ベッドは氷、客室は氷点下　北極圏の「アイスホテル」

【ユッカスヤルビＡＦＰ＝時事】スウェーデンのユッカスヤルビの森の中にある、氷でできた「アイスホテル」。運営30年の節目を迎えた同ホテルには毎年、氷でつくられた廊下や寝室、チャペルを一目見ようと、多くの観光客が訪れる。（写真はスウェーデン・ユッカスヤルビにある「アイスホテル」のシャンデリア）
　北極線からさらに北へ約２００キロ進んだ地点にある同ホテルは１９８９年、観光客の誘致のために建設された。毎年１０月になると、近くのトルネ川から運ばれた氷で建設作業が行われる。来訪客は毎年約５万人で、氷でできたシャンデリアや飾られた寝室の写真を撮る人々の姿が見られる。
　客室は３５室で、室内は氷点下５度まで冷え込む。バーでは、氷のグラスで提供される飲み物を楽しむことができる。宿泊価格は、ストックホルムの三つ星ホテルの平均価格の約３倍以上で、毎年およそ２万人が宿泊する。彫刻や装飾を世界中のアーティストが手掛けているスイートルームの宿泊価格はさらに値が張る。
　しかし、ガイドのユリア・ハンサーズさん（２５）は、来訪客は寒さよりも静けさに驚くという。
　「来訪客の多くが都会に住んでいます。いつも周りでは何かしらの物音や雑音が聞こえますが、アイスホテルの中は物音一つ聞こえません」と、防寒用の帽子をかぶったハンサーズさんは言う。
　２０１６年から、アイスホテルはソーラーパネルを導入。太陽光による電力で、２０室の室温を一年中氷点下に維持し、運営している。その他の部分は春になると閉館し、解けて川に戻る。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/02/28-08:36）

High above the Arctic Circle and nestled in the snow-dusted forests of northern Sweden, gaggles of tourists gathered on a February morning for a glimpse of hallways, bedrooms and a wedding chapel sculpted from ice, part of the 30th incarnation of Sweden's ice hotel.
Stopping in blue-white hallways to take snaps of a chandelier and ornately decorated bedrooms entirely carved from ice, the tourists are among the 50,000 day visitors to the hotel every year, founded in 1989 by a hotelier looking to attract visitors to the remote town of Jukkasjarvi, 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of the Arctic Circle.
Built every October from the frozen waters of the nearby river Torne, the winter hotel has 35 bedrooms.
Temperatures reach -5 degrees Celsius (23 Fahrenheit) in the rooms, which start at around three times the average price of a night in a three-star establishment in Stockholm.
Individual suites cost more, and feature sculptures and designs by artists from around the world.
One room inspired by the aurora borealis -- the northern lights that can be seen in the skies nearby -- features lighting that changes colour, as well as a giant snow sculpture of a reindeer's head, all set to a soundtrack of ambient music and, occasionally, reindeer grunts.
Around 20,000 guests spend a night in the hotel every year.
But 25-year-old guide Julia Hansers said guests usually react less to the cold than to the tranquility.
A lot of people coming here live in the city, and there you always have some sort of sounds and noise around you, and inside the ice hotel it's completely quiet, said Hansers, peering out from under a thick woolly hat.
Bo Bjerggaard, a gallerist from Copenhagen, spent a night wrapped in a sleeping bag and a reindeer-skin throw.
During the night I had to get up and then it was of course cold, Bjerggaard said, standing outside in the hotel's dazzling white courtyard made from snow.
Then (it's) great again when you come back into the sleeping bag -- you sleep so well because of the temperature, he said with a smile.
Guests can also enjoy a drink in the ice bar, where all beverages are served in glasses made from ice.
Since 2016 the hotel has also used solar panels to generate electricity to cool a nearby building to below zero to allow them to keep 20 rooms frozen all year round.
When spring arrives, the winter hotel's rooms are closed and it melts back into the river until October, when construction begins again.