Ok, well I know it's not the most inventive title, probably sounds a bit strange - but you know how they use the phrase 'on the rocks' when you are having ice in your drink? So this post, being about the Ice Hotel, needed to have some sort of mention of 'ice' in it, but "Kylie on Ice" conjures up visions of crystal meths... not exactly the image I want to have out there... hence "On the Rocks" it is... although next you'll be telling me that's a reference to something else dodgy... alas...
Monday morning and we got up relatively early, because we had a few errands to run (try to change the train tickets and so on) and because I was anxious to get to the Ice Hotel as soon as possible - for me, this was the whole purpose of the trip.
We went to the train station, alas the ticket office there has been closed for 2 years, so we tried the Tourist Information - but they were unable to change the ticket and instead gave us a phone number that didn’t work. So we gave up, and left Kiruna for the short journey to Jukkasjarvi, home of the Ice Hotel. Fortunately when we got to the Ice Hotel the staff there went above and beyond the call of duty and managed to sort out our train tickets for us - phew! Now we don't have to worry...
I had been to the Ice Hotel in February 2004, and I was keen to see it again. The Ice Hotel is built every year in the same location, on the banks of the Torne River (with ice from that river). The ice in the Torne river is exceptionally clean, free from impurities - in fact they make the ice glasses in the ice bar out of that same ice, which means theoretically you are drinking the river when you use those glasses. Every year the hotel is built in November, open for guests from December, and melts away around April (although now they free large portions of it in a giant warehouse built onsite for the purpose).
Anyway, we arrived mid-morning and headed off to reception to check in. The Ice Hotel actually consists of both warm and cold accommodation - the reception area, toilets / showers, sauna, changing facilities, restaurants are in the warm accommodation (plus warm bedrooms if you choose to book one of those). At reception we checked in, then were told to go down to the ‘dressing room’ next to the Ice Hotel, where we would be issued with a jumpsuit, mittens, snow shoes, snow hat, and a locker for our luggage. Obviously, you don’t keep anything in your room at night - this is because first of all there are no doors to the room, just a curtain that you pull closed, no wardrobes or closets for your stuff, as everything in the room (with the exception of the mattress and, in some rooms, the bedframe) is made of snow and ice. The Dressing Room area houses the toilets, showers, sauna, a tea/coffee/hot chocolate machine, and a 24 hour reception. Here we would later on pick up our thermal sleeping bags when we were ready to go to sleep. The Dressing Room has a back door which opens out into a small courtyard leading directly into the Ice Hotel, so you don’t have to go through the main door as it is locked after 6pm (although we were given a swipe card which would gain you entry to the hotel anyway).
The Warm Reception
The Ice Hotel
The Dressing Room
After we changed into the special clothes, and made reservations for dinner - there are only 2 restaurants in Jukkasjarvi and both of them are not just for Ice Hotel guests but members of the public as well - we headed off into the Ice Hotel itself to have a look around the rooms.
The main reception area had a desk where you show your passes to enter the hotel, plus a sculpture of a seat (see pic) and off to the left was the entrance to the Ice Bar. There were electronic, automatic sliding doors at the back of the entrance hall, all made of ice, and these led to a large reception corridor with lots of ice sculptures of faces. The back wall to this is naturally bright because it is facing the sun, and has been designed so the ice there allows the light in. On either side of this hall 3 corridors led to the various rooms; on the left hand side, the more posh, ‘Design’ and ‘Art’ suites - the main difference between the two being the extra activities (i.e. snowmobiling, Northern lights tours, dogsledding) that were included in your price. On the right hand side were the pleb rooms (they still cost an arm and a leg too), which didn’t have any major ice sculptures in them. We were staying in one of these rooms, room 511, so we headed off for a quick look at it.
Our room consisted of an icy cave with a bed, the mattress of which was made of foam and covered with reindeer skins. I must admit I was a bit disappointed, I had thought the bed frame would’ve been made of ice, and to be fair in the Suites in some cases they were, but not so for our room. The room was a constant -5 degrees however, so it did feel quite cool, like being in a refrigerator.
We then went and checked out the Suites - they were amazing. There was the Tango room, with sculptures of 2 tango dancers and an accordionist, the Forest room, with pictures of a forest carved in the ice with piped in snow, the Chess room and it’s giant chess pieces, the Ireland room with a bed in the shape of a dragon - each new room was completely different and exceptionally well designed and sculpted by artists from all over the world. I was however somewhat disappointed to see no Australian artists this time, but a New Zealand one - to give the little kiwi his due the room was pretty good. Here are some of the photos:
We then went and had a quick look in the chapel. They actually hold weddings here (and we actually saw one later on that day). The pews were made of ice covered with reindeer skins. The roof was intricately carved in a floral design.
