Planetskier: Can you believe there's a swimming hall here?

I've lived in and around(*) Espoo for 35 years. And I often go to the swimming halls. How is it then that I've never visited Olari's swimming hall? I think I've heard about it, but had forgotten about its existence until looking for pools that I have not visited in the Helsinki region the other day.

And the Olari hall is quite remarkable. It is in an apartment building. In the middle of the suburb, where you'd expect to maybe find offices, shops, or bars in the lowest floors of buildings. But no, this door leads to an actually swimming hall.

Granted, it is very small, just 15 meters long. But there's saunas and showers for men and women, and you can swim even in 15 meters. Unless there's a line of water walkers in front of you, of course... but overall a nice experience!

Sadly, the future fate of the hall is in question, with the new Matinkylä swimming hall quite close by there's been plans to close this one. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

The asterisk: I continue to live inside Espoo, sort of, since Kauniainen is encircled by Espoo. Anywhere I go, I need to pass Espoo :-)

By the hall's entrance, there was also an odd glass box with a ramp leading down... closed, not sure what it was used before, parking? Further commercial space? There's a massive rock in the middle of it, and a tree growing... interesting, but inaccessible! Does anyone know what the story is?

For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! And of course the Planetcaver, and

This article was originally published in the Planetskier Blogspot article series.