Ice Hotel, Sweden, march 7, 2014

Sweden's Ice Hotel

The ICE MAN COMMETH: Dane Benson Hoban.

The Ice Hotel in Sweden has long been on Cindy's bucket list.  she, and my sister-in-law Cheryl, have been talking about the place for years.  After moving to barcelona cindy saw her chance.  my brother tom, cheryl, and their college-aged kids, dane and danya would meet us in stockholm, sweden and the 7 of us would fly to kiruna in northern sweden to finally spend the night surrounded by ice.  no this was not necessarily on my list.  sounded dang cold to me.

off to sweden 

we arrived in stockholm around 4 pm so unfortunately not much time to visit the sites.  Tom & Cheryl were able to reach an old friend of ours Jens Wallman, who met us for dinner in the old town district. we spent the night in a small, permanently moored, 1950's cruise ship. corrinne got to share a cabin with her cousin danya.  danya is in college and corrinne thinks she's the "cat's meow college co-ed".

me, jens, tom, cheryl, cindy.  its pretty cold in sweden.  schnapps seems to be the national beverage.

the next morning we were off to kiruna and the long awaited ice hotel.

we stopped at the bakery before getting on a train and uncle tom got one of everything.  danya and corrinne did not seem to mind, except tom would not cut the pastries fast enough.

 the hertz guy kept his puppy behind the counter.  guess where corrinne ended up

the ice hotel is just that, a hotel built of ice.  it started out as a large igloo that the town built every year to attract interest.  twenty years ago someone came to town and there was no room at the inn, so someone suggested that they spend the night in the igloo.  it worked out just fine and some bright entrepreneur got the idea to build a bigger igloo the next year and rent rooms.   it has grown ever since, and the single igloo turned into a large sprawling igloo.  it kind of looked like those rounded  army barracks, made of ice.  the hotel is supported by metal frames and huge blocks of pure, clear, Torne river water.  this year there were 187 rooms.   most of the rooms are basic with one  large bed and some ice chairs.  if you want to upgrade, you can stay in an artist room.  each year the hotel invited artists from around the world to submit ideas for how to decorate rooms.  the winning artists are brought to the ice hotel to build their work.  most of the room pictures that follow are of artist rooms.  being made of ice, the hotel changes it appearance throughout the day, depending on the amount of sunlight.  the hotel is now a large, commercial venture, but it is a fascinating place and quite beautiful.
next to the hotel is a warm reception area.  upon arrival you are provided with any warms clothes that you may need to complement your own warm attempt.  whenever you are ready to retire for the night you are given a negative 15 degree sleeping bag, and a hardy "good luck."   you do not go to bed early here.  no one wants to tempt temp any longer than they have to.
by the way; you store all your luggage in large lockers.   showers, toilets, and lockers are  all in a warm building next to the cold hotel.  cindy and i were perfectly comfy cozy thru the night.  around 4:30 am corrinne complained of being cold, we moved her around and she went back to sleep until 7:30 when an attendant woke everyone with warm glasses of lingonberry juice.  tom and family also stayed warm throughout the night.   following,  is probably more pictures then you really want to see of my vacation.  if you get bored, turn the blog off.

fyi :
1. the hotel melts every year in april and they rebuild each november. they use about 4000 tons of pure torne river ice.
2. Torne river water is lovely, clean, and refreshing.
3.you transfer your luggage, and ten-year-olds, over the snow on luggage sleighs.
4. the hotel is a private corporation, owned by nine individuals.
5. in the morning, i saw only one hotel guest sleeping on the couch in the warm reception area.
6. how do they make ice glasses for the ice hotel bar??  future blog subject. i know you can't wait!!

This is the front of the ice hotel. the doors are covered in reindeer skin

ice hotel chapel

the front looks different when the light changes

inside ice chapel

the whole group made it to the church on time. cheryl was thrilled to be there

danya transferring her princes corri to the hotel

cheryl in a ice hallway

ice hotel hallway

sculpture inside one of the art rooms

this did not work out so well for CB

front entrance

tom and corrinne lounging on ice

ice chanadler

art room

art room

cb sitting on the bed in half  globe  made of thousands of ice cubes

dancing bears art room

corrinne & dane b.  bear hug

art room

ice hotel foyer

CB & Tom with ice glass cocktails

everyone was woken up with warm lingonberry juice at 7:30 am

the hoban-bensons, early risers.  tom was thrilled with the early morning wake-up

art room "mind the gap".   the bed was inside the tube car

dancing bear art form

ice hotel bar.  it was closed in this pic  8 am

brady bunch wannabes

danya could not stop singing

corri being watched over

Farm life in Spain feb 19, 2014

In mid febuary the Spanish schools close for a week so everyone can go skiing.  They call the holiday week, samana blanca, white week.  we decided to stay close to barcelona and see some local sites.   one day we went to visit an old downtown arena built in the 20's, when we arrived we realized we had gotten our wires crossed.  the arena had been refurbished and turned into a mall.
another day we went to tour "Freshinet," a large, famous cava (sparkling wine) maker outside barcelona.  that turned out to be far more a "marketing" tour then seeing them "make and bottle" cava tour,  and we forgot to bring a camera.  enough said about that day.  except it was a very nice train ride.
One day we visited a sheep farm. big hit. we, and another family, took a bus an hour outside of barceliona,  where a farming family shared there day with us. it was a small, organic farm.   Sheep where fed and brought out to pasture, baby sheep where looked after, tractors were ridden, and horses too.  chickens were tended, goats were milked and, most importantly for corrinne,  dogs were played with.  They had a dog that got so excited that it jumped three or four feet strait up in the air, over and over.  it saw us coming from block away and just went off with the jumping.  obviously corrinnes favorite.  the thing would not stop jumping.  they kept him on a leash because he kept freaking out the sheep.  hysterical.
they where nice enough to serve a farm-house lunch which i could have done without because I was not sure what I was eating half the time.  the other family pleaded vegetarian at the last minute. CB & Corrinne were hiding  things under artichoke leaves on their plate.  I was sitting next to the farmers wife, and the farmer who had come in from the fields for his lunch.  I couldn't politely get away with  not eating whatever I was eating.  sometimes it sucks being the man in this family.
It was a very fun day, and we now have two goat horns on our balcony.

