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Up bright and early to be punctual for our 9.50 flight to Stockholm, the first leg of the journey. We failed to factor in the awful M62 and M6 rush hour, even the M56 let us down. Of course, we arrived in plenty of time but I was a bit stressed and breathed a sigh of relief to wave our cases goodbye in the hope that we would be reunited at the appropriate time. Next stop, a nice cup of tea! The first flight was 2 hours 20 minutes and as we flew across England, I smiled to myself at the sprinkling of snow covering the Pennines. Visibility was virtually nil as we landed in Stockholm through thick clouds and dense fog. We just managed to grab a quick bite to eat before boarding the second flight of 1 hour 20 minutes to Kiruna which sits at the northernmost part of Swedish Lapland, 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. The pilot cheerfully announced that we would have some nice weather along the way and the temperature was -10! It was so hot on the plane, I was pleased to get some fresh air and to cool down a little, well, yes ok, a lot! Our coach journey to the Ice Hotel in nearby Jukkasjärvi, took just 15 minutes but by the time the guide had finished showing us where everything was I regretted not wearing a coat! This has to count as one of the most bizarre experiences of my whole life! In case you're unaware, the Icehotel has cold rooms and warm rooms. Usually, you would only sleep for one night in the cold room. Of course, you have to realise that there are no bathroom facilities or storage. In fact, there wasn't even a door, just a curtain across the entrance! We were given instructions for how we should prepare ourselves for this unique night and were provided with a locker in which to store all our belongings. But first, now suitably protected from the sub, sub zero temperature, we had a little wander around the IceHotel, mainly to visit our accommodation and assess what was to come. It truly is an amazing marriage of engineering and works of art. Our room had the Northern Lights projected on to the ceiling. We spent some time taking photos of the main corridor with its ice sculptures. No visit to the Icehotel would be complete without a cocktail in a glass made from ice, sitting on an ice seat in the ice bar. Job done, we decided the best course of action was to head for the warmth of the bar which would also help to psyche us up for the night ahead. We had dinner booked in the very smart restaurant for 9.00pm. We enjoyed the meal far more than we expected as we didn't recognise/understand much of what was on offer. Steve began with beetroot and goat's cheese salad, while I opted for the reindeer carpaccio. Reindeer is not a meat you eat 'well-done' but in this case it was more cured than cooked. The slices were so thin as to be transparent that there wasn't much of a flavour, just a slimy texture. Steve was then very adventurous and plumped for the elk while I went for the Arctic Char. Well, it was one of those meals with fancy foams, powders and jellies but all-in-all, we enjoyed it very much. Dessert was described as blueberry panacotta but came with ice-cream and frozen chocolatey things. All wrapped up again, we decided to have a little walk down the street to see some of the locality. Turned out to be a very short walk as we very quickly lost all feeling in our exposed faces and decided that it was time to face the night ahead. You will remember me mentioning the lack of facilities when sleeping in the cold rooms. This meant that getting ready for bed was a very public affair! We were told to wear thermal long-johns and top, warm socks and a hat. We had to change in a public changing room before collecting a sleeping bag and liner. We then Made our way to our room wrapped in said sleeping bag at -10 degrees! Once there, we snuggled down for the night on a rock hard bed. I have to say, the sleeping bag was very warm if claustrophobic but anything exposed to the icy air quickly became very cold, like a nose! Not a comfortable night and there was no way I was getting out of that sleeping bag to walk back to the changing rooms in my long-johns to visit the loo! It was a long and restless night! However, it was a very quiet one, despite the lack of a door. IceHotel Facts: It was founded in 1989 and is the world's first hotel made from ice and snow. It is open from December to April. This year it has 55 rooms. The construction requires approximately 30000 cubic metres of 'snice' and 1000 tons of ice. The amount of snow needed to build the rooms would make 700 million snowballs. The chandeliers require 1000 handmade crystals. Every winter the ice bar serves 26550 drinks in the rocks, in glasses made of ice. The church hosts just over 100 weddings every year.
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