the first hotel
We've spent months walking the halls. One day, we began to conquer the streets and parks. Another, we got in a car and went to a town. oh a road . Another, we step the sand of a beach . And one day, finally, the hotel arrived . Oh the hotel the first hotel of these times.
He returns to the hotel with his back straight, his eyes open and his hands clean. And the mouth covered, not closed . This is the Chronicle of the return to a hotel , which is much more than a place to sleep, it is a world within a world within a world, it is a matriohska place… But let's not get lost. In August 2014, when he opened the hotel Urso , we decided to count what happened in a hotel the first day it opens . Now, in this other first time, we wanted to return to the same place. It has become a hotel of first times.
We arrived at the URSO Hotel
We are already in front of the door and in the center of Madrid it is 40 degrees. Let's not waste time complaining about the inevitable: here goes a drop of stoic philosophy , that we are cultivating it well. Let's go in. oops. the door has opened by itself you don't have to touch it. The stairs, so graceful, remain the same; not everything has changed . Also they flower centers they receive, although there is something on the table that was not there before March. It is a dark bottle that contains that magical elixir that saves lives: hydrogel. The gel is something that, like a fresh water source in Triana or a toilet in Rajasthan, always take advantage.
URSO Hotel Lobby
Wait a minute, there's something strange in the lobby. The strange thing is... that there is nothing strange . The walls painted with flowers and birds are the same, there are two people having a late (or early) wine at the Chesters, there is no tension in the atmosphere. "Welcome. It's hot outside, right?" This says it Juan . We know the name because the receptionist has it printed on his face mask beige, matching the hotel's palette. The most obvious of the new times is this mask. Will they sell them? Sign with a sