I know, I'm sneaky.
But it really is an appropriate title for this post. This evening I've been looking for hotels in Northern Italy for our trip there in a few weeks time and my mind drifted back to the cheapest 'hotel' I've ever stayed in and it was back to when I was a young teenager in the mid 60's.
We didn't have much money for holidays when I was growing up (cue violins) and usually my brother and I would be given a magazine photo of some exotic location and told to go away for 2 weeks and fantasize about being there. No seriously, we usually made do with visits to relatives farms or go on day trips to the seaside, which in Northern Ireland, is never far away.
One year we took the money earned from selling my sister to a lovely dark skinned man with a white towel on his head (Dad didn't need the camel he offered and held out for the cash) and we all drove down to Southern Ireland for a proper holiday. I think we went for 3 days and in Dublin we didn't really have the money to spend on a big city hotel.
I've been trying to remember the year and thought it would be easy to find out because we went to see a Morcambe & Wise movie. Sadly I can't remember if it was "The Intelligence Men", "That Riviera Touch" or "The Magnificent Two" so I can't be sure if it was 1965, 1966 or 1967. In any case, after the movie we came back to the car to think about a hotel and just ended up sleeping in the car all night.
Ever since then we joked about staying at The Anglia Hotel in Dublin and before anyone goes off to Google it, that was our car, a Ford Anglia. If we opened the windows a bit we had air conditioning but the 'beds' wouldn't even have been acceptable in a Motel 6. But it was fun in those simple days and a nice memory of that family trip.
Right, time to get back to the Italy trip.
I'm glad we're booked into The Sheraton in Rome for 3 nights as I can't imagine sleeping in The Opel Astra Wagon Hotel.
Not at my age !
Oh well,if all the proper hotels are full it will be the Opel Astra Wagon Hotel and not the tiny Fiat Cinquecento Bed and Breakfast. It'll be fine. Honest.
ReplyDeleteOMG now I know where you got it from!!!!!!
ReplyDelete"my brother and I would be given a magazine photo of some exotic location and told to go away for 2 weeks and fantasize about being there"
ReplyDeletePriceless! ROFL!
We once owned a Shogun which boasted an area in the back the size of a double bed (if you put the seats down). We never did try it out though. Couldn't work out where to put the kids and the luggage.