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We were awake in time to be served with warm lingonberry juice at our bedside. My shoes were frozen to the floor and the sleeping bag slightly damp on the outside (!) but we survived and we've got a certificate to prove it! Enjoyed a hearty breakfast then spent the morning browsing the gift shop and exploring more of the Icehotel. We visited the tiny church that had housed two weddings the day before that we knew of. From 10.00 am each day, the rooms in the IceHotel are open to the public who buy tickets to visit. We also visited the art installations in the other rooms, some of them were pretty impressive. I had a few favourites, I loved the Counting Sheep suite which was full of bobbly sheep including one jumping over a fence and another posing provocatively next to the bed, and a cheeky lamb hid in the corner. It is supposed to be a sanctuary for those worried about spending the night in temperatures below zero – here, you can easily count sheep until you fall asleep. More and more sheep appear the longer you stay in the suite. The elephant in the room suite houses a 3 metre high sculpture of an elephant's head overlooking the ice bed, while the 'Show me what you got' suite was based on a peacock theme. Drawing on the proud body language of the peacock, Show Me What You Got aims to encourage guests to stand up for themselves with dignity, reminding them everyone’s their most beautiful when they show their true colors. “A peacock is proud, beautiful, powerful and magical, and in our suite the peacock speaks for himself, standing there on one side of the room. His magnificent wings embrace the entire ceiling and each eye in his feathers is iluminated and all-seeing. Momos was inspired by Michael Ende’s novel Momo. The book is a commentary on the invisible forces of consumption and capitalism that steer our daily lives. The “grey men” steal people’s time and rob them of their imagination, happiness, sense of belonging and peace. A series of head and shoulder sculptures of bowler-hatted gentleman, all facing the bed must have been quite disconcerting for its occupants. We decided to attempt the walk along the road again to see more of the locality. It was hard to tell where the footpath ended and the road began but each garden was surrounded by a 3 foot snow-wall. We walked down to a little church at the end of the road before returning to the IceHotel to wait for our taxi to Bjorkliden. We were joined by Liz and Neil who shared the taxi. The scenery en route was amazing, especially when the sun came out filling Liz and Neil with optimism for their photography tour later. Nestled between Swedish Lapland's majestic mountains and Lake Torneträsk is Björkliden, in Europe’s last wilderness. Although Hotell Fjället has a four-star rating it was a little less luxurious than I was hoping for. However, it is beautifully located part-way up the mountain and the view from our window more than made up for it. The atmosphere is very relaxed with people coming and going all the time. As you might expect, most people are here to ski. They remind me of Doctor Who's cyber men as they clomp about in their ski boots! I must admit, we were glad that we had the evening to ourselves as we were quite tired having not slept well last night. We had a short walk around the site before going for dinner in the restaurant. Unfortunately, we had to complain about our meal which was a shame because it was a lovely meal but was cold. The soup was cold, then 30 minutes later the main course was also cold. They couldn't do enough to make up for it and gave us a complimentary dessert, coffee and a free glass of wine for me. Steve enjoyed his reindeer steak and guess what I had? Arctic Char - again! Good job I like it! Apparently, Abisko and Bjorkliden are one of the best places in the world to see the Aurora Borealis due to the destination being positioned in a rain shadow. It is also one of the driest places on earth and has been categorised as a desert.
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