At Stockholm’s Arlanda International Airport you’ll soon be able to spend the night on an airplane before boarding your airplane. The Jumbo Hostel, a Boeing 747 on the airport’s premises that’s been converted into a hotel, will open on January 15th, 2009.
From the shores of Lake Malaren in Sweden, the Utter Inn looks like a bright red gardening shack stuck improbably in the middle of the lake. That visible section of the Inn includes a kitchenette and little dining area surrounded by an outdoor terrace. But what makes the Utter Inn really cool is part you can’t see from shore: the bedroom is down a ladder below the water! The sleeping quarters, submerged 3 meters (10 feet) underwater has windows with fish views on all sides.
The Utter staff brings guests to the Inn by boat from the port of Vasteras (about a 90 minute drive west of Stockholm) and then leaves you to enjoy it privately. Not that you’d be totally stranded: There’s a small row boat you could use to explore the lake and the Utter staff is always a phone call away. As for food, you can prepare your own (there’s a little fridge and stove top) or have meals boated out to you. Either way, a stay at the Utter comes with blissful, and romantic, solitude. Rates vary but average around Kr. 1200 (US$160, €120).
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It is amazing what a little personal attention can do. The folks at the Fox Hotel took an ordinary property, albeit an ordinary property well located in central Copenhagen, and set about making each of their 61 rooms artistic and individual. The result is a hotel with a collection of rooms that look like they could form an exhibit at the MoMA. We are fans of the Fox Hotel though wouldn’t necessarily choose to stay here for more than a night or two — the decor often tends to favor looking cool over being functional and many of the rooms are cramped. The hotel itself rates room from “extra large” to “small” but in making your selection you’d be wise to think of them as “medium” to “really tiny.” Our favorite rooms are #306, large, almost all-white and like sleeping in a cloud, and room #121, which is rather small but has a woodsy theme and a tent over the bed.
This is where Freud would go were he to tour northern Iceland. The Icelandic Phallological Museum contains a collection of preserved phallic specimens of every mammal species found in and around this Scandinavian island country including a bear, reindeer and whale as well as a Changeling, Merman and Elf. The variety of shapes and textures of the male members on display is disturbingly mesmerizing. The museum’s curator often personally gives a tour to guests and is rather passionate — maybe a little too passionate — about his exhibits. The museum is located in the town of Húsavíkurbær in a small roadside building (not that size matters). Open from noon to 6pm, mid-May through mid-September.
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