Snow Hotel, Norway

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Sleeping in a Snow Hotel had been on our bucket list for some time, and we were going to strike that one off. We arrived at the Snow Hotel in early afternoon, in pitch darkness. It was extremely cold but calm and we had hopes for the Northern Lights. We were shown our bedroom closed off with a curtain and bed made of solid ice blocks. The only decorations in the room were the beautiful ice carvings on the icy walls. It was cold and out of this world. The snow hotel consisted of a reception, (with the obligatory fire extinguisher, although there was nothing remotely combustible inside) and two corridors leading to a few bedrooms in the form of igloos. The restaurant and rest rooms were in another building, this time made of wooden logs.

We spent the evening eating in the cozy restaurant. The place was extremely warm and we could cook our own meat on the open fire raging in the middle of the small restaurant. We ate reindeer meat for the first time, and it was absolutely exquisite. I will never think of Rudolph Dasher Dancer Prancer Vixen Comet Cupid Donder and Blitzen in the same way from now on!

Later we went dog sledding(another Blog) and soon it was time to turn in. We were dressed for the arctic weather and special thermal underwear served us well as we snuggled in our thick comfy sleeping bags. The temperature outside was minus 38 Celsius but inside we were relatively warm and comfy.

The next morning we woke up for breakfast, rather stiff and our noses were rather cold. We had stuffed our clothes into our sleeping bags so they were nice and warm. The only problem was putting our boots on, as mine had literally iced themselves to the floor and after I dislodged them i had a hard time tying the laces as my feet were not very steady on the ice floor.

But this was not a problem, and in fact was part of the experience. We were not sleeping in a five star hotel so you expect these things.In fact it is part of our cherished memories. I recommend to anyone with a sense of adventure to at least sleep one night in a real Snow hotel.

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