Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Mo-hell
We drove into Hamilton on Sunday night, being welcomed by freezing cold weather and an industrial gloom I'd only seen in sci-fi movies. Lights from ugly strip malls punctuated the darkness and took my attention away from the down at heel flavour of the town.
Sorry, bit of descriptive prose there! Now that's out of my system...
We pulled up to our motel which looked like the set of a horror movie where a practical joke gone wrong means someone's jaw gets ripped off... or where a young couple decide to 'do the deed' and in the middle of doing it Freddie rips through their motel door... or where a schizophrenic decides to stay the night and work his bloody way through each room number by number...
You'll have guessed by now it's not the most salubrious of places. It didn't help that we couldn't get into our parking space because a police car was blocking the way, and when we did eventually park it was next to a car that looked like it had been in 'Pulp Fiction' or something.
The motel is, apparently, going to be turned into a Howard Johnson's (quite nice American hotel chain), but by the looks of things that's a long long way into the future.
Anyway, apart from smelling of smoke the room wasn't too bad. For $34 (Canadian - about 15 quid) a night for the two of us, we got constant hot water, a powerful shower, good heating (always useful in subzero temperatures) and satellite TV. And the sheets were clean.
The next day, the cleaner came round and did our room, and apologised profusely for all the bits that should have been done before we got there and weren't (like hoovering). So despite the hellish exterior, the motel is actually not bad value for money. I dread to think what a 15 quid a night room in England (for two people) would be like - probably a shoebox in the middle of the road with everything else charged as extra (what - you want customer service as well?)
Sorry, bit of descriptive prose there! Now that's out of my system...
We pulled up to our motel which looked like the set of a horror movie where a practical joke gone wrong means someone's jaw gets ripped off... or where a young couple decide to 'do the deed' and in the middle of doing it Freddie rips through their motel door... or where a schizophrenic decides to stay the night and work his bloody way through each room number by number...
You'll have guessed by now it's not the most salubrious of places. It didn't help that we couldn't get into our parking space because a police car was blocking the way, and when we did eventually park it was next to a car that looked like it had been in 'Pulp Fiction' or something.
The motel is, apparently, going to be turned into a Howard Johnson's (quite nice American hotel chain), but by the looks of things that's a long long way into the future.
Anyway, apart from smelling of smoke the room wasn't too bad. For $34 (Canadian - about 15 quid) a night for the two of us, we got constant hot water, a powerful shower, good heating (always useful in subzero temperatures) and satellite TV. And the sheets were clean.
The next day, the cleaner came round and did our room, and apologised profusely for all the bits that should have been done before we got there and weren't (like hoovering). So despite the hellish exterior, the motel is actually not bad value for money. I dread to think what a 15 quid a night room in England (for two people) would be like - probably a shoebox in the middle of the road with everything else charged as extra (what - you want customer service as well?)
