Cool Ice, Hot Nights!

We were sat in the pool tonight sipping a chilled sauv blanc (as you do in Cairns in the middle of January) contemplating what our less fortunate relatives might be doing. The crowd in the UK would be out shovelling snow off their footpath so they could get to their car, to scrape the ice off the windows, to get into their vehicle, to turn the key to discover the battery had died overnight in minus 6 degrees…

The tribe in France would be wondering if the wet, green wood they’d been sold would burn hot enough to heat the house and melt the frosting on the inside of the windows. They’d also be wondering if the snow plows would make it down their street sinces the south of France is supposed to be mild and sunny at this time year, not freezing cold and snowing…

And that conversation led to Ice Hotel in Sweden. If you’re going to be somewhere inconveniently cold why not do it in style?! Every year a team of designers converge on Jukkasjärvi and create their own special magic 200 km north of the Arctic Circle. Since GW considers me to be an aviation nut he suggested we might like the ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ suite (he’s a Frank Sinatra tragic so the song by the same name may have influenced him…)

The hotel opens in mid-December and each week more rooms are completed until the hotel is at capacity. Come springtime it simply melts away. Ephemeral art at its best. The rooms are individually themed, drinks are served in the Absolut Icebar (that would be an absolute hangover), and the dog sleds are waiting to take you further into the Arctic Circle – new meaning to running with the pack?

Sitting in our 30 deg pool, with our rapidly warming wine, it all seems a little surreal. GW did tip a tray of ice cubes into the water but the effect just wasn’t the same…