Ice Hotel Holiday 2

We were woken the next morning with a warm mug of lingonberry juice. Then it was time to reverse the routine of the previous night, handing in the gear, and dressing in warm clothes to brave the outdoors on our way to breakfast. We had arranged for us all to join an ice-sculpting class in the morning. So we made our way to the tepee by the river, where our teacher greeted us with a French accent. He told us that he was the designer of the Hammam room in the hotel, and spent some time up here each year. We each had a block of ice set on an ice column, which we were going to carve. He demonstrated the use of the tools, then turned on some suitable music, and let us exercise our imaginations. It was wonderful to see how everyone came up with interesting ideas to make from their block of ice. More lingonberry juice sustained us, and the morning just flew by. We wanted to take the English language tour of the hotel at 11.30, so off we went and walked around with a guide who told us about this year’s designers as well as the history of the hotel.

 We were also able to visit the wedding chapel, a great venue for that occasion. There were a few people about who were obviously dressed for a wedding, and we saw brides in wonderful Snow Queen outfits. A really romantic setting for tying the knot! We decided to walk down the road to the Homestead Restaurant for lunch, which was a bit further than we had imagined, but we had delicious sandwiches and coffee, before returning to move our bags to the warm Nordic Chalet for our second night. We all took showers, before our evening Northern Lights snowmobile adventure.
Our guide explained what we were going to do, and took us off to kit up in appropriate gear including balaclavas and helmets. We then paired up on the snowmobiles. I was lucky to be able to ‘drive’ one. With the senior guide in front and another two interspersed between us we set off, rather tentatively at first, but gained confidence all the time. At our first stop, the guide told us that she was sure we were going to see some Northern Lights activity as she could see something appearing on the horizon. This looked like some grey clouds, but then, what did we know? Off again, following her rules of keeping inline and keeping up; but then suddenly the man in front of us veered off to one side, ploughing through the thicker snow, then swinging across our path to the other side, eventually coming to a stop, so we sneaked slowly by him as did the others. Our guide stopped again, and our ‘friend’ who went ‘off piste’ was put up front behind the guide. The Northern Lights were beginning to build up, but we set off again. More ‘off piste’ driving ensued, so when we stopped again, the culprit was put behind one of the other guides – no more driving for him! The Northern Lights were really putting on a display and so D, with his pro camera set up some long exposure shots. At a minute exposure, he was getting some impressive photos - laughinggeo.blogspot.com .  Other people were actually using flash in an attempt to take a photo! This simply does not work. We just sat back and took in the amazing sight. It is like nothing else, as if the sky is alight with green fire, with a hint of purple. We set off again, this time to the circular log cabins where dinner was cooking for us. We filled up two, and the guides served us moose stew, with apple cake and custard and tea. All the time, the Northern Lights were performing, and D had his camera on the tripod taking automatic time lapse photos, which have proved an immense success.

 Now it was all over and it just remained for us to motor back along the river to the Ice Hotel. What an evening it had been. By the time we got back to Jukkasjarvi, we couldn’t see the Northern Lights any more – just the wrong outlook, and too much light pollution. But we had seen them and they are everything they are reputed to be. We just had to go to the Icebar to talk about it. Then it was bedtime in our cosy chalet.


 

Our last morning, and we were all packed up ready to leave in time to meet Bjorn our guide to Moose Spotting. He is a great bear of a man with a rather old minibus, in which we were to drive on a moose safari. He drove us and all our bags off to look for moose, regaling us with stories and asking us about where we came from and other travels we had been on. We soon reached the area where we could see moose and it wasn’t long before we started to spot them in the trees, or lying in the snow. Bjorn was quite concerned as many of the calves had been lost this year due to the moose not being able to find enough food under the snow. Nevertheless we saw 15 moose, before stopping at Nikkaluokta for a coffee. From here we had a fabulous view of the mountains of Kebnekaise, where one can tour – either on skis, or on foot in the summer. It is very close to the Norwegian border and the Sámi areas span the border. Now all that was left to do was to drive to the airport and get on the plane home. We all flew to Stockholm and then caught our different connections home. It was a fabulous few days together in a true paradise. Next year it will be different – and so was last year, so it was also truly unique.