Sweden
Jan 2002. This was my birthday present to Anna (this trip, not the horse). We went for a 5-day wknd, giving us enough time to explore Stockholm before heading up to the icehotel in the artic circle.

This is in Skansen : Stockholm's outdoor folk museum and my favorite place in the city. Anna had to show her teeth to a whole troop of Swedish kids so she could get this picture on the horse by herself. If you look closely, you can see that they dropped their maps in their haste.


Skansen has buildings from all different parts of Sweden.





Nordic ship parked on the banks of Gamla Stan


Ok, now we are in the artic, enjoying a bit of precious daylight. The shadow were so long even when the sun was up. At noon, the sun barely rose above the mtns. Here we are beinging pulled by reindeer across a frozen river.


These 2 guys are the Sami guys that took us. It was -35 C so we spent most of our time warming up in this hut in the woods.


This is another Laplander. He organizes the Sami culture events for the icehotel. He cooked us some Sami favorites in a tent (including birch bark bread). They eat lots of reindeer and salmon up here but traditionally found really creative ways to get their vitamins.


I like his boots, i want them for xmas!


This is Anna after driving the reindeer home. I'm not sure who lives in the little stilt-hut, probably a gnome, i was too cold to ask.


Bundled up, full kit, ready for action.
The icehotel lent me the boots, snow suit, hat, and big mittens.


here i am enjoying the aurora borealis for the 1st time! They were fantastic.
Just look:


amazing, i know. you don't even need to go see them yourself...


Click on Anna's nose to enter the icehotel...