The Wrap Up - Part Four

Things that I found odd about hotels in Sweden / Scandanavia / Europe

- The beds! All of them were separate single beds pushed together, with 2 single doonas! It is not unheard of that in an Australian hotel you would have a queen bed made up of two singles pushed together - but they'd disguise it pretty thoroughly. Only a couple of the six places I stayed in even looked like a combined bed (on one frame with a mattress protector) and every single one of them had the two doonas. Some of them looked nothing like a double bed as there was a significant gap between the two mattresses. I could see the benefits - having a husband who twitches in his sleep can be very disturbing - and not once in the 4 weeks on this trip was I bothered by the twitch! I guess with the two doonas you remove the fight over them? But then why bother sleeping in the same bed?

- The alarm clocks - or rather, lack thereof! Nowhere we stayed had an alarm clock. I am not used to this - I see it as a standard issue thing in a hotel that I expect to see there. I really struggled without an alarm clock, as you couldn't use the light quality to determine the time of day. This meant that I wasted a bit of time lying in bed as I didn't realise what time it was. If I'd have known, I would have taken one with me - if I go back I will be packing one in the suitcase before anything else.

- No face washers! Anywhere! I was really surprised by this. I though face washers were European type things. I coped though - I had packed one for when I was traveling around and on the trains - but I ended up using it in Stockholm everyday. This is something you can manage without, but I wonder if the people in the hotels wondered how I got all the hand towels so wet....