After our tour of the hotel, we attended a tour about the production of ice at the Ice Hotel, including how they make the ice glasses in the Ice Bar, and then we had an induction meeting to explain how to sleep in -5 degree conditions.
The lady talked to us about the sleeping bag, which zips up over your head, leaving a small space for your face to poke out. You have to wear only thermals in the sleeping bag - long johns - and no jumpers or anything because the sleeping bag is designed to trap your natural body warmth inside. If you are wearing jumpers and so on you will actually be cold as your body can not heat the sleeping bag. You also have to be careful to breathe out outside the sleeping bag, and not in - if you let your breath go into the sleeping bag condensation will form and you will be cold. Oh, it was all so terribly exciting!
We then wandered out on the lake for a bit using the ski Zimmer frames that are there at the hostel for guests use. The ski has a bit of a seat, but basically you scoot yourself along as if you are on a skateboard, and then when you get a bit of steam up, you place your feet on the thin metal ski things at the back and slide along. Very cool.
The sun was starting to set at this point, so we made our way back up to the Ice Hotel and
that’s where we saw a wedding party having photos. The Bride sure looked cold! After this it was time to walk down the main road to the restaurant for our 6.30pm dinner reservation.
The food at the Homestead Restaurant was absolutely delicious, but oh so expensive! For my main course I had reindeer meat, which was lovely, but to be fair just tasted like beef. I don’t remember now what my starter was but they also brought, free, quails eggs as an appetizer. I didn’t find them very appetizing though!
After dinner we headed off to the lake to have a look for Northern Lights. Although it was cloudy, as we had nothing else to do we thought we’d give it a go anyway, and boy am I glad we did. Have a look at what we saw:
Monday morning and we got up relatively early, because we had a few errands to run (try to change the train tickets and so on) and because I was anxious to get to the Ice Hotel as soon as possible - for me, this was the whole purpose of the trip.
We went to the train station, alas the ticket office there has been closed for 2 years, so we tried the Tourist Information - but they were unable to change the ticket and instead gave us a phone number that didn’t work. So we gave up, and left Kiruna for the short journey to Jukkasjarvi, home of the Ice Hotel. Fortunately when we got to the Ice Hotel the staff there went above and beyond the call of duty and managed to sort out our train tickets for us - phew! Now we don't have to worry...
I had been to the Ice Hotel in February 2004, and I was keen to see it again. The Ice Hotel is built every year in the same location, on the banks of the Torne River (with ice from that river). The ice in the Torne river is exceptionally clean, free from impurities - in fact they make the ice glasses in the ice bar out of that same ice, which means theoretically you are drinking the river when you use those glasses. Every year the hotel is built in November, open for guests from December, and melts away around April (although now they free large portions of it in a giant warehouse built onsite for the purpose).
Anyway, we arrived mid-morning and headed off to reception to check in. The Ice Hotel actually consists of both warm and cold accommodation - the reception area, toilets / showers, sauna, changing facilities, restaurants are in the warm accommodation (plus warm bedrooms if you choose to book one of those). At reception we checked in, then were told to go down to the ‘dressing room’ next to the Ice Hotel, where we would be issued with a jumpsuit, mittens, snow shoes, snow hat, and a locker for our luggage. Obviously, you don’t keep anything in your room at night - this is because first of all there are no doors to the room, just a curtain that you pull closed, no wardrobes or closets for your stuff, as everything in the room (with the exception of the mattress and, in some rooms, the bedframe) is made of snow and ice. The Dressing Room area houses the toilets, showers, sauna, a tea/coffee/hot chocolate machine, and a 24 hour reception. Here we would later on pick up our thermal sleeping bags when we were ready to go to sleep. The Dressing Room has a back door which opens out into a small courtyard leading directly into the Ice Hotel, so you don’t have to go through the main door as it is locked after 6pm (although we were given a swipe card which would gain you entry to the hotel anyway).
The Warm Reception
The Ice Hotel
The Dressing Room
The main reception area had a desk where you show your passes to enter the hotel, plus a sculpture of a seat (see pic) and off to the left was the entrance to the Ice Bar. There were electronic, automatic sliding doors at the back of the entrance hall, all made of ice, and these led to a large reception corridor with lots of ice sculptures of faces. The back wall to this is naturally bright because it is facing the sun, and has been designed so the ice there allows the light in. On either side of this hall 3 corridors led to the various rooms; on the left hand side, the more posh, ‘Design’ and ‘Art’ suites - the main difference between the two being the extra activities (i.e. snowmobiling, Northern lights tours, dogsledding) that were included in your price. On the right hand side were the pleb rooms (they still cost an arm and a leg too), which didn’t have any major ice sculptures in them. We were staying in one of these rooms, room 511, so we headed off for a quick look at it.
