Things that nearly went wrong

Well there was a panic about whether we had a transfer from Stockholm airport to the hotel but Youngest chased paper and sorted that out before we got there.  And the minibus driver was great – really knowledgeable about world economics (?)!

There was some anxiety when we found that the (hopefully) cheaper restaurant was a good half mile walk away and when we staggered up to its doors it was closed.  Fortunately, we had passed a supermarket on the way and that was still open and we took bread, meat, cheese, soup and ready meals back to our rooms and microwaved them.  Very nice it was too.

There was a serious panic when it turned out that nobody had brought any of the three bits of paper on which the words of the ceremony were typed neatly for Barney to read.  After we’d all wracked our brains trying to remember them, Barney thought of this Irish blessing and we rang his sister in England who found the exact words for us.

May the road rise to meet you;
May the wind be always at your back;
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon you,
and until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His Hand.

The rest was remembered in time and it all worked.

If we had decided not to sleep in the ice room, that would have been a disaster because it turned out that we had to check out of our warm rooms for the night – before 11.00 am!  Fortunately, (for me anyway) I had thought I might want everything packed away ready for our departure the next morning so it didn’t take me too long to get organised.  Otherwise I might have been wandering down to the storage area with all my stuff strewn in a trail on the snow behind me!  And if the ice room had been too cold that would have been pretty awful but it wasn’t : )

An ice room

Another ice room

yet another ice room

And finally, when we missed our connection from Stockholm to Heathrow that could have meant an extra night in Stockholm with three small, tired and hungry children.  But Youngest and Mr Youngest stayed calm and positive (mostly) and managed to get us on a later flight and we didn’t even have to pay extra!  Phew!

So as well as the marvels of the Ice hotel, there was a late night trip to see the ESRANGE Space Centre.  As we had thought we were going out to look for the aurora borealis this was only mildly interesting and also extremely cold!  Of course it was slightly interesting to see rockets and balloons and a film about sending up tourist space flights (tickets are still available for for the chance to travel out of earth’s atmosphere, experience true weightlessness and then come back down.  A mere snip at £500,000 a head – that’s five HUNDRED thousand little English Pounds – they’re very little these days)

The trip improved dramatically though as it included a short hike through the star (and lamp) lit woods to a very warm wooden cabin where we got to eat some very nice local dishes and to drink lots of wine.  And the best bit was when we saw two reindeer on the way home.  (They’re so little!)  And there was the wonderful sparkly snow dust all around.  (All of which I totally failed to photograph)

And then next day, we saw huskies bringing home sleds full of tourists.  They were absolutely brilliant!  full of energy and fun and yawping and yapping and yowling like a pack of excited children.  As soon as they stopped they all threw themselves down in the snow and rolled about joyfully like puppies.  And one of them said WAAAH WAAAH WAAAH! Just like an enormous, furry, angry baby.  Which had us in stitches – we have video footage of them and it reduces us all to hysterics every time he opens his mouth : ) (Which he did a lot.)

huskies

More huskies

An inordinate amount of time was spent getting in and out of snow suits and boots.  These were just enormous and heavy and involved what seemed like miles of zips and fastenings and you simply couldn’t spend more than two minutes indoors without needing to fight your way out of them gasping from the heat and effort.  But you couldn’t spend more than five minutes outside without needing to get back into them and doing it all up again.  And then walking around was something of an excercise with all that stuff wrapped round you.

Some of us – well everyone except me – had fun drinking out of ice glasses.  Everything came with vodka though and I don’t like vodka.   Except the hot chocolate which, sadly, (but obviously) you couldn’t have in an ice glass : )Also my lips were sore and ice didn’t seem like a comforting idea.

Anyway, it seems to be quite late all of a sudden.  I’ll put some more photos up tomorrow but meantime, thank you all for such lovely comments.  Coming back to the real world has been a joy because of you all : )

xxx