is Seoul on the list? I’ve always wanted to go there, I hear it ROKs...
I’ve never had any trouble with hotels in London. They’ve all been great. Well, maybe not the one I stayed in as a student in the late 70s. A cheap dump in Earl’s Court. But if you stay in a cheap dump in Earl’s Court, you get what you deserve.
I’ve never had any trouble with hotels in London. They’ve all been great. Well, maybe not the one I stayed in as a student in the late 70s. A cheap dump in Earl’s Court. But if you stay in a cheap dump in Earl’s Court, you get what you deserve.
Hanoi is listed as having the second-best hotels of any city in the world. Really?
It was everything I'd hoped we'd find in a hotel in London: The building dated back to 1710, I recall, and the floors in the room sloped inwards toward the hallway and creaked when you walked on them. The walls were held together by retrofitted high-tension cables, the hallways were narrow and like a maze, the wood furnishings inside the hotel were older than most American states, and the whole place smelled like a wonderful old library. It felt more like the cabin of a sailing ship than a hotel room. Looking out into the street below from the tiny windows, the gates down below were wrought black iron with gilded tops (very English) and on top of the hotel roof I could see vents and piping sticking up that were cast iron and probably coated in 150 years worth of tar layers. There was street noise below during the day, but it was English city noise which was charming. The hotel sounds like a disaster, but it was entirely comfortable and very inviting. The fog rolled in and the whole street below looked like a scene out of a Dickens novel. I opened the window and outdoors smelled like fresh rain. If they'd have played an endless loop soundtrack of clip-clopping horses outside, it would have been the perfect experience.
I thought it was just outstanding and wanted to stay another week. The complimentary breakfast downstairs was utterly superb and totally English -- baked beans, roast tomato slice, bangers, fried eggs, toast, amazing butter and jam, excellent tea and a lousy excuse for coffee which was so bad that it was actually good. The hotel staff were like the servants from 'Downton Abbey', only some of them being Polish and Punjabi, of course.
If you go to London, stay in a place like this one. You can go spend the week in any modern glass and stainless steel hotel with granite countertops in the bathroom if you want, but only history can provide a hotel room like the one I stayed in London. When we go back to London, I'd bet we'll end up staying there again.