We arrived by bus from Kiruna. Upon checking in, we headed to our guestroom, we stayed in a warm room, and rested for a short while before taking a look at the ice rooms. Wow! I think the girls liked the ice hotel a little more than they expected. We guided ourselves through the ice bar and then to the rooms. All of the ice rooms can be viewed until 6:00 PM, before the guests take over. Each room has its own themed name, like, “Once Upon A time” or “Kiss”. Each room is equipped with a bed with reindeer hide to keep you warm during the night. Brooklyn, as with everything we tour, quickly took a look and was headed onto the next room. Kaleigh took her time, walking to all the areas in each room to get a good view of all the details. After looking at the rooms, we headed back to the ice bar to have a drink. The girls each had cranberry juice, Chris a “Once Upon A Time” and I had something with raspberry vodka and Amarillo. We took our time drinking from the square ice glasses. As a souvenir, we were able to take the glasses with us when we left. The girls didn’t think they would make it home though.
On our first and only night staying at the Ice Hotel, Chris got up shortly after laying down. He thought something was outside, when he looked there was a reindeer standing outside out window! In the morning, we had to check out by 11:00 AM, but we wanted to take the Ice Hotel Tour at noon, so we put our luggage in the hotel storage. The tour was pretty good. We learned where and how they get the large blocks of ice to build the hotel rooms. There is a river directly behind the hotel, which is used to harvest ice in the spring. The ice is then stored through the summer in a large cooled warehouse. The current of the river coupled with the extreme cold causes the ice to freeze clear, with no bubbles, providing clean clear ice. They also make snice blocks, which are ice and snow mixed, to create solid white blocks as part of the room. This March they just opened Ice Hotel 365, which is a hotel basically in a giant freezer. This was the ice rooms we saw, as the others were in the process of building the actual outdoor ice hotel. The true outdoor ice hotel is open December 1 – March, the new Ice Hotel 365 is there all year round.
We had a really nice time at the Ice Hotel and glad we made to trip to see it. Next time we might try to stay in an ice room. At the time, they only had ice rooms for 2. Though, Elizabeth and Brooklyn said they rather just look than sleep in an ice-cold room. It was time to move on. We had just a couple days before we fly to Russia. So, we headed to Stockholm.
A little thought share, by Elizabeth…
Today, I noticed something about Chris during breakfast. Every time we have breakfast included in our stay, he ends up with like five or more empty cups in front of him. I called him out on it today. He had a couple of cups of juice, coffee, and hot chocolate.
