James' in the UK

We always knew that our weekend in Lapland was going to be a once in a lifetime trip - partially because of how far away it is from home and how inaccessible it is, partially because it cost a mint and we'd not be able to afford to go back. But our weekend was amazing, we did so many cool things that I'd never dream I'd do.

Conveniently the tour company we had booked through had chartered direct flights from Heathrow to Kiruna, the closest airport to the Icehotel. So we got up Saturday morning, walked to the bus stop (in the snow mind you) to catch a bus to Heathrow and then we were off. The scenery over Norway and Sweden out the plane window was amazing - so white and frozen.

I guess I undetstood that it was going to be really cold and snowy/icy in Lapland, but I don't think I really understood just how that impacted day to day life until I got there. This place has snow thick on the ground 9-10 months a year and the rivers and lakes are entirely frozen for most of that time. When we were coming in to land all we could see was snow, snow and more snow. We eventually saw a section of runway that had been cleared of snow but as soon as the plane had reduced speed it was back onto the snow. From the plane we were quickly directed into a bus which took us to the Icehotel.

The Icehotel was a facsinating place, built every year from ice cut from the frozen over Torne River. It is built on the banks of the river in the small village of Jukkasjarvi. The hotel is actually really huge with corridors upon corridors of rooms.

After getting a bit of useful information we headed to the reception area. We were spending the first night in an ice room then 2 nights in a warm room so checkng in involved putting our luggage in a locker and organising our sexy standard issue hotel warm clothes - a full length all-in-one snow suit, goth inspired boots, double layer mittens, a balaclava and a dicky looking hat. Once we had that all organised we headed into the hotel to check it out.

First thing first of course was our room, room 417. It was basic with wooden slats propped up on snow blocks, covered in reindeer pelts. Over the course of our stay at the Icehotel we learnt how wonderfully insulating reindeer pelts where. Apparently each strand of fur is hollow which traps air for extra insulation. We also learnt that reindeer fur gets EVERYWHERE, perfect when you are wearing black suits.

Our room in the Icehotel

Anyway other than the basic bed we had a little decorative recessed shelf/light and a curtain.......which was frozen. Not frozen solid but covered in icicles so it didn't really keep the cold out but not solid enough that we couldn't shut it. After checking our room which was exactly like all the other basic rooms, we went exploring through the rest of the hotel - the wonderfully impressive main corridor and the incredible art suites. The art suites all had different ice sculptures, some decorative but some making up the bed or tables and chairs. The rooms were incredible, all so different you couldn't wait to step through the curtain and see what this artist had come up with. The rooms were soooo cool and we loved checking them all out.

Main Corridor in the Icehotel

Before sleeping in the -5 degree rooms we needed some instructions on how to survive so we followed a tour where the extra warm sleeping bags were demonstrated and advice given on what to wear to bed. Lets just say the message was the less clothes the better to ensure the sleeping bag was most effective warming your skin not your clothes.

There were several practicalites of sleeping overnight in ice that I can't realised - we couldn't leave any clothes in the room over night because a) we would have to leave them on the snow floor, and b) they would freeze. So we all had these warm snow suits to wear but we couldn't wear them from the warm lockers to the room (which involved a stint outside). Anyway we came up with a plan of attack and then headed to the ice bar for a couple drinks before dinner.

The drinks where Vodka based drinks but the interesting thing was the glasses, a rectangle shaped chunk of ice with a whole drilled in one end. They were very cold against your lips but they didn't stick to your skin like I was scared they would. Looking at the glasses you saw just how clear the Torne river ice was. The drinks were ridiculously expensive but very nice and warmed you up from the inside. We sampled a few different drinks before heading to the restaurant for dinner.

Ice Bar

That night I had my first taste or reindeer, which was quite nice. I also had a desert served on a bowl made of ice, another wonderful example of the very clear ice from the river.

