Monday 24 June 2019

A Doll's House

Well, actually, it was a hotel in Berlin, where I stopped for two nights at the beginning of this month. I went there for a three-day conference of the German Association of Data Protection Officers (my work), and since the conference location was fully booked, my colleague found a smaller place on the same road.

This was one of the most unusal places I have ever stayed at: The hotel consists of 8 rooms, some of them en-suite, two shared bathrooms, a breakfast room, kitchen and reception/office room. It comprises the entire first story (not ground floor) in a building that dates back a little more than 100 years. Originally, it was a flat for military officers and their servants. 

After WWII, a group of women who had lost their husbands took up residence with their children. In order that they could go to work, they took turns in minding each other's children. Later on, out of that group of women and their kids, a sort of Bohemian mini community formed. Various artists lived there permanently, some only when working in Berlin, such as actors when filming in Berlin-Babelsberg. 

Eventually, the hotel was sold to a couple of youngish men who run it today. They have renovated what was necessary (mainly the bathrooms, I imagine) but kept the original furniture where it was still useable. The hotel has a vintage look and feel - largely because everything in there IS vintage, no replicas!

I was at first put in the wrong room, and just as I was getting ready to unpack, one of the young men knocked at my door and told me about their mistake. He carried my little red suitcase to the best and largest room - also the farthest from the entrance door, along a long, winding corridor.



Here is what became my room:




The view from my window went towards this suprisingly quiet inner courtyard, right in the middle of the huge city:

It was proudly announced that the mattress on my bed was brand new, and the bed was indeed comfortalbe and the room clean. Breakfast was also fine, with fresh fruit and everything else you'd expect. But...
...during the day, temperatures rose above 30 Celsius (in the 90s F), and during the night it was no cooler than 27 or 28 (in the 80s F). What with the building being relatively old, no a/c and the windows badly insulated, it was nearly impossible to sleep. I kept the window open all night, but there was as good as no airflow from the enclosed courtyard.

Still, this was a very unusual hotel, definitely a different experience from your average business hotel!

One of the shared bathrooms was open on the morning we left, giving me the opportunity to take these pictures:

The windowless corridor, looking towards the entrance door (on the right) and reception (where the chairs are):


One corner of the breakfast room. (The sink is not in use anymore, just left there for decorative purposes.

Oh, and why the headline for this post? When I sent my sister pictures of my room, she commented that it looked like a doll's house. She is right - I have seen old-fashioned doll's houses just like that, with flower-printed wallpaper and painted wooden furniture a bit on the large side!

18 comments:

  1. It looks like a very interesting place to stay. Too bad it was so hot. Did you ask for a fan?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, I didn't - I could not have slept with the whirring sound near my bed, and the constant movement of air would probably not been good for me, either.

      Delete
  2. Very quirky. Shame about the heat though. I get very cranky if I can't sleep!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I get cranky and walk around like a zombie the next day! This time, I really pulled myself together, as the conference was very interesting and important, not only for myself but also for my clients.

      Delete
  3. It does look like a dollhouse! Very sweet room, and quirky as Jaycee says. Is the heat unusual there in the summer? It's hard to believe the hotel won't do something about that unless it's rare enough to garner few complaints. I can't stand trying to sleep in a hot room and I'd be mad about paying for room where I was that uncomfortable. Here it's always in the 90s during the summer and no hotel would last long without a/c!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Last year has been a very long, very hot and dry summer for all of Germany, and we've been told to expect more of the same in the future; climate change (global warming) is real.
      It used to be only a few days or weeks at most that we got such intense heat in the summer, but last year taught us all a lesson.

      Delete
  4. Such a quirky place - almost like a time warp. That furniture and the rosy wallpapers, wow!!!! Shame the owners haven't installed central a/c - perhaps the age of the building makes this financially impossible, but they should be able to install at least a window unit or provide a good fan - sleeping in that heat must have been impossible!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It felt a bit like staying on a film set or theatre stage!
      The building is divided between different owners and tenants; I guess none of them has enough money to undertake such a big job.
      Sleeping was indeed impossible. If I slept 3 hours, it was a lot!

      Delete
  5. It all looks quite quaint and certainly a lot more personal than today's hotels.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It does indeed. Most business hotels are not much different from each other, no matter whether you wake up in Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt or elsewhere, but this one is unique.

      Delete
  6. Yes, this does look like a doll house! Fun. But I suggest you don't stay there again, at least not in the heat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It will be a while before I'll have to return to Berlin, and then I hope to be at the same hotel where the conference is.

      Delete
  7. How I wish I could call my Dad and tell him this story of the hotel in Berlin! As you know, he was in Berlin just after World War II ended and he had such stories to tell of all that he saw in Berlin! He was most taken with how little everyone had and also, how very nice the German people were to the American soldiers.
    And your sister is right, like a doll house! But no A/C...that is tough.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your Dad would have loved it, I am sure!
      As for the A/C, I am actually not a big fan of it, as I find it often makes the air feel "unnatural", my nose clog up and my eyes water. But just to have the possibility of cooling the room down a little, maybe two hours before going to bed, would have been helpful.

      Delete
  8. Berlin is always so interesting and unusual. I have heard of some wacky hotels there but nothing like this. It is straight out of the COld War! Given the extreme hot or cold temperatures I have found in Berlin, I might give it a miss because of the lack of A/C. We were there last year in temps of 33 and 34, and I was absolutely thrilled with our boring, inexpensive, utterly predictable but modern and WONDERFULLY AIR CONDITIONED hotel!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wasn't in Berlin last year, but the year before, and was also in a modern hotel - the same one where the conference was again this year. So this year, at least during the day we had A/C there for the conference. Some of the smaller rooms were not so well ventilated, and during one talk in the afternoon, some of the participants left because they felt too hot. I was on the brink of leaving, too, but sat it out until the end.

      Delete
  9. Very fascinating rooms! PS Have you read The Library Book?? I love it so much!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A book called The Library Book? I don't think I have ever heard of it, but the title alone makes it interesting!

      Delete