We stayed at the Norcliffe Hotel in Babbacombe. It is an old fashioned sort of hotel....and I mean that in the best sense of the word. I'll explain. It is a small family run hotel.....crisp damask linen table cloths.......real linen napkins(none of the paper things...even at breakfast). The food was all home cooked....OK, so sometimes you had to wait a little while for your breakfast, but you knew it had been cooked as you waited rather than done in a batch and shoved onto a hot plate.
The hotel was clean as a new pin....and this was also done by the family assisted in part by some of the waitresses...who all seemed to be polish and very young and pretty.
There wasn't a huge choice of menu....but it was more than made up for by the fact that the food was freshly cooked and tasted lovely.
The rooms were spacious and the towels were snow white and as fluffy as summer clouds......the bathroom was a bit antiquated in looks but there was always a plentiful supply of hot water....and the power shower was a life giver after our days out. The bath was deep, so much so that Ma couldn't get into it at all......believe me we tried to get her in and fell about the place laughing at our attempts.......if you have a vivid imagination I won't go further.......except to say i don't know what mum was wearing, all I know is it is a long time since it saw an iron!
That was the theme of this holiday.......we laughed......we laughed a lot, especially at night when we had turned out the lights and were supposed to be going to sleep........it was just like a school dorm and I'm sure our neighbours wondered what on earth was going on.
We even sat up late after the theatre, eating sticky iced Devon splits and drinking cups of tea....it all felt a bit naughty.....well, it was for Mutti as she is diabetic and such stuff is normally banned.
When the holiday was over I wanted to shout 'encore' and get a little bit extra.....I even offered to do a bit of waitressing or chambermaid stuff to stay on......but we had to come home.
When we were setting off for home, all the staff of the hotel came out to wave us off and Mutti got hugs from all the polish girls because she spoke to them in their own language....one girl wanted to adopt her...and said Mutti made her miss her granny. That's what I mean when I said it was old fashioned......where would that happen in a large hotel group?
The hotel was clean as a new pin....and this was also done by the family assisted in part by some of the waitresses...who all seemed to be polish and very young and pretty.
There wasn't a huge choice of menu....but it was more than made up for by the fact that the food was freshly cooked and tasted lovely.
The rooms were spacious and the towels were snow white and as fluffy as summer clouds......the bathroom was a bit antiquated in looks but there was always a plentiful supply of hot water....and the power shower was a life giver after our days out. The bath was deep, so much so that Ma couldn't get into it at all......believe me we tried to get her in and fell about the place laughing at our attempts.......if you have a vivid imagination I won't go further.......except to say i don't know what mum was wearing, all I know is it is a long time since it saw an iron!
That was the theme of this holiday.......we laughed......we laughed a lot, especially at night when we had turned out the lights and were supposed to be going to sleep........it was just like a school dorm and I'm sure our neighbours wondered what on earth was going on.
We even sat up late after the theatre, eating sticky iced Devon splits and drinking cups of tea....it all felt a bit naughty.....well, it was for Mutti as she is diabetic and such stuff is normally banned.
When the holiday was over I wanted to shout 'encore' and get a little bit extra.....I even offered to do a bit of waitressing or chambermaid stuff to stay on......but we had to come home.
When we were setting off for home, all the staff of the hotel came out to wave us off and Mutti got hugs from all the polish girls because she spoke to them in their own language....one girl wanted to adopt her...and said Mutti made her miss her granny. That's what I mean when I said it was old fashioned......where would that happen in a large hotel group?
