Our last full day in Kiruna was spent walking down to the local oldest church in Sweden, about 20 minutes from the Ice Hotel. It was beautiful, made of wood, set in the snowy landscape at the end of a wonderful but extremely cool walk along the snow covered road. On route back we stopped of at the local Co Op that is the only shop in the area to purchase some Swedish liquorice.
We had organised a day time snow mobile excursion for the afternoon that lasted four hours. It took us through the local forest, woods and over the frozen lakes and rivers. Taking it in turns to be the driver, the only piece of skin showing was that of our eyes. As the cold wind, when you are travelling at 40kph bites into any part of you showing. So its recommended to wear as many layers as possible that still allows you to move and to ensure no more than necessary is exposed. A stop part way through the tour occurred that allowed us to sample more Swedish coffee and eat danish pastries. Our outdoor survival guide lit a fire within 1 minute and set reindeer skins over logs to keep us warm while sitting around the fire. Its quite impressive being able to comfortably sit out in the open in -15 drinking coffee and eating cake.
On returning to the Hotel, as it was our night to sleep in the Ice Hotel, we had checked out of the warm room. So we checked into the Ice Hotel and the system is that you utilise the lobby to store your luggage, get warm drinks and sit in a warm and comfortable environment until you are ready to go to your ice bed. Natalie attended the ice room briefing, providing information on how to sleep in a ice room and where to collect your thermal sleeping bag and liner.
We had booked to eat at the Homestead Restaurant this night, that served basic food, such as burgers, pasta and reindeer steaks. It was a short walk from the hotel and we elected to have burgers, Natalie a regular one and me a reindeer one. Both come with unlimited soup and salad and at a cost of £20 each they needed too. Sweden is so expensive but you have to try these things, though I would not eat reindeer again, it is a very strong, game taste that is an acquired taste.
We were now ready to go too bed, so collected our thermal bags plus liners. Striped down to our thermal long johns and top, wrapped the bag around our shoulders, after putting all our belongings in our allocated locker and headed into the Ice Hotel. The walk to our room was quite slow as the temperature strangely of -5 was comfortable dressed like this . Pictures of course were taken as proof we had done it prior jumping into our bags and settling down for the night. Once again only our eyes were visible as we snuggled down for the night, in the silence of an ice room.
Before I knew it, we were being woken at 0730hrs by a girl serving hot lingonberry juice from a backpack. Our certificate of the event stating it was -5 in the room and -18 outside for that night. I slept extremely well in these conditions and felt no cold through the reindeer skin base at all.
Hot showers were available in the lobby area, along with under floor heating to ensure anyone suffering with the cold from the night were warmed throughout.
We were due to fly out this morning, so spent our last few hours taking fun photos around the hotel, before jumping on the coach transfer back to the airport.
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| Coffee and cake |
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| Snow mobile |
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| Leaving Sweden |
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| Our night in the Ice Hotel |
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