was a wonder to visit, particularly from the upper floors and roof. The cathedral took a whopping 600 years to complete, and is the fourth largest church building in the world.
Full story

January 2019, Duomo di Milano, Milan, Italy
History; Urban-Exploration (Ruins)

Länsimetro, finally
Given that I like underground places, it was surprising that it took me a year to visit Länsimetro, the new subway towards west from Helsinki. The new stations are spectacular and modern.
Full story

December 2018, Tapiola, Espoo, Finland; Iso-Omena, Matinkylä, Espoo, Finland
Urban-Exploration (Railways)

Fortifications in Laajalahti
I recently blogged about a possible new cave in Laajalahti. But I didn't go there to look for a cave, I wanted to see the fortifications from before World War I, built by the Russians. I found many, including many small bunkers that one can easily visit.
Full story

December 2018, Laajalahden bunkkeri 1, Espoo, Finland; Laajalahden bunkkeri 2, Espoo, Finland; Laajalahden bunkkeri 3, Espoo, Finland; Laajalahden bunkkeri 4, Espoo, Finland; Laajalahden bunkkeri 5, Espoo, Finland; Laajalahden bunkkeri 6, Espoo, Finland
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers); Caving (Man-Made)

Kungsträdgården
Walked through the Kunsträdgården underground station again today. While the "greek findings" in the station are fake, they are nice!
Full story

November 2018, Kungsträdgården subway station, Stockholm, Sweden
Urban-Exploration (Tunnels)

The Leaking Tunnel of Pisa... Pispala
I've heard stories about the logging tunnel through Pispala, but today I finally got an opportunity to go see it myself.
Full story
(TGR version)

November 2018, Pispalan uittotunneli, Tampere, Finland; Pispalan ensimmäinen uittotunneli, Tampere, Finland
Urban-Exploration (Tunnels); Caving (Man-Made)

This is the 5th set of articles. The previous sets were set 1, set 2, set 3, and set 4. The next sets are set 6, set 7, set 8, set 9, set 10, and set 11.

The Urban Explorer articles appeared originally in the Blogspot Planetskier series, at TGR posts, or at the Relaa website. See also the articles about skiing, climbing, cycling, caving, flying, swimming, and saunas.