The citizen., 1910-04-01
GERMANYS HOTELS.
What One American Expert Has to Say
About Them.

The German hotels are the best in
the world-that is, the most to my
taste. The statement is subject to
some qualifications. l have not tried
the hotels in Asia, Africa, Australia
or South America. But l have tried
them in all European countries ex-
cept Spain and the Balkan States.
They (the German ones) are smaller
and quieter than the American hotels,
give greater variety of food than the
English hotels, more hygienic food
than the French hotels and are more
sanitary than the Italian hotels.
There are certain important re-
spects in which the German hotel diff
fers from the American hotel. No
where is there a price charged by the
day. The traveller pays fixed price
for his room, depending on its size
and location. Sometimes the break
fast is included. The price for a good
room in the smaller hotels ranges
from three to five marks-that is,
from seventy-five cents to SIPS. The
charge includes attendance and
lights. The traveller brings his own
soap with him. The price for break
fast ranges from a mark to a mark
and a half-that is. from twenty-five
to thirty-five cents. 1t consists of
rolls and coffee, and the coffee is uni
formly good. I do not recall poor
cup of coffee in all my German eX-
perience. 1t was either good, better
or best. In England it is almost uni
formly bad, worse or worst Person
ally | like the German coffee better
than the French. | suspect there is
some chicory in the French. One may
by special order add to his breakfast
of rolls and coffee eggs in almost any
form and, l suppose, also steak or
chops. Save possibly in the distinc
lively American hotels in the great
stiles, an order of breakfast food
or of bucllwheat cakes would not be
be comprehended by the waiter.
There is a table d'hote dinner usual
ly at l or half-past 1, which consists
of four or five courses and costs from
INO anu q udAl W hSC
two and half cents to $1.25. For
supper you order what you will
the usual order being cold meat or
eggs or both. You take your dinner
and supper where you like and do not
pay for it at the hotel unless you take
it there. The head waiter generally
asks you at breakfast if you expect
to be at dinner. This is partly to re-
serve seats for your party; partly,
suspect, that like prudent house
guests to provide for. Save in the
large hotels, the number of those
who sit down to the table d'hote din
ner rarely exceeds from thirty to
fifty. In the modern or modernized
hotels the long table has given way
to small tables. If you have party
of two or more, you are sure to have
a table to yourself if you desire it.
If there are any temperance hotels
in Germany, l neither saw nor heard
of them. In all the hotels wine and
beer are sold with the meals and are
freely used. In two of the hotels at
which we stopped the price of dinner
was half a mark more if no wine was
ordered There was thus a small
premium on ordering wine. On the
other hand, there are no bars in the
hotels in Germany, at least none in
evidence to one who is not in search
of a bar. We went into one hotel
restaurant one evening for an ice and
not only found a goodly number of
men and women sitting at the little
tables who preferred something to
drink rather than something to eat,
but in going to our table passed an
open door through which we saw
something that looked very like an
American bar. And in Berlin l
looked in through the open door of
one saloon on one of the principal
streets and saw men and women,
some at tables, some at bar, drink
ing with the same freedom with which
similar groups might be seen on a
warm day at soda water fountain in
an American city. But in the hotels
proper there were apparently no bars
DnrcOna1IV I thinlx n hOtpl in which