Drive to Kiruna - 4 - Kiruna (30-31 Dec)

Our stop for New Year's was Kiruna. We had an apartment booked in the middle of town and since it was only a four hour drive, we had a bit of a sleep-in before packing up and leaving Luleå. 

As we headed north the snow increased, but the roads were pretty decent and the drive wasn't too bad.

Our first sight as we approached Kiruna was the LKAB mining signs.   Kiruna was founded as a mining town to support the Kiruna mine, which is the largest underground ironmine in the world. LKAB (Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara AB) operates the mine and produces about 27 million tonnes of iron ore a year.

Unfortunately, the town of Kiruna has now become undermined by the Kiruna mine and as such LKAB is moving the town centre 3km to the east.

It was a little chilly when we left Lulea

The roadsigns could be a little hard to read....

The car got a little snowy

On the second day (New Year's Eve) we headed out for a walk to the centre of Kiruna. The temperature was about -10 degrees C and it was snowing:

Our Street

The snow was quite deep in parts:

We passed the Kiruna church, built in the traditional gothic style:

Downtown was a little quiet, but the ploughs had been busy:

After checking out the town, we headed out for a short drive to the Kiruna Ice Hotel.

The carpark was pretty full, so we struggled to find somewhere to park, but then we noticed some tourists in a minibus that had become bogged in the snow.  They were spinning the tyres and pushing, but it was just sinking deeper.  We had purchased some snow tracks for that exact reason, plastic plates with studs that help the tyres get purchase to pull free, so we helped them out and in return scored a great parking space right in front - fair trade all round.

The ice hotel had three parts - the wooden accommodation area and reception and the two ice hotels.  Ice Hotel 365 is inside a refrigerated area and is open year round, and as such houses more ornate sculptures and rooms, and the standard Ice Hotel is allowed to melt every year and is rebuilt new.

The entrance and meeting point

The kids at the meeting point

Looking towards Ice Hotel 365

Before heading into either of the hotels, we climbed the ice steps to look out over the area behind the hotel and the boys took advantage of the ice slide:

The view from the rear - lots of snow

The Ice Slide

The entrance to Ice Hotel 365

The Ice Hotel 365 consisted of an ice bar, ice sculpting area and 18 rooms - 9 'deluxe' rooms and 9 'art' rooms.

The entrance was pretty ornate also:

The first room was the 'experience room' which showed a brief movie about the ice hotel and housed some exhibits. One of the most interesting was the 'survivors' the sculptures from the main ice hotel that had survived the thaw over summer:

We then took a tour through each of the rooms:

Deluxe Room 301: "Kodex Maximus"

This room was designed to show slightly organic structures that were morphed from the norm. It reused some sculptures from previous designs, such as jelly-fish sculptures.

Art Room 306: The Drift

This room is designed to represent wild beauty and flowing ice

Deluxe Room 303 - Dreaming in a Dream (Keir and Tom's favourite)

This room shows entering a storm and being watched by creatures, including the 350kg 'fantasy creature'. Entering is aimed to represent a storm with the creatures appearing and then as you pass to the bedroom, the storm subsides and the animals watch over you.

Art Room 308 - Wanderlust - (Cameron's favourite)

This room was symbolising the desire to return to nature after being restricted over the last few years and how important walks in nature are.

To enter this room, you needed to walk through an ice tunnel

Cameron wanted to make sure he got the credit for this photo

Deluxe Room 305 - Raindrop Prelude

This room represents raindrops rippling on frozen ice, a bedframe in a traditional Polish folk art style and Chopin's 'Raindrop Prelude' above it.

Art Room 310 - Strobilus Land
This room aims to represent the scent and feel of an evergreen forest, including pine cones (Strobili).

Deluxe Room 307 - The Ice Are The Window To The Soul
This room aims to experiment with carving the sculptures inside the ice rather than outside, with some filled with snow and others empty. The first sculpture is of the artist's 90 year old father reflecting on his mortality.

Art Room 312 - Sauna

This room aims to contrast the cold and hot, recreating the inside of a sauna complete with towels, bathrobes and ovens.

Deluxe Room 309 - A Midsummer Night's Dream 
This room is a reflection on the crystal clear ice far north of the arctic circle.  To show this, the artists encapsulated Swedish Midsummer flowers to preserve them through the arctic winter.

Art Room 314 - Téckara 

This room aimed to use multiple floor levels and nine pillars to fill the room and create an 'accelerated architecture transit'.  Téckara means 9 in Kunza (an extinguished language from northern Chile)

Deluxe Room 311 - Lost and Found 
This room focuses on an abstract centrepiece and chairs with a button that includes light, music and sound.

Art Room 316 - Crescents

This room aims to create a wavy passage that draws you into the corridor of different height and proportion crescents.

Deluxe Room 313 - Early Spring 
This room represents when the first sprouts break through the snow and the water drips from melting ice.

Art Room 318 - You are Here (Alana's Favourite) 
This room aims to connect the heart to the brain and form a tribute to those who dream and build their heart's desires.

Deluxe Room 315 - Hang Loose

This room represents an art gallery with paintings and sculptures.

Art Room 320 - Dancers in the Dark

This room is about choosing the light and positive path (survival).

Deluxe Room 317 - Toybox (Kristine's Favourite)

This room presented a world of toys, including a bunny whose ears weighed 75kg each.

Art Room 322 - A Cabinet in the Woods   

The final room plays with the idea of a cabin in the woods, with the bed made from a cabinet design.

After finishing look through the rooms, we headed out to the ice bar.

At the back of the ice bar was a sculpture in memory of Börje Salming (1951-2022), a Sami Swedish Ice Hockey player born in Kiruna, who died of ALS in 2022.

Heading back outside, it was obvious that it had quickly gotten a lot darker and the snow had started to fall again.

The kids went for a quick iceslide, and Cameron lost his airpod on the way down.  While I was helping him look for it, Tomas decided to slide and and help look also. The result was his crashing into my ankles and sweeping my legs out from under me and spectacular dive as I tried to avoid falling on him.  Unfortunately we didn't get that on video, but we did get a few slides:

We then headed into the main ice hotel:

We then headed home and celebrated New Years Eve watching the fireworks over Kiruna from our balcony (after cleaning off the snow and clearing the chairs):

Kristine particularly liked the lanterns that were launched: