Diary from the Ice Hotel

In January 2009, Jackie Robinson from Reading won a once in a lifetime trip to the IceHotel in Sweden, courtesy of theNewIceAge.com and through her interest in frozen foods. Here, she tells us all about her trip . . .

Ice Hotel6th January was an ordinary day, at home with my son when the phone rang. It was a nice gentleman from theNewIceAge.com, asking if I remembered entering their frozen food competition to win a trip to the Ice Hotel. When he told me I’d won the grand prize, at first, I didn’t believe it. But later that day I had a follow-up email confirming the prize, then the next day a call from the Travel Agent asking when I’d like to go!

Once my husband and I had arranged a date and someone to look after our children, we set about organising excursions we would take while we were there. The highlight of the trip was spending a night in an ice room. We were rather unsure about this – after all, how well can you sleep in -5 degrees?  

Everyone I told was amazed when I said I had won this 3-night holiday, and wanted to know how I did it! I keep telling people – ‘you’ve got to be in it to win it’, and I had won a big one!

The trip began with a direct flight to Kiruna, in Swedish Lapland, 200 kms inside the Arctic Circle. There was snow on the runway when we arrived, but bright sunshine.

After settling into our ‘warm’ room, we wandered around the hotel site, which is situated by a large frozen lake, from which large blocks of ice are cut to make the hotel. The hotel melts away back into the lake every summer, and every winter, it is rebuilt again. The entrance hall was stunning, with ice pillars and ice chandeliers. This year there were 91 bedrooms, all individual, with different carvings and ice sculptures. Our ice room had 2 ice armchairs and an ice bear. The Ice-Bar was a sight to be seen and at -5°C, the vodka cocktails in ice glasses soon gave you a glow!

Ice BarThe next day, our excursion to search for the Northern lights by snowmobile wasn’t until the evening, so we hired some cross-country skis and set off to see some of the countryside. We had only been downhill skiing before, so this was very different, but soon we were gliding along peaceful forest tracks, without a soul in sight!

Before the Snowmobile tour, we were kitted out in all-in-one thermal suits, heavy warm boots, balaclavas and gloves. After a quick lesson in driving we set off in convoy across the frozen lake, and through forest trails. The guide stopped occasionally to point out things of interest – unfortunately, the Northern lights didn’t make an appearance, as it was too cloudy. Nonetheless, this was a great trip covering a lot of ground, and stopping for supper in a ‘wilderness hut’. This turned out to be a very cosy hut, with an open fire, and we dined on salmon and cheese rolls, moose soup and cake, and plenty of lingonberry juice.

RoomOn our second day, we had a reindeer and Sami trip. The Samis are the indigenous people of Lapland, once nomadic, but now living in small villages. They still herd their reindeer, and our Sami guide told us a lot about their lives. We were picked up by the guide, who took us by sledge (pulled by a snowmobile) to a Sami camp in the forest. Here we met some reindeer, and before we learnt to drive a sledge, we first had to catch our reindeer! This was supposed to happen by throwing a lasso over the head and antlers. Great fun was had for half an hour or so, during which time we managed to catch a couple, but the reindeer were very canny and ran away when they saw you coming. Eventually we had 4 caught, and two were harnessed up with sledges. There was a 500m track, which we would race our reindeer and sledge around. Most of us took quite a while to get the reindeer moving! My reindeer was ambling round until one of the guides came past with a fast reindeer, then mine took off, and I had to hang on for dear life. We treated the reindeer to some tasty lichen for lunch, then our Sami guide cooked us some reindeer, which we had in a sort of wrap, with more lingonberry juice. Delicious! The trip back to the Ice Hotel encompassed a visit to the Sami Museum and gift shop.

Then – at last the much-anticipated night in the Ice Room! Getting ready for bed required a quick dash in thermal undies with warm sleeping bag around our necks. In the room we snuggled inside our sleeping bags (tested to -40) with only our noses showing. Unbelievably we managed to sleep and did not feel cold – but was I glad to re-enter the warm changing room the next morning for a sauna and hot shower!

ReindeerThe final morning we took in a moose hunting safari by minibus, which took us about 60 km on a route along frozen roads, during which we would stop and look for moose. We were very lucky and spotted 11 moose on this trip, although spotting them was quite difficult amongst the birch trees, as they seemed to blend in. On this trip we saw more beautiful scenery in the frozen landscape of Northern Sweden. After coffee and cake at a tourist stop we were driven back to Kiruna airport for our flight home.

This was an experience not to be forgotten – certainly well worth a few clicks of the mouse! A big thank you to theNewIceAge team and here's to frozen food!

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So, thank you all for taking part in the frozen food competition. 

And thanks to everyone in taking such an interest in all our news and information about frozen foods. The competitions had an amazing uptake and prize winners semed to enjoy their prizes!  The New Ice Age Team is certainly envious of the trip to the Ice Hotel! We can't think of anything more appropriate for frozen food than the beautiful landscapes of Sweden! We are constantly looking for ways to show off the natural beauty of frozen food and the natural aspects of its preservation – have you checked out our Ice Wall containing frozen foods?

Our Ice Wall was designed to show everyone that frozen food has been around for centuries. Frozen food has been around for centuries and the Ancient Chines used to feeze food 3,000 years ago! Frozen food is an entirely natural phenomena and the frozen food process needs no preservatives unlike other preservation techniques such as canning.