Our room consisted of an icy cave with a bed, the mattress of which was made of foam and covered with reindeer skins. I must admit I was a bit disappointed, I had thought the bed frame would’ve been made of ice, and to be fair in the Suites in some cases they were, but not so for our room. The room was a constant -5 degrees however, so it did feel quite cool, like being in a refrigerator.
We then went and checked out the Suites - they were amazing. There was the Tango room, with sculptures of 2 tango dancers and an accordionist, the Forest room, with pictures of a forest carved in the ice with piped in snow, the Chess room and it’s giant chess pieces, the Ireland room with a bed in the shape of a dragon - each new room was completely different and exceptionally well designed and sculpted by artists from all over the world. I was however somewhat disappointed to see no Australian artists this time, but a New Zealand one - to give the little kiwi his due the room was pretty good. Here are some of the photos:
We then went and had a quick look in the chapel. They actually hold weddings here (and we actually saw one later on that day). The pews were made of ice covered with reindeer skins. The roof was intricately carved in a floral design.
After our tour of the hotel, we attended a tour about the production of ice at the Ice Hotel, including how they make the ice glasses in the Ice Bar, and then we had an induction meeting to explain how to sleep in -5 degree conditions.The lady talked to us about the sleeping bag, which zips up over your head, leaving a small space for your face to poke out. You have to wear only thermals in the sleeping bag - long johns - and no jumpers or anything because the sleeping bag is designed to trap your natural body warmth inside. If you are wearing jumpers and so on you will actually be cold as your body can not heat the sleeping bag. You also have to be careful to breathe out outside the sleeping bag, and not in - if you let your breath go into the sleeping bag condensation will form and you will be cold. Oh, it was all so terribly exciting!
We then wandered out on the lake for a bit using the ski Zimmer frames that are there at the hostel for guests use. The ski has a bit of a seat, but basically you scoot yourself along as if you are on a skateboard, and then when you get a bit of steam up, you place your feet on the thin metal ski things at the back and slide along. Very cool.
The sun was starting to set at this point, so we made our way back up to the Ice Hotel and
that’s where we saw a wedding party having photos. The Bride sure looked cold! After this it was time to walk down the main road to the restaurant for our 6.30pm dinner reservation.The food at the Homestead Restaurant was absolutely delicious, but oh so expensive! For my main course I had reindeer meat, which was lovely, but to be fair just tasted like beef. I don’t remember now what my starter was but they also brought, free, quails eggs as an appetizer. I didn’t find them very appetizing though!
After dinner we headed off to the lake to have a look for Northern Lights. Although it was cloudy, as we had nothing else to do we thought we’d give it a go anyway, and boy am I glad we did. Have a look at what we saw:
We made our way leisurely along the frozen lake back towards the Ice Hotel, where we took lots more photos and then had a bit of a look at the Ice Bar. The drinks there are served in ice glasses (if it’s a cold drink) or if you order a warm drink, they serve it in a paper cup. We met a few interesting people there and had a bit of a chat before it was time to head off to bed.First of all was the showers. What is it with the Swedes and communal showers? Even in the ladies there were no curtains so you could keep your dignity. I was somewhat alarmed by this til I met an American girl who told me that the toilet next to reception also had a shower, and it was all fully lockable and private - so I went there and turned the water on as hot as I could - I wanted to warm right up before getting into my sleeping bag.
I got into my thermals and my jumpsuit and then ran off to the room as I wanted to keep my body heat up if I could before I got into the sleeping bag. I jumped up and down a bit too to warm up and then got into the sleeping bag. I did it up as tight as I could and snuggled down.
I’d like to say that I had the best sleep ever, but that would be a lie. This is mostly due to the fact that I think I tensed up my muscles in order to keep the sleeping bag tight around me. Also I found if I rolled over, cold air would come into the sleeping bag so I tried not to move much. It was a little difficult because I would’ve liked to put my arm under my pillow - but that would’ve meant my arm was outside the bag and therefore cold.
When I awoke in the morning my face was a little chilled, but it wasn’t frozen like I thought it would be. We were woken up with a ‘Good Morgon’ (pronounced ‘Good Moron’!) by the Ice Hotel staff, who brought a cup of hot lingonberry juice around for all the guests. This was very welcome!
Unfortunately though, as we were both still quite tired, we went back to sleep - and woke up again at 9.30 - breakfast was finishing at 10.00 - so we literally flew out of the room and back into the Dressing room to get changed.
The breakfast buffet, included in the price, was very good, and we had an excellent selection. After this, we headed back down to the main reception to get our diplomas:
We then spent much of the day going around the rooms again in the Ice Hotel and taking lots more photos. I have to say the experience of sleeping in an igloo, in an icy cave, was absolutely amazing, and quite a spiritual experience in some ways. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would recommend it you all.
2 comments:
its about blooming time you posted an article about the ice hotel. I have been waiting and waiting.... Sounds like you had a great time. Wish I was there.
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