Photographs, Jewellery, Food and Life by Son Memelink

07 December 2010

Brussels, Part 1/Hotel

On the spur of the moment, Eric and I decided to spend a weekend in Brussels. Not realising that it was a special Sinterklaas+Santa Claus+Chrismas Fair+Lightparade-weekend, Eric miraculously, managed to book a hotel anyway.
We hopped into the car and drove into the sunset, oblivious to the Blizzard which struck Holland as we crossed the border, on our way to the hotel.
Our hotel was beautiful and yet....slightly odd.

It seemed that life and reality had outgrown the hotel, which made it quirky and those who know me, also know that I LIKE quirky. Just a few examples:
. Our roomnr. 403, regularly, got confused with 405, which meant that room service kept bringing us things we hadn't ordered and one night we were given the key to the other room.
. The emergency? exit next to our room (which I peeked into, because of strange, 'dripping-grotto'-like noises coming from behind the door) turned out to be a medieval, stone, spiral staircase, which led into the deeeeep, daaaaark, abdominal dungeons of Brussels.
. Our car was parked 5 floors down, underground, underneath the Hotel in one of those dungeons, which was kept dry by some screeching, gurgling and vibrating propellor which made my hair stand on end.
. I had placed my jewelry in the safe and it refused to give them back to me!!! Concierge came with codes, keys and cork screws, but nothing worked, until 1 hour before departure, 2 days later.
. The elevators were tiny. Eric and I would only just fit.
. The concierge told bad jokes.

None of this mattered and it only made our stay more interesting and colorful, because the staff were very friendly and trying sooooo hard to keep up with demands. The food was good, once it was there, There was a parking space, reserved for us...and it was warm and dry. Room service was efficient, even when we didn't want it. There were many other emergency exits. I got my jewelry back, unscathed. The concierge?.....well, at least he laughed. And so did we!
All of this in a beautiful setting (see picture above).

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