I don't particularly like the cold and I'm not a big fan of the snow. So where better to go for a holiday at the beginning of March than Lapland? More specifically I'd chosen a hotel near Kiruna which is located 145km north of the Arctic Circle and is Sweden's northernmost city.
The logic I used to explain my choice of
destination was that I’d rather go somewhere with predictably bad weather than go somewhere in
southern Europe hoping for a bit of sun for it to be spoilt by rain. And then
there was the lure of possibly being able to see the Northern Lights (which slightly ironically most of the UK had seen just a couple of days before we left).
One of the other reasons for choosing Kiruna was the prospect of experiencing the Icehotel. The Icehotel in Sweden was the world's first ice hotel when it's first incarnation opened 24 years ago. Each year a new hotel is built with snow and ice that has been harvested from the local Torne River.
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| Behind ice from the Torne River-so clear because of the flow of the river. |
The Icehotel consists of a complex of cold rooms, Icebar and church that are all permanently around -5 to -8 degrees Celsius and the warm areas: Reception and bar, restaurant, shop and a number of warm hotel rooms and chalets. After careful consideration we decided to spend both our nights in a warm chalet (that was actually initially slightly too hot!) A lot of people choose to spend at least one night in a cold room but logistically we came up with a few potential problems and were happy enough just to be able to look around the cold rooms.
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| Our chalet |
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| The "Icehotel" complex |
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| Entrance to the Icehotel |
After entering the Icehotel straight ahead of you is the most amazing corridor (this year called "Secret Garden"). Off this there are further corridors leading to the hotel rooms. And at the end of the corridor was a very special unicorn ice sculpture.
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| All made of ice! |
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| Unicorn sculpture |
If you go for a cold room there are the relatively basic snow/ice rooms (essentially just a room with a bed in) and then there are the art suites. These have all been individually designed and sculpted with designers coming form across the world. There are about 15 art suites, I thought it might get a bit boring if I included pictures of them all, so I'm just putting up a couple of my favourites: "Mind the gap"-where you sleep inside an ice sculpture of a London tube train:
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| "Mind the gap" |
And "Classical" filled with ancient Greek sculptures:
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| "Classical" |
The Icehotel is open to anybody willing to pay an entrance fee during the day, so you do have to go with the knowledge
that this is a museum by day and really only a hotel by night. And that’s the
way it should be, things that are so special and are also so temporary should be
seen by as many people as possible whilst they are there.
We had dinner in the restaurant on our second night. We went for relatively "safe" a la carte options. It was a little on the expensive side but the food was actually very good.
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| Veal, savoury blueberry sauce, ligonberries and fondant potatoes |
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| Homemade arctic bramble ice cream with sugar sponge cake and raspberry crisp. |
The dessert was served on an ice plate (potentially something master chef contestants should think about using because they always seem to have problems with sorbets/ice creams melting).
There was a noticeable contrast when all the day visitors had left and only the people staying
overnight were around. We went for a drink in the Icebar after
dinner and there was only one other group of people in there.
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| The Icebar |
Apart from the bar, seats and tables being made of ice, the glasses are also made of ice, which definitely means there's no need for ice cubes. They have a range of cocktails, that are very nice but probably too expensive to get drunk on.
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| The cocktail list |
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| An ice glass |
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| "Secret Garden" and "Mind the Gap" |
We failed to see the Northern Lights whilst staying at the Icehotel (unfortunately it was pretty cloudy most of the time we were there). But we did randomly see the World Cup! As part of its world tour it was in Sweden and they'd decided it would be cool for it to be seen at the Icehotel. In preparation for its arrival Speto (South America's most prominent street artist who has designed this year's World Cup logo) had been involved in the design of the Icehotel reception.
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| "Todo mundo" Speto's artwork/sculpture |
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| The World Cup!!!! |
There were a few other interesting touches that I couldn't leave out. The fire alarm and extinguisher insisted upon by Health and Safety (to be fair they did come up and set something on fire and although it only lasted 15 minutes it apparently did create a lot of smoke!), a no smoking sign, and a bit of pond life that had been trapped in the ice:
Overall the Icehotel was an experience that I'd definitely recommend.
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