Hotel Stories

It was the summer of 1980 and my parents had booked a holiday of a life time for the whole family - both of them, my two older sisters and I. We were all so excited. We were going to Amsterdam, Nice and Monte Carlo (all firsts for me) and then to Germany, our final destination and usual holiday stop to visit Omi and Opi.

I vaguely remember Nice and Monte Carlo. Nice for a visit to a perfume factory to see how all the lovely scents that we spray on ourselves are made (my mum got loads of sample bottles to take home with her!) and Monte Carlo for all its Casinos which I wasn't allowed into anyway because I was ions away from being the appropriate age to be allowed in.

However, the one place I remember is Amsterdam. Not for its canals, wooden clogs or Anne Franks house - which we visited - but for the hotel in which we stayed.

It was the hotel Krasnapolsky. The memory of it has remained crystal clear in my mind because it was just so GRAND!. All chandeliers, mirrors and glitzt -EVERYWHERE. To my 10-year old mind it was like being transported into a fairy tale palace and I felt like the princess. It was just so beautiful, quite unlike any other place I had ever seen, let alone been to, let alone actually stayed in. And the food was just devine.

Up until when I saw the prompt for this weeks Sunday Scribblings, I had never looked up this hotel on the internet and I did so for the first time this morning - 26 years after our stay there.

I haven't been back to Amsterdam since that summer of 1980 but when I decide to do so again, I will certainly be passing a few nights at the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky where I can pretend to be a fairy tale princess for a short while!