Got up and had a successful breakfast, sat chatting in the lobby with our American friend, Marcia from yesterday who took all our photos and then decided to pay a visit to the Snow Hotel for a look around before tonight's stay. Had a lovely hot chocolate by the open fire and went to see the animals in the park. Stroked the reindeer and one of the husky pups. Went into the Snow Hotel to look at the carvings in the rooms and took plenty of photos.

Made our way beck to the Rica Arctic Hotel for a chill and to open up our bottle of champagne, however after reaching the room and getting settled the cleaner knocked on our door and we thought she just wanted to tidy up - but no...... she squeeled on us as a few minutes later reception rang to say that we needed to check out of our room, bang goes taking things at our leisure today, so we rammed everything into our cases, picked up the champagne and went to reception. This is when we met MR JOBSWORTH, he asked if he had bought the champagne in their hotel and when we said no, he took it from us saying that it was against Norwegian law to drink in a public place and that we could only drink it in our own room .... doh you had just checked us out !!!!! We then had three hours to sit around in the reception area waiting so we had upteen cups of coffee at the expense.

Six o'clock arrived and we all got on the bus to the Snow Hotel, the guide took us through the main door and advised us that as the party was only small we could decide which room we wanted, within a flash we called out number 20, as this had the dragon design and we'd seen it earlier - who say's that us Yorkshire lasses are slow, we just call it forward planning.

Made our way up to the restaurant and met some of the other guests on our table which we had a good laugh with during the meal and the rest of the evening. The first course was small sausages and pancakes, we were given wooden skewers that the sausages were put on and b***** me we had to cook our own tea. Fish and jacket potatoes for main course and icecream with hot berries for dessert which was interupted as the hotel manageress told us that the Northern Lights were just starting to appear. We all rushed outside to observe them and took a few photos, which did turn out this time. This kept on all night as the lights kept coming and going.

We had a demonstration on how to get into our sleeping bag and hygenic inner sheet, which was 10 times bigger than the actual sleeping bag. The bags were to be left in the hot room until we went to bed so that they didn't get cold. However at 11.30 we decided to go to bed and collected our stuff got half way across the snowy path to the room and Rose decided she needed a wee, so off we ran, all sleeping equipment put back in warm room and back up the hill to the toilet.

Take 2, same procedure as before, only we did get to the room. As there are no doors on the rooms, only curtains, Rose thought that to save our dignity and to keep the heat in the room, she would close the curtain ooops she slipped on the ice and fell flat on her back and went sailing through the doorway. Good job that she wasn't injured as Jax couldn't do anything to help for laughing - nearly needed to use the toilet again.

We were told to stand on the reindeer rug with our shoes off, between the beds but as we only had one rug and it was at the bottom of the bed we had to moved stuff around. Eventually took off our jackets, which had to be laid on the cover under our sleeping bags, so that they didn't freeze and our boots. Tried to move the pillows on the beds but these were frost encrusted so didn't move very easily. We then had to try and get in the 10ft long, 6ft wide pillow cases (hygenic sheets) and fit then in a 5ft long coffin shaped sleeping bag with a hood which was already sticking to the mattress. All this in thermal clothing and a hat - not big, not clever --- BUT VERY FUNNY. All I could hear coming from Jax's sleeping bag was an array of swear words and these were definately not norwegian. Once you got yourself sort of comfy, the hat would move and more shuffeling would take place and all this time the temperature in the room was minus 4 and you could hear a pin drop in the hotel.

At 1.30am, I was awoken by Jax whispering my name, louder and louder, saying that she needed a wee - my first thought was you are chuffing joking it's freezing - but being mates as we are, we both clambered out of our stuff, put on cold clothes and made our way to the toilet, by this time the temperature outside had dropped to minus 25 and the wind was blowing the snow around into snow drifts. By the time that we had used the toilets and made our way back, our foorprints had been covered over by the snow.

Back in the room we had to de clothe and get back into the coffin/bags again, holy chuff this was so tiring, harder work than 2 hours at the gym. We then had to try and get warm again, which is not easy when the end of your nose and fingers are turning blue and the sheet is sticking to your face at it is so cold. Tried to get a bit of sleep which is not easy as you daren't move too much incase you fall off the beds and stick to the ice. After what felt like a lifetime but was only really 4-5 hours we got up, dressed and went to the cabin for a warm coffee. Had breakfast, watched the sun come up over the mountains turning the sky pink and waited for our bus back to the hotel and then onto the airport.