Some of Doris’s observations which don’t neatly fit into the daily blog. In this post: the art deco delights of the Monumental Palace Hotel; more things made of tyres; something that you really didn’t know about Nottingham; and something you really didn’t want to know about St Bernard.
The Monumental Palace Hotel in Porto
It was such a delight to stay here that I took some more pictures to remind me of it. All the furnishings and fittings are consistently weighty and just a delight to look at and touch.
I’ll start off by repeating the photo from the breakfast room, then the library and the stairs down to the bar.
Signage in the lift:
The spa/gym/pool area on the lower ground floor:
And finally, because I know that you my cherished and valuable reader, can sometimes be nearly as nerdy as I am, here is the floor plan for the lower ground floor. What is so interesting about this (to me, at any rate), is the way that the pool/spa/gym area at the bottom of the diagram is neatly fitted inside but completely insulated from the underground garage.
Things made of tyres
Yes! After only two years, the things-made-from-tyres subject is back with a vengeance. A nativity!!
Nottingham, the World Centre of Alabaster in the 14th Century
This falls into the category of “things you really didn’t know and still find hard to believe”. And the little figures look very modern too.
The Legend of St Bernard
Really??? I mean, really?????? Google for this one at your peril.
1) Nerdy question on the floor plan: What’s with the strange half-door on the right side?!?!
2) The nativity of tires is brilliant and awful.
3) I don’t want to think about St. Bernard. Ever.
I think you might mean the car ramp up to the street, which is shown with a car already on it? As I may have mentioned elsewhere, Portugal and especially Porto is a hilly place, and the ramp was about 1:4 or possibly steeper. Not Hermann’s slope of choice from a cold start, however he endowed them with a delightful present of a large cloud half-burned hydrocarbons which amazingly did not set off the smoke alarms.
In fact that reminds me that Hermann is SO delightfully aromatic that when we were waiting at passport control for the new GB-UK computer passport check to happen (takes about 30s per passport), the passport dude very apologetically closed his window while he waited “I eem sorry but zees old car ees quite smelly”. Really, young people have no stamina.