I’ve stayed at the European hotel chain Ibis many times; they are always clean and inexpensive and, for all that they’re not exactly luxurious, I like the decor. It’s very northern European: clean lines, light colours, functional while still being attractive and welcoming. So for LL’s last two nights in Scotland, I booked us in at the Ibis on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
I chose it for several reasons: it allowed dogs, it was cheap, and it was: near the motorway; near the airport; near shopping; near a train station that would take us into downtown Glasgow; and near The Lang Whang, a road that would take me to my uncle’s after LL left. (the ‘Lang Whang’ is a lovely drive over moorland across Scotland, aka the A70)
Well. When we walked into our room, we were a tad surprised. It was all Ibis: light colours, streamlined, inexpensive. It was also quite barren. And small. Apart from our cabin on our first river cruise, LL & I have never stayed in a room this small. (Even the Class C RV we rented years ago was roomier that this).
And it was also very, um, hospital-like. Pale green walls, a waist-high railing around the room (never did figure that one out – it can’t just have been aesthetics – there was not one single item in that room that wasn’t fully functional and utilitarian), skinny, high beds remarkably like gurneys. There was even a little panel between the two beds at ‘face-level’ – their idea of giving us each some privacy, I guess. The sink was in the room, the toilet had its own teeny, plain, closet-like cabinet, and the shower assumed an intimacy between the guests that was beyond what LL & I are used to (frosted glass door with gaps all around it, opening directly into the bedroom). No tea-maker (tea in the lobby was free), exactly two Dixie-sized plastic cups, no hand-towels, just a bath mat the size of a placemat and two medium-sized towels. This room was smaller and more basic than the room I had in Credit Valley Hospital all those years ago.
The hotel lobby was very busy, very popular, very multi-cultural, and very nice. So in the end, no complaints. Just very surprised to end LL’s visit in the Edinburgh Ibis Hospital.