clucker

sheep food

out to pasture

can you tell when Cindy's mad at me.  you'd think I was the one that gave the goat her shoe.

sheep babies

goat babies

farm family

milking goats

Yah

kissing dogs

jumping crazy dog

This is a video of the crazy jumpster, sorry it is so small.   if you click on the little "square box shape" bottom right, it may get bigger

don't ask me?   some sort of dog worship or something.   

Jerome sees the Holy See jan 22, 2014

My favorite pizza shop in Barcelona is called “La Formata.”  They serve a roman style (square) pizza that I have come to favor.  Very light crust (slow 72 hour rise), very tasty toppings that we in America would not normally think to use, cut to any size you request, and sold by weight.  After a bit of research I discovered it was the chef, Gabriele Bonci, in Rome, Italy who inspired  the owners of La Famata, and may have even trained them.  This Roman style pizza has been around for generations.  Gabriele Bonci has just taken it up twenty notches to appeal to a more sustainable, health conscious, foodie generation.  His storefront in Rome is very small, fits maybe 10 people standing.  The line is out the door.  Turns out Senõr Bonci gives pizza lessons to those who sign up first. 

Jerome decided to visit at the same time I was signed up for Bonci's class.  O what ever will we do.  sad solution: Lisa said he would  have to go to Rome with me for the Bonci pizza course. bam! 
off we went to Rome.  
I have been lucky enough to have visited Rome a few times. It is one of my favorite cities.  What’s not to like?  During the day we saw the sights and at night we made pizza.  how could it get better than that?  We visited the Coliseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish steps (where I proposed to CB), a lot of very large, ornate churches, and of course Vatican City with St. Peters Cathedral, the Vatican museum, and the Sistine Chapel. 

Jerome making a wish at Trevi fountain

interior of Colosseum,  neither of us took a photo of the outside.  go figure

Jerome in front Saint Peters square.  if he looks troubled it's because he just found out that, hundreds of years after St Peters Cathiedral was built,  another architect decided to put another facade on the front of it, partially covering up the famous dome.  He's still trying to get his head around that one.

The Spanish steps,  way up at the top left Cindy said "yes"

side view of St Perters square

St. Peters at night

inside St Peters Cathedral.   famous Michelangelo sculpture "Pieta"

vatican museum 

My mother arranged tickets for us to join Pope Frances’s weekly Wednesday visitation.   We were lucky to be seated in a special section not 30 feet from the Pope.  There where about 10,000 people in the general assembly.  When the Pope showed up the place went crazy.  This guy is a rock star.  The people love him.  It took over thirty minutes to drive the Pope Mobil around the crowd.  He gave a nice talk, then blessed all of us, and our family and friends (if you are reading this you were probably blessed without knowing).  Around the end it started raining and St. Peters Square became a field of color (umbrellas).  I wish for a photo from above.  It was a fantastic display.

Pope Francis

working the crowd

wish I had a picture of the whole square.  this was fantastic in person

The pizza course was great fun.  Two Americans, 14 Italians, and 30 pizzas.  Gabriele Bonce is quite a well known character in the Roman pizza circles, and he is a regular on food shows in italy.  he has been making pizzas for many years and is still coming up with new topping combinations.  He decides most of the toppings on the fly, so even he did not know what he was planning to make.  my favorite had a base of pureed chickpeas, topped with sliced artichoke, italian cauliflower, and prunes (yes prunes).  several times the class came to a halt while he and his staff took pictures of one of his creations that they especially liked and wanted to replicate at his store.  Another excellent one had a base of pureed salted rock cod,  pickled broccoli and sweet onion. 
The secret of course is in the ingredients.  You have to start with the best to end up with the best.  We made some great pizza.  We will see if we can mimic this success in our own kitchens.

This is Bonci,  he decides ingredients on the fly.

pizza paparazzi

italian cauliflower and sausage

four yummy cheeses

chickpea, pickled cauliflower,  greens (can't remember)

potato, artichoke, & pig bacon

JP showing Bonci how its done in America

Jerome with our interpreter and some of the pizzas.  no one left hungry

Gaudi statue Feb 15, 2014

I have mentioned that Eusebi Güell was a consistent patron to barcelona's most famous architect Antoni Gaudì.  Güell was very wealthy, and commissioned Gaudì to design and build many building in Barcelona.  The apartment that we live in happens to be located on land that was once one of Güell's estates.  when the estate was sold off and developed,  they saved the front gate/wall/entrance to the original estate that had been built by Gaudi, and they added a life-size Gaudi statue.   it is now on the tourist maps for Gaudi enthusiast to come visit.  many a day I look out our back window and watch someone jump out of a cab,  take a few photos hanging all over the statue,  jump back in the cab headed to the next Gaudi monument.

Corrinne with her friend Gaudí.  our apartment building is in the backround

the wavy wall symbolizes a serpent or snake.  most of Gaudi's designs took the form of something in nature

 walls and roof look like scales.     the large opening with gaudy, cb & cm, once had large gate that opened for horse drawn vehicles.  pedestrians just walked through the bulbous gate on the right. upper right hand corner you can see our apartment window.  i would be hanging out of it, but i was taking the picture.

sometimes he's lonely

till corrinne shows up