We survived our night time snowshoe hike!
So the igloo was awesome!
Okay - yesterday, December
29th...which is also Daniel's birthday, we set out from Lucerne and headed to
Engelberg for our "Igloo Adventure." We had a few unanswered
questions...but they were all things we figured we would resolve once we were
actually there. Our hotel in Lucerne was wonderful enough to agree to allow us
to hold our luggage there overnight so we didn't have to worry about any of our
electronics or liquids freezing...and we decided to brave it with my camera and
newly beloved lenses.. I was determined to make it work and had decided they
would be housed in my sleeping bag with me overnight if necessary (which they
were...and the body of my rebel and its lenses were very grateful!).
So...we took a train from Lucerne to
Engelberg. Along the way it was more beautiful Swiss countryside - green fields
with sprinkled white hills and snowcapped mountains. And then...just before we
reached Engelberg there was a 15 minute long tunnel...and we emerged in a snowy
winter wonderland! Full of multi-foot high snow drifts and everything. It was
really exciting! We left the train and gave each other that "woah, it's
cold" look and found the nearest restrooms and geared up to our
snow-friendly attire.
The plan from here was pretty flex -
if it was really snowy we would just hang out in town - if it was crystal clear
we would pay for the extra tickets to go to the top of Mount Titlis - 10,000
feet up and amazing views. But...the views are only amazing if you can see
them. So we hung out in town. We went for a walk, found a nice, solid, warming
lunch, and then headed up the cable car to the Trubsee lodge. After enjoying
the views and hanging out for a bit, we finally were greeted by someone who
checked our name off, gave us a few directions, and told us we would be staying
in room 8 of the igloo. So exciting! Within 15 minutes we had used the last
warm restroom we would have available to us for quite a while and were all
bundled up ready for our trek to the the igloo dorf! It wasn't as long as we
thought and we were quickly reaching the entrance of our igloo village - so
exciting!
Once inside we got a welcome drink
of glugwein at the ice bar and then were ushered into the dining area for our
welcome snacks (there are a few options...standard, romantic, and romantic
family) we had a romantic igloo so we got a welcome drink and then a welcome
cheese and meat platter with prosecco - yummy! After that we were picked up for
the English tour (there really weren't many people who only spoke English) and
got to check out all of the rooms. Our guide was incredibly sweet and
enthusiastic young girl from Lithuania.
She explained that they usually build the igloos starting on December 1st
and that the first stay is always December 25th, but this year, they
had no snow to work with until December 14th! They have been working and working and
working to build the igloos super fast.
She also explained that to build the igloos they use really large
balloons and pack the snow over them and let them set 12-24 hours. Then they shave out the interiors more to
shape them more evenly and send their artists in to decorate each room. This year they have three artists from
different countries in Europe and the theme of the village is “comics”…but what
I think she meant is cartoons. The ice
bar and lounge had all “Ice Age” critters around it, the hallway had characters
from South Park and the rooms have various decorations including Lady and the
Tramp, Nala and Simba, Garfield, Homer, Fred Flinstone, the Little Mermaid,
etc. After our tour we were invited to
go ahead and move our things to our room and then return to the dining area for
dinner. More or less, once all the tours
have come through, the rooms become private.
Each room has a curvy tunnel to it to give it privacy – and some had
curtains, but no real doors. Even the
restroom didn’t have a door – the “igloo toilet” was a toilet that was down a
corridor – again relying on the curve of an igloo wall, and you would hook a
chain across the entrance to mark – don’t come any further, this toilet is
occupied. …It sounds odd and at first I
was skeptical, but it did work. It just
had a low ceiling and I bumped my head on a snow ceiling a few times.
There were also two Jacuzzis – one for
a couple, so you could only use that one if you had a “romantic igloo” package
and one for up to six people that was more fair game. You “signed up” for a twenty minute block of
time at the bar to insure some kind of que and that each person would get a
turn if they wanted it. In the Jacuzzi room
there was actually a whole in the ceiling of the igloo to let the steam out –
and they say the hole widens over the winter, so eventually it becomes quite
the starry skylight. Oh, and there was a
sauna too!
So we dropped our stuff off in our
rooms and enjoyed a really yummy cheese fondue dinner, which was quite
warming. It was even better cheese than
we had in Bern a few nights prior!
Yum! After that we were given a
meeting time for the evening snowshoe hike and we went back to our room to add
what layers we had left before heading out into the night. When we headed out it was snowing and we
trekked up and over to this very pretty clearing – where you could see
mountains and pretty lit towns below – I felt like Silent Night was supposed to start playing in the background :) We tried to take a few pictures, but many of
the people had flashlights and it made it really hard to get the camera to “see”
past the flashing lights around us to the background scenescape, not to mention
the lack of tripod and we ended up fairly frustrated.
After our walk we returned to the
igloos and they had dessert ready to go – there was another family who spoke
English whose son was celebrating his tenth birthday and they had pre-ordered a
birthday cake for him and they invited Daniel to share in the festivities! So we sang Sam and Daniel happy birthday and
split a cake with the family – it was fun.
The parents are both teachers at an international school in Zurich, so
we had lots to talk about too.
At that point, we realized we were
up for our Jacuzzi time! We almost
chickened out…but decided to go for it!
And it did feel really good. The
jets felt great and it was really nice to warm up. Getting out was really really hard…but we
decided to more or less go straight to bed from there. We grabbed another hot drink on the way back
and headed in to brave our night in a room of ice!
So…to clarify…we had a double
sleeping bag provided for us that was rated for -40*, they had a memory foam
mat between us and the ice, and they provided a sleeping bag liner. …It is said that the temp in the rooms
usually hovers between 0*C to -2*C and I
have to admit…the sleeping bags are really really warm! I slept in my silk liners (pants and turtle
neck), and a really thin turtle on top of it, hiking socks with lamb’s wool
over top…and I was quite comfy. I had my
alpaca sweater on from Peru…but actually woke up too hot. And Daniel actually slept in boxers and a
t-shirt! impressive! Oh…and I did wear a fuzzy headband to bed and
used it to keep my ears warm and my eye’s covered. But really…it was nice. We slept pretty well.
The morning was tough…we woke up and
felt cold pretty quick. I had tucked my
camera bag and lenses, shirt, and socks for the next morning in my sleeping bag
and I refused to get out of the bag until I was as dressed as possible and that
helped a lot. As soon as we layered up
there was the initial cold shock…but they layers started working right
away. Next though…was a rude
awakening. We were told we had to walk
to a different lodge for breakfast.
Okay. But…we were not told that
the winds had picked up, as had the snow…and that we should brace ourselves for
a 15-20 minute walk in almost blizzard like conditions. Bleh.
A buffet breakfast was included and
then we were allowed to go on our own – we bundled up more strategically this
time and went back to the igloo village for our bags and then had to hike to
the other lodge to head back down to Engelberg.
I should mention that it had snowed all night…so when I say “hike” I
mean trudge…up and down hills in several feet of fresh snow.
The craziest thing? When we headed out for breakfast into the
blistering cold and icy winds…we had just slept amongst those weather conditions
with no idea the weather was so harsh and crazy! The igloos really do insulate and protect and
do their job!
The rest of our journey was tricky…it
probably took us an hour and a half to hike from breakfast to the igloo to the
other lodge and then take the really long cable car down about 3,000 feet to
Engelberg. Then we had to wait on buses
to take us to the train station and then had to wait on our train. From there we had a train from Engelberg to
Lucerne. We picked up our luggage at our
hotel in Lucerne. We took a train from
Lucerne to Zurich. We changed trains
again and boarded the train from Zurich to Innsbruck. We got to Innsbruck and took a taxi to our
hotel. Are you tired? We were.
It was quite the travel day with lots of deadlines we really needed to
not miss.
Our night in an igloo really was
awesome – and we had a lot of FUN. It
was an incredible cool (literally too…haha) experience and once that we would
recommend to those are willing to rough it.
And… it made for one hell of a birthday for Daniel! Yay!
:)
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