It was a fantastic experience to discover the area on those silent dog sledges.
The dogs were running fast. We even could ride on our own on a "three dogs" sledge. Riding on the sledge was somewhat similar to skiing, really lots of fun. From far away, we saw the Kiruna iron mine, the biggest one in northern Europe, I think. After two hours with the dog, we came back to the cabin and we had a hot soup to warm up again. After lunch, we changed to the skidoos.
In about two hours, we drove to Jukkasjärvi. During the last part of the trip, we drove over a frozen river. Finally, we arrived at the icehotel:
The icehotel (view from the river)
Cabins and icehotel in the back (right)
Cabins
As you can see from the pictures, the icehotel consists of the icehotel itself (iglu plus "ice rooms") and many cabins around it. So if you get cold during the night, you can easily move into one of the heated cabins. Near the reception, there was a parking lot:
Parking lot and reception in the back
Really an interesting way to keep the car "alive". Others used electricity to heat the batteries of their cars. I have never seen a parking lot with electric sockets before (maybe except for some camping grounds...).
I guess that you are now curious how the inside of the icehotel looks like. Click on the "door" to enter:
