Swedish Icehotel Day 2

[Guest]

Today we were going snowmobiling!

We were up pretty early, refreshed from a good night's sleep. We went to the hotel restaurant across the road for our buffet breakfast (included with the room), which was delicious. The place was packed though, mostly with Swedish, French and German people it seemed. We had a full cooked breakfast and toast. I have never understood the European thing of having slices of ham, turkey, cheese, etc for breakfast! It was popular with the majority though.



(This photo was taken later in the holiday, hence why the restaurant seems quiet).

After breakfast we went to the warm reception where we were picked up by our tour guide "Ole". He was Norwegian and absolutely lovely. We arrived at the snow mobile base about 20 minutes later and Ole got the snowmobiles out!



Look at these bad boys! Ole gave us some tips on what to do with them and the usual safety advice and we were off into the wilderness.

We spent the day alternating between rough terrain between trees (which was slow but involved a lot of steering and skill) and smooth terrain on the river (which was very very fast and smooth). Over the river we were travelling up to 10km at a time going at speeds of up to 100km/h! It was felt so fast and exhilerating! The scenery around us was just beautiful, like nothing I have ever seen before.



We stopped for lunch at a little wooden hut. The seats were covered in reindeer skins and we lit a fire in the middle to cook our lunch on.



Ole was very knowledgable about the area and about travelling in general. He told us about his plans to spend the summer cycling through South America. It sounded like such an experience!

We were out on the snowmobiles until about 4 in the afternoon when we were taken back to the Icehotel. We went into the bar to warm up and some of those lovely cakes again and I had a reindeer wrap! The bar had a lovely quiet atmosphere and we just chilled out for a while.

We then realised there was a talk about to start down at the Icehotel about how to sleep well in an ice room. Since tonight would be our night in the actual Icehotel, we thought we'd better go join the talk.

The talk was interesting. We expected to need to wear as much as we'd been wearing during the day to sleep, but we were advised to wear thermals, socks and a hat only. The sleeping bag and the reindeer skin should keep us warm enough.

After the talk we joined a tour of the Icehotel. We went into the ice church first (where they regularly have weddings).



To be continued...

[Guest]

wow it sounds amazing I`ve always wanted to go there

[Guest]

My first thought was that it smelt funny, a bit musty. I think, looking at the top right corner, that it was starting to melt a little. But other than that it was interesting, especially the antlers. Although it was lovely, I don't think I would want to get married there. It would be way too cold to wear a "proper" wedding dress. Something different though I suppose!



We then went across to the Icehotel. This was our first look inside and it was unbelieveable! The temperature outside was about -13 but inside the Icehotel it is kept at a constant -5. I just couldn't believe how they can make something so amazing out of what is essentially water! And that a few weeks after our trip it would have all melted into the river Torne.

Inside the main corridor;





The rooms in the Icehotel are split into three types. The most basic are the snow rooms, which just have an ice bed in them. Middle of the range are the ice rooms. These have a bed, table and chairs and a statue as well (this is the type of room we were going to stay in). The top ones are the ice suites. These are designed by designers from all over the world. Each one is different to all the others and they all have a theme. The Icehotel rooms are open to visitors during the day so we had a look around all the ice suites. There were loads of them, so I can't post the photos of all of them, but I'll post a few of our favourites.





To be continued...

[Lydiakate]

It looks amazing. I would love to do "your" trip. Your photos are far better than any I have seen in magazines and papers advertising the holiday. More please.

[Guest]

More ice suites;





After our look around the Icehotel we were hungry. We got chatting to a woman and her son who had been on the same flights as us and had also only just made it to the connecting flight. She said they'd had dinner in the Icehotel restaurant the previous night and although it was nice it had cost them £90 per person! Well we couldn't justify spending nearly £200 on one meal so we walked down the road to a restaurant which is separate, but owned by, the Icehotel. It is called the Old Homestead and is very "ye olde". We paid £28 each for a buffet dinner. The food was delicious and homemade from local ingredients. The atmosphere of the restaurant was quiet and romantic and we stayed for a few drinks after dinner.

We paid, got dressed into our snowsuits again, and made our way outside. We were greeted by a black sky filled with waves of pale green light. It was the northern lights! We were both speechless. We sat on a bench and watched the lights dance around the sky for ages. It was mesmerising! They were much paler than I expected but lovely. We continued back to the hotel, watching the lights as we walked. It was very romantic. We took many photos but they all came out black But at least we got to see them!

Once back at the hotel, we used the communal changing and showers to get ready for our night in the ice room. I am a little self conscious and found it scary using communal facilities but no one else seemed a bit bothered!





Once ready we made our way to the ice room, dragging our big double sleeping bag with us. It seemed so cold and I dreaded spending the whole night awake and shivering.



Once in the room we climbed into the sleeping bag. The ice bed is covered in a foam mattress, which is topped with reindeer skins. The sleeping bag is supposed to be effective up (or should that be down?) to temperatures of -40. With the temperature being (only!) -5, we hoped we would be ok. Once in the sleeping bag we took off our fleece and jogging bottoms so we were left in our thermals, hats and socks. Surprisingly, we were really warm. The only part of me that was even slightly cold was my face. That soon warmed up though and I think I fell asleep pretty quickly.

[NurseHelen]

WOW... love the pics..I am amazed you slept, it looks like it would be cold!

[ambersmom]

Wow great photos

[Guest]

looks amazing would love to go there...

[Guest]

Wow this is amazing, and those chandeliers are beautiful

[purple myra]

Fantastic photos of an amazing place. So glad you got to see the lights