Me & various things!

Snow Bound Heathrow & the Ice Hotel (Dec) 2010

Posted by: WurzelDave, 6:55 PM GMT on December 28, 2010

On the 18th of december (2010) this years ice hotel trip was due to commence but this was put off until the next day due to Heathrow airport being closed by heavy snow.
We had already boarded the SAS flight bound for Kiruna (northern Sweden) but the airport closed around 20 to 30 mins after boarding, to cut a long story short we remained on the plane for around 7 hours! The SAS cabin crew & pilots we great at keeping us informed, fed & watered etc while we were on that plane. After departing the plane we were one of the lucky few that were put up in a hotel overnight.
Day two at Heathrow when we returned brought us scenes reminiscent of a refugee camp in places, with people sleeping on the floor 'wrapped' in foil blankets.
We (re)checked in and once again boared the SAS flight for Kiruna only this time we did take off, one of only 6 (or so) flights to leave that day.

Once in Kiruna we were transferred by coach to the ice hotel in the little village of Jukkasjarvi (Sweden).
Spent the first night in a warm room & the following morning went on a snowshoeing excursion in a nearby forest in temps as low as -38c but i wasn't cold.
After this i had a proper look around the ice hotel & it's art rooms (ice rooms containing beds with a theme made out of ice, different for each room). Much later after visiting the ice bar i spent the night in a cold room (a snow room in the icehotel which contains a bed & that's it), it is around -5c in the icehotel all the time but on this night it was -29c outside. If you can do it it's well worth a visit.

Updated: 2:13 AM GMT on December 29, 2010

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Short Break to Iceland

Posted by: WurzelDave, 7:09 PM GMT on June 09, 2010

Between the 27th - 31st May i went to Iceland, once again staying in the city of Reykjavik.As with the ice hotel the holiday company i traveled with was Discover the World.During my stay i (as usual) had evening strolls round Reykjavik & day tours to other parts of Iceland during the day.On one of the day tours we went to the south of Iceland, on the way we encountered a wind blown ash 'storm' (volcanic ash lying on the ground whipped up by the wind), visiblity at t...

Sun Voyager

Updated: 7:31 PM GMT on June 09, 2010

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Ice Hotel 2009

Posted by: WurzelDave, 12:08 PM GMT on December 27, 2009

Between Dec 19th-22nd 2009 i (again) visited the Ice Hotel in the small village of Jukkasjarvi in Sweden. Some of the people that were working there last year (& the year before) remembered me from previous visits. The temperature there didn't get above -11c (about 12f) but it dosen't feel as cold as that because the air is largely dry. I travelled to Kiruna (airport) on a direct charter flight from Heathrow with travel company Discover the World & flew with SAS & f...