Ice Hotel
In 1989, Japanese ice artists visited the village of Jukkasjärvi, in Sweden to create ice sculptures. One day so many tourists came to see the exhibition that it was impossible to get a room to stay overnight. Some of the visitors asked for permission to spend the night in the exhibition hall – a huge igloo. They slept in sleeping bags on top of reindeer skin and the idea to build an ice hotel was born. From then on, they build a new ice hotel every November. You can stay at the hotel between December and April, because then the hotel starts melting. Except for the steel frame that prevents the hotel from falling down, everything in it is made of about 100,000 tons of ice and 30,000 tons of snow ice: the walls, the beds and other furniture, artwork, and even the glasses you drink from. The ice blocks for the hotel are taken from Torne River and it takes about 100 workers to build it in a month's time. The hotel is different every year because each year around 15 artists from different parts of the world come to decorate the hotel. The ice hotel has everything a traveller needs: a reception, halls, rooms (about 60 of them), a fancy restaurant, a cinema and even a chapel where couples can get married. The hotel has about 50,000 visitors every year – most of them stay for one night. That's a lot of visitors, knowing that only about 1,100 people (and 1,000 dogs) live in the village of Jukkasjärvi.
Tree hotels
Tree houses are constructed around, next to or among the trunk or branches of one or more mature trees above the ground. In the past, some tribes lived in tree houses to protect themselves from dangerous animals and even today The Korowai, a Papuan tribe live in tree houses, some nearly 40 metres high, as protection against a tribe of neighbouring head-hunters, the Citak. The idea of a tree hotel started in the mid-1980’s when a hotelier wanted his guests to experience the jungle from 'up-there' so he built tree hotels for adventurous tourists. Today, there are tree hotels all abound the world, even in Slovenia, near Bled. Tree hotels are usually small but offer everything you need: bedroom, kitchen, eco-friendly toilet, some even have a veranda, a fire place and a swimming pool. They can be on built on oak trees, sangrillo trees or any other trees, depending the kind of trees in the area. Tree hotels are considered eco-friendly, because builders don’t need to cut down any trees or other vegetation to build them, and they try to have minimal impact on nature. Quite often they don’t even cut the branches so there are branches and tree trunks growing through your bedroom or your bathroom. Tree houses are about 4-6 meters above the ground. To get in, you have to climb a rope ladder or wooden stairs. Most people who stay at a tree hotel enjoy observing the nature. But it can get quite noisy, too specially at night when curious animals, such as howler monkeys pay you a visit, dance on your roof, come into your kitchen or worse, into your bathroom.
Hever Castle
If you love the excitement of ghost hunting there is no better place to practise your hobby than Hever Castle in South East England, mainly because it is reputed to be one of the most haunted places in England!
If you are wondering whose restless spirit wanders the corridors and gardens of Hever Castle one of them is a tragic figure from English history, Anne Boleyn, who was the second of the six wives of the powerful and proud Tudor king, Henry VIII. Between them they changed the whole way of life in England forever when, with Anne’s encouragement, Henry established himself as the head of the new, protestant Church of England.
Unfortunately for Anne Boleyn, although Henry had been so passionately in love with her that he had defied the Pope and divorced his first queen Katherine of Aragon in order to marry her, he quickly became tired of her when he realised she could not provide him with a son to be the next king. This is quite ironic as their daughter Elizabeth I eventually became Queen of England and reigned for 45 years! No one is completely sure if Anne was guilty of the terrible crimes Henry accused her of but nevertheless she was found guilty and her head was chopped off in the Tower of London in May 1536.
Today, Anne’s ghost is most likely to be seen wandering in the gardens of her childhood home Hever Castle, the very place she first met King Henry. According to legend you have the best chance of seeing her restless spirit on Christmas Eve- perhaps she is hoping to join in with the Christmas celebrations!