So back to the reception area we went to pick up our sleeping bags for the night. It was on this walk from the restaurant that I experienced the first of my many freezing bodily fluid moments. As we went out into the cold air my nose got a little runny, then that which was running froze! I had to wiggle my nose periodically to break up the frozen boogers - nice! After carefully considering what to wear on the walk to our room, we prepared ourselves and went out the door. They say that when you go into the hotel from the outside air the -5 actually feels warm. Well the night we stayed in the ice room it was -29 and they were right, it didn't actually feel like a relief to come in from the cold when you went through the door. So onto our room where we tried to get our double sleeping bag, sleep sheet and clothes organised as quickly as humanly possible before snuggling down for the night.

I can't say that I slept solidly all night. A few times I woke up and felt my nose and mouth (the only parts of me exposed to the air) were so cold. It was a fine balancing act between being warm and being able to breath, but overall I had a reasonable nights sleep.

We needed to be up reasonably early to meet for reindeer sledging in the morning so we went to find a nice warm (communal) shower and some breakfast. Walking through the hotel early in the morning was cool. The air was kind of foggy so the main corridor with all the sculptures had this very cool and weird misty feel.

The reindeer sledging started with a snowmobile pulled sledge ride out to the yard then trying to lasso the reindeer ready to harness them up. They weren't that keen on being lasso'd so this took a fair while. We all had a go and throwing the ropes but I was terrible at it and my reindeer managed to escape sledge duty for the day.

It was all so beautiful in the reindeer yard. The whole morning there were snow flurries, really light snow that fell in compact balls instead of fat floaty flakes. The sun caught on the balls so if you looked into the sun the landscape was full of shimmering light. It was soooooo beautiful with the reindeer grazing and the snow covered trees and the air that looked like it was full of thousands of tiny stars. I just kept looking into the sun instead of trying to lasso reindeer. My distraction was my down fall when I walked close to a crazy reindeer without noticing it and it reared up and kicked me. It didn't hurt but when I felt hoof to arm contact I still hadn't actually seen the reindeer so it came as a surprise. Adrian managed to lasso the last reindeer which was one that we later became quite familiar with.

The pretty Reindeer

When the 4 reindeer we needed were caught and tied to trees, we went into the Sami tent to warm up a bit, which was a welcome move. When we were all warmed it was ready to hitch the reindeer to the sledge and get them going. They were using 3 of the reindeer, two had lovely sounding Sami names and trotted/walked around the track quite happily. The third reindeer was know only as no. 17, I very spirited animal that didn't like to be told what to do. After watching a few laps we realised that the only way you were going to get a lap at a half decent pace was to take your chances on no. 17. If was kind of like you weren't guarenteed a start but when you actually got to go you were in for a quick ride.

The slegde ride was fun except when the reindeers got sick of you and just starting eating snow instead. They liked to east snow alot. The reindeer knew exactly where to run so all you really needed to do was hold on and try to stop it from eating snow. After we'd all had a turn we let the reindeers eat all the snow they wanted and went back into the tent for some lunch - smoked/fried reindeer. I think this was just a warning to no. 17 what could happen to little reindeers that didn't behave.

When we got back to the hotel we picked up our keys and heading into our warm room. After being outside or in rooms made of ice for the last 24 hours we were very happy to be able to get out of our snow suits and many other layers, have a warm drink and defrost for awhile. After warming out toes (well more that just our toes) we went for a bit of a walk around Jukkasjarvi, walking along the road then back on the river. It was all too easy to forget that it was actually Easter Sunday and the only easter eggs we had were some mini creme eggs we got from a bowl at the reception desk when we aked a question about one of our excursions. We walked around the Icehotel to watch the sun go down. The sunset was quite cool with the orange colours reflecting on the ice sculptures and the white snow. All to soon we felt cold and were ready for the warm room again.

That evening we were booked to go on a northern lights tour on snowmobiles. We had a snowmobile between 2 people and after a few instructions we were off. Adrian had a helmet with a visor and I didn't so the plan was for me to drive first when it was a bit warmer and Adrian to drive on the way back when the air whipping into our eyes was colder. This didn't realy work because we took the scenic route that took over 1 1/2 hour to get there and only 15-20 minutes to get back.

While the snowmobiling was quite cold, it was also lots of fun. After taking a bit of time to find my speed, I had a great time hooning though the forest on the maze of tracks, snow flashing in the snowmobile headlights. I was wearing my leather gloves but my hands were so cold they were aching so I ended up with three pairs of gloves on. We stopped for tea in a wooden Sami hut, where we ate sandwiches, moose meatball soup and cake. We were also supposed to be looking for the northern lights but it was overcast and snowy so ther were no where to be seen.

At the end of the meal we jumped back on the snowmobiles and went for our lightening quick midnight dash back to the hotel. I think it was a good thing that we did the night snowmobiling tour on the warmest night we were there, that was cold enough I think. When we got back to the hotel we were again very please to have a heated room and a nice thick fluffy quilt.

The next day was a nice easy day, going for a bit of a lazy walk around the village in the morning, finding some supplies to make ourself lunch and retiring again to the warmth of our room. After lunch we headed out to our next activity, huskie sledging! We met the dogs down on the frozer river and they were all so excited, yapping like crazy and very keen to get going. We got ourselves organised and set off! Our driver was really good, we learnt a lot more about Lapland and living in the ice and snow from her than anyone else we spoke to. We raced along the river, on land then accross a frozen lake and onto an island. When the lake was water this was an island but whilst frozen it was a clump on trees in the middle.

After stopping to warm ourselves around a fire and having a spot of afternoon tea it was time to get the dogs going again and head across the lake. Racing across the frozen lake was very beautiful with such a large mass of flat white snow and ice spreading out in every direction. Once back on the river our driver decided to take on the other sledge and we had a bit of a dog race. The dogs were running like mad but at the same time they seemed keen to stop and chat/bark/sniff each other so we kept our distance.

After the huskie sledging we again has some time to kill which we spent looking around in the hotel shop getting souveneirs then going on a tour of the Icehotel. Even though we had already staying in the cold room we had missed one of the guided tours so it was interesting to hear some of the facts and figures about how the hotel was constructed.

We tried to go to the other restaurant for dinner but it was booked so we headed to the main one. As we had not yet been able to see the northern lights, we decided to try and spend the eventing outside and see what we could see. We thought it was probably pretty cold but we were very rugged up and we kept alternating between being inside the warm reception and outside, and we kept moving so we seemed to do OK. Our last ditch effort was to go for a long walk along the river where we could feel the temperature dropping lower and lower. I could feel that my eyelashes were freezing and sticking together so we knew it must have been cold but when we got back to the hotel and stepped into the light we realised how cold. Adrian eyelashes were totally frozen and looked like while feathers instead of lashes. Everything on me was frozen - my eyelashes, the contents of my nose, my balaclava, my scarf, my hat and the fur trim on my snow suit hood. We found a thermometer which showed -26 so we decided to call it a night and go back to our warm room.

Hayley Frozen

Our final day involved a Elk (moose) safari then heading straight to the airport to catch our flight back. After dropping most of the people in our mini van off part the way along, we found our elk safari consisted of us and 1 other person. Again our driver was really good and we found out so much about life in Lapland by asking a million questions. Our driver let us know when we were getting into the valley where the elk hung out, and before long we spotted our first elk. At that time of year the elk don't have antlers so her instruction was to look for a rock with ears. This was a pretty accurate description. They liked to hide in amoungst the trees and low bushes and they looked funny without antlers but we managed to spot a few of them before stopping for morning tea. Other than looking for elk, the scenery up in the mountains where we had travelled was spectacular. The spot where we had morning tea had apparently gone down to -41 on the night thatwe were in the ice room, but the sun wash shining when we were there so it got to as warm as -8, probably the warmest we had experienced there.

After coffee and cake we hit the road back to the airport. We were quite early so we waiting for ages for our plan to be ready and once again we taxied over snow covered ground to get to the runway to take off.

Overall our Lapland weekend was amazing. We got to do so many incredible things and we loved all of it. We really didn't know how cold it was actually going to be there but with the right clothing we were fine. It was an amazing experience that I'm very glad we were able to do.

Food of choice in Lapland: Reindeer and Lingonberries