We made it!

I usually say how very much I’d appreciate a teleport facility when the time comes to go home from wherever we have been. Today, however, there have been times when I really wanted that teleport to kick in and get me here right away. It’s not that it’s been difficult, or painful. It’s just that it’s been a bit trying at times. Yes, I know. Very much a First World Problem - if indeed, it was a problem at all.

We stayed overnight at the W Hotel in Rome. The location was so-so - near the Borghese Gardens and in an area with several other hotels. For an overnight stay, the location wasn’t that important and we managed to get out and about yesterday without trouble. However, this is an hotel that has been “styled”.

So, at the foot of the bed was a partition with an enormous TV and behind which was “the bathroom”. To one side was the wardrobe - the brightly coloured doors in the picture above

and to the other side was a small table, two “chairs” and a little alcove with a coffee machine. That arrangement left about 40cm through which to squeeze in order to reach those glass doors, behind which was the loo.

Now, that was an interesting arrangement! Not only were they (frosted) glass doors, there was no handle and the door didn’t actually fit in the frame properly. So, there was no way of closing it beyond how it’s shown above.

And though I wouldn’t normally go into details of lavatory facilities here, once inside the loo, you might notice how incredibly close to the wall this particular one is hung. I mean, it’s not as if they were short of space, is it?

As for the “bathroom” behind that partition with the TV on it; well, it wasn’t really a bathroom at all but a wash handbasin on one side and a shower inside the glass fronted “cupboard” alongside the wardrobe on the other.

Very strange.

A few quirky features then, but one last detail to amuse = a woven leather cushion with fringing at each end that looked for all the world like Dougal from the Magic Roundabout.

But hey, it was only for one night and we were perfectly ok. Nevertheless, some things were quite surprising. Like, they appeared to run out of coffee cups at breakfast time and brought my second cup of coffee in a water glass!

Or was that a design choice, do you think?

Life is good though, now we are here, on board our favourite ship! There were times when it seemed to be taking forever to get here. The traffic, the queues and some weird check in procedures: ask me a whole lot of health - related questions and hand the form to my Hero to sign?! What was that all about? As we waited for the next - hopefully, final - check in procedure with passports etc, we had chatted about how very much we looked forward to just getting there - we knew all the parlarver would be worth it!!

Finally, we had a key card in our hot little hands and we went up that familiar gangplank. No sooner had a glass of champagne been handed to me than I heard a familiar voice - a ship’s officer we’ve not seen since before Covid struck and whose presence quite made our day. In the next hour or so, we did not stop smiling as one after another, the whole “A Team” appeared and all thoughts of weird hotel bathrooms and tiresome traffic jams were gone.

We made it!