The Things You Find

I hadn’t been down to the hotel cellar until about a month ago. I really had no need to traverse into the depths, but a few weeks ago I thought I’d go to find out how to change over the oil in case I ever need to spell off Markus for this bi-weekly task.

The basement hinted at interesting stories of the past, so thought I’d share some images this morning.

To start with, you have to make your way down these scary-ass stairs. Don’t you just love it when staircases curve so you can’t see the bottom? I can just hear the voices, like the audience watching a horror film yelling at the screen, “Don’t go down there! Don’t do it!”

The basement is huge and mostly unused. If we do decide to ship furniture from Canada we certainly won’t have trouble with storage until we move into our own apartment.

Here is really the only room used for hotel needs besides the oil/hot water area:

Even after 6 months and what is becoming countless castles and historic places, I’m still in awe of the thick walls and brick arches so common in these old buildings. I wonder when that will start seeming normal.

Towards the back of the cellar is a room that was used as the bomb shelter during the war years. It has been mostly cleared out of the food, water, clothes and supplies that must have lines the walls 70 years ago, but the skeleton of the bunk beds remain as a reminder of this time.

Markus knows the value of rooms such as this one. His grandmother who raised him was working as a waitress during the war somewhere in Austria. Often the raid sirens were ignored, as they so frequently were sounded, but this one particular morning the owner of the restaurant suggested the staff take cover in the bomb shelter. An explosive ended up destroying the restaurant, and killing some patrons, but those in the shelter were unharmed. There would be no Markus if the owner hadn’t followed his intuition that day. A bizarre thought.

But hands-down the most interesting area is the room that is used for some of the family junk. Mostly Lili’s old toys, some unused cabinets and an inexplicable male mannequin. However, check out the wall! Markus tells me that decades long past a student group used the space for their weekly meetings. What could they have discussed? Just thinking about it is so fascinating for me. They were obviously very into the gatherings if they bothered to create this painting on the wall. Maybe someday I’ll track down what this image was a representation of. Too interesting.

I’ve started a new category for this…Things I’d Never See In Canada. Fits, I think.