great family accommodations | The Traveling Overeducated Housewife

Back in Florence for one last night…

We arrived in Florence in the early evening. Tom pulled his van into the parking area where he had originally advised Bill to park. He wasn’t able to park there, though, because it was full when we arrived. Consequently, Bill had to go get the Volvo from the garage. While he was doing that, I said goodbye to the other group members, who all headed off in different directions. Tom, very kindly, stayed with me while I waited for Bill. He asked what I thought of the tour.

I’m afraid I might have been more blunt than necessary, but that was mainly because I really needed to pee, and we didn’t stop on the way back to Florence. I know I should have said something… I’m sure the others might have even been grateful. I know Bill would have. He always needs to go, because he takes blood pressure medicine that makes him have to urinate a lot. I told Tom that, if I was honest, I hadn’t really wanted to do a tour. That’s certainly not because of his services, though. It’s because, like I said, I’m just not very good at “the group thing”. I know some people find me annoying, and I don’t enjoy feeling like I’m annoying people, simply for being myself. I was also concerned about COVID-19 policies, but thankfully, that didn’t turn out to be a problem. My lifestyle probably makes me less appreciative of strict schedules, even though I know they’re necessary. But, that’s just me. Some people are great in a group situation. I fully own that I’m less so, especially since I’m out of practice since we’ve been dealing with COVID life since 2020. I don’t hang around people much, and it probably shows.

In spite of my comments in the previous paragraph, I genuinely enjoyed this wine tour. I’m really glad I did it. 😉 I would not hesitate to book another tour with Tom. I thought the price, especially for what we got, was very reasonable. It was 875 euros per person. We owed him more than the 1750 euros, since he booked two extra nights for us at the Hotel Firenze Capitale. But, for the base price, considering that it included two nights in hotels, four meals in restaurants, tours at four different wineries in several different towns, and Tom’s professional services, I think it was a pretty good deal. I really liked the places where he took us, and I was impressed by his language skills and business connections. He’s also very knowledgeable about the wines in Tuscany, and the region itself. The payment was easily handled by bank transfer after the tour.

Bill and I talked about it, and we were a little reminded of our very first cruise on a Royal Caribbean ship in 2009. It was a four night Baltics cruise that went from Oslo to Stockholm on a ship that carried 1500 passengers. We had a very good time, but by the end of the cruise, Bill said “I would happily take another cruise, but I think I’d rather do an all inclusive luxury cruise.” Those words were, of course, music to my ears. Since then, we’ve cruised three times on SeaDream I and five times on Hebridean Princess. Both ships are small, luxury vessels. I know… I know… high maintenance!

In spite of my years as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I am definitely not a “no frills” traveler. At least not anymore. Maybe roughing it for two years in a developing country does that to a person. 🙂 I’m also getting older, so I would probably prefer a tour that happens at a somewhat slower pace. Bill said he would really like to do a private tour with Tom, which I know can be arranged. We would consider doing another regular tour, too, although I think it might be better to do it with people we know. That way, people are forewarned about my unorthodox sense of humor and many personality quirks. Again, that’s easily arranged, since the tours are pretty small. I appreciated that Tom made the logistics relatively easy, which I know can be a real feat. He was very professional and, again, it was nice of him to wait with me. I didn’t expect him to do that.

It took Bill awhile to get back to the parking area, so we moved my bags to the other side of the road to make it easy to load the bags and get on our way. Bill picked me up, and we headed for Hotel David, which at this writing, is Florence’s #1 ranked hotel on Trip Advisor. After our one night there, I can see why it’s so popular. I booked Hotel David because I was looking for a hotel with parking. Hotel David’s rates include free parking. However, besides parking, the hotel offers a free social hour with wine, beer, and other beverages in the hotel’s yard. Breakfast is included in the rate, as is the minibar. And our room was beautiful and very comfortable, and beautifully appointed. I would say that now, after having stayed in four Florence hotels, Hotel David is easily my favorite, even though the somewhat stern message they sent ahead of our arrival put me off a little bit.

*I’m glad I didn’t cancel. This warning message turned out to be a non-issue.*

We arrived on May 1, though, and that was the happy day when the mask mandates in Italy were lessened somewhat. We only had to wear a mask when we were at the buffet at breakfast. I really enjoyed the aperitif hour in the garden. We met two other American couples who were very friendly and nice to talk to. It reminded me that people outside of the American military community can be very refreshing company. One lady we talked to was from Boston. I found her utterly charming. I could tell she was a good friend and loving family member. She was so excited to be in Italy, and it was really nice to talk to someone who was so happy to be in Europe and not jaded. Below are some photos from our stay at beautiful Hotel David. I would not hesitate to stay there again, although again, the elevator is TINY. I always cracked up when I saw signs advising only four people were allowed in the elevator at a time. I don’t know how four people could possibly fit!

Total cost for a night in the superior room we booked was about $270. Cheaper and different sized rooms are available, and if you book on their site, you get 15% off your rate. I booked on Expedia, so I didn’t get the discount. If we book there again, I’ll know better. They even have a quad room, and singles. We had a very restful night, and it was so easy to load up the next morning and get on our way to the next destination, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, where we would be relaxing and decompressing a bit before coming back to Germany. More on that in part fifteen.

On Friday, December 8, 2017, Bill, Parker, and I ventured to the Stuttgart airport. We lucked into a mid afternoon flight, which was a great thing. Sometimes, when you do a blind booking, you can end up with flights at inconvenient times. Not surprisingly, Berlin flights are a dime a dozen from Stuttgart. We were scheduled to leave at 1:45pm, so we arrived at the airport at lunchtime and enjoyed a relatively painless trip through security.

We sat at an airport bar and had some beer. Bill was talking about how he doesn’t like sitting in the middle seat, although he was willing to do it for our flights to and from Berlin. I helped by reminding him that he was sitting between his wife and his mother, adding “You once came out of her and now you come into me.” Yes, I know that’s a disgusting joke. It was still pretty funny, though. I was rewarded with the reaction pictured below.

My husband has an infinite amount of patience.

We really should have had a snack while we were waiting. Although Eurowings provides snacks if you reserve a seat (up to 19 euros per person each way), it’s a pretty paltry offering. You get half a sandwich, water, and a tiny packet of gummi bears. They also give you another small drink in a little plastic cup. By the time we arrived in Berlin at about 3:00pm, I was famished. I have a tendency to get “hangry” when I’m hungry. The bright side is the flight from Stuttgart to Berlin is only about an hour and it’s relatively painless.

I also paid to check our bags, so we stopped by the luggage carousel on the way into the city. Our bags were among the first to be offloaded, so it was quick and easy to get through Berlin’s “old style” airport. Before I knew it, we were in a taxi headed for Adina Apartment Hotel Berlin Mitte.

I had originally looked for a self catering apartment on Booking.com, but the ones I found didn’t suit our purposes as well as the Adina Apartment Hotel did. I had not heard of the Adina brand before our trip to Berlin, but I learned that it’s owned by TFE hotels in Australia. The Adina brand is all over Australia, New Zealand, and certain European countries. There are three Adina Apartment Hotels in Berlin; besides the Mitte location, there are also hotels at Checkpoint Charlie and the Hackescher Markt.

I did not have especially high hopes for the Adina Apartment Hotel Berlin Mitte, but I must admit I was very pleasantly surprised. When we entered the lobby and greeted the receptionist, he asked if my name was Angela. There was an Angela Crossan registered at the hotel. My name isn’t Angela, although that is my husband’s sister’s name. We spell our last name with an “e”, too. Once they found our reservation, we were assigned room 308, a two bedroom apartment. Below are some photos.

Bedroom #1. I think this was the spare bedroom, since it didn’t have its own bathroom. The bathroom was located across the hall. Both bedrooms had king sized beds and wall mounted flatscreen televisions.

Bathroom #1 had a tub/shower combo.

Sitting room. There was a TV in this room, as well as a small kitchenette that had a mini bar, a fridge, a small stove, and a microwave.

This was the master bedroom. Parker stayed in this room.

Her room had its own bathroom with a stand up shower.

There was a desk with free Internet, though you could pay extra for “premium”. I did pay extra for premium Internet and can say that it wasn’t worth the money. The free Internet worked as well as the pay version did… and that’s to say that both were pretty slow.

Little kitchenette.

I was very surprised to find a washer and dryer in Bathroom #1. They even provided detergent!

Had Bill and I been traveling alone (without the dogs, that is), we probably would have opted for a hotel room. However, this apartment hotel really suited our needs beautifully. It’s perfect if you’re bringing kids or in laws and want to stay together, yet have privacy and the ability to cook your own meals. Of course, if you’d rather not cook, you can also use the hotel’s restaurant, Alto. Breakfast costs 19 euros a person. They also have dinner at the restaurant and a full bar.

The weather on Friday night was pretty nasty, but we ventured out looking for food, anyway. We weren’t successful, mainly because the one place we stopped into was hosting a Christmas party. There are actually a number of restaurants close to the Adina Berlin Mitte, but it was cold and rainy and I was really hungry and cranky. It was also pretty dark outside, even though it was only about 4:30pm. It gets darker earlier up in Berlin than it does in Stuttgart at this time of year. There is an Italian restaurant right across the way from the hotel, but we didn’t go in there because it got really horrible reviews for bad service. There’s also a kebab shop and a bakery in the same building complex as the hotel.

After a short walk around the neighborhood, we headed back to the hotel, stopping at a Lidl on the way. We picked up snacks, bottled water, and wine. I got a slight kick out of the heavily tattooed and pierced clerk who rang us up. The person was very friendly and nice, although I couldn’t tell if s/he was male or female. I suppose it doesn’t really matter, but it did make me wonder a bit.

After we put away our snacks, we decided to try Alto. The bartender was a man named Awsam, which I thought was awesome. I wrote about Awsam on my main blog. We had a rather special interaction with him that I won’t go into on this blog. In this post, I will simply focus on the food.

We had a couple of cocktails, which did a lot of soothe my crankiness. Then we ordered dinner while we sat at the bar. I had duck, which came with red cabbage and what Bill knows as collard greens (although it said kale in the menu). He was happy to eat lots of kale, along with a steak sandwich. Parker stuck with pumpkin soup, which came with plenty of bread. I did get a picture of Parker’s soup, but it turned out blurry. Bill had it a couple of nights later.

Gin smash… we first learned of this drink when we visited Hamburg in 2015.

I had a Long Island Iced Tea, which Awsam the awesome bartender said was not a lady’s drink. Good thing I’m no lady.

Bill’s impressive steak sandwich.

Duck with collard greens/kale and dumplings.

Awsam, the bartender, took great care of us. Bill tipped him generously and he beamed. So we came back each night. More on that in the following posts.

The Traveling Overeducated Housewife

…the wanderings and ramblings of a boring housewife…

Tag Archives: great family accommodations

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