This was our first time at this particular convention and it certainly lived up to expectations. For years friends have been telling us about how friendly and fun it was - and it's true!
As with all things though, hearing endless praise is never as much fun as enjoying a good moan or bit of gossip. So I shall swiftly move on from my unending praise for Redemption and everyone there to discuss the Britannia Hotel in Coventry.
What is interesting about this Hotel is that the staff were lovely without exception and the convention was hosted really well. Yet, beyond it's lovely marble foyer lies the grimmest room I've ever stayed in. That's right, worse than my student house as an undergrad.
Here's some of the things that were grim (with some links to a few photos):
The room door. Aside from the yellowing paintwork, the overwhelming smell of cigarettes and sweat and the peeling wallpaper, one of the 1st things you noticed as you opened the door was this:
There were lots of things to love about this room. It was so clear that it had had nothing done to it for many, many years. The bath had holes in the enamel while the sink had been cracked and sealed with what looked like a piece of chewing gum:
Moving into the room itself, it was hard to decide what to be alarmed by first. There was a double bed, as ordered, but with a 3/4 size mattress in it. I was alarmed by what may happen if I rolled over in the night:
The bedside cabinets and dressing table were covered in strange stains. There were many, but I think it's suffice to only show one - you get the idea:
There were matching ones on the other furniture.
The carpet was the pièce de résistance however; boasting not only a plethora of stains, but numerous aged blood stains all round the bed. I'm glad I took my slippers.
Coventry itself was a land of grey concrete, an as such it was more a blessing than a curse that the windows were so dirty it was difficult to see through them clearly. I first of all mistook the effect of the dirty window in this photo for low lying smog.
But no, a glance in the other direction reveals the layer of filth that's the culprit.
Moving downstairs in the hotel was a better experience. Although some debate exists about the dubiously named 'Bar Rogue'. Perhaps, when originally conceived it was supposed to be called 'Bar Rouge'? Who knows. Anyway, whilst in the said 'Bar Rogue' a group of us decided to order lunch. Pasta Provencale was on the menu. What could possibly go wrong? When it arrived; however, it was pasta (so they got that bit right) placed in a bowl of tomato juice. Imagine that you've bought yourself a lovely tin of plum tomatoes, removed the tomatoes and added enough salt to immediately induce heart disease. Warm up this juice and place it in a bowl. Dump some pasta in the middle of it. Do not stir. Serve to people who have paid a fiver for it. Yum - highly acidic and salty! My only regret is that I didn't manage to get a photo. Having talked the lovely Una into having a taste she immediately proclaimed "That's the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted!" (well... a version of that anyway) just as the waiter arrived at our table with another one for Peter. You couldn't have asked for better timing. Needless to say he took the meals away and we (ie everyone in our group who'd ordered the dreaded pasta provencale) ordered something else. But there was no opportunity for a pic, which is such a shame since the sauce matched the blood stains on the carpet so well.
What was so brilliant about that meal was that it was so obviously made up of the left over tomato juice from the cooked breakfast that morning. As if they were going to fool anyone (there was no fried tomato at the breakfasts, instead you moved along the buffet helping yourself to your eggs sausage and beans. Then at the end was a huge bowl of what looked like hot peeled testicles and a large spoon. Just what you need to see first thing in the morning. Our pasta was clearly served in this 'testicle juice').
So there we go.
But it's not all bad; the Britannia Hotel in Coventry has a nice foyer.
And Redemption was so good, we'll even go back!
You can see a selection of the 'Holiday Snaps' here. It's interesting to compare our room with the advertised rooms on the hotel's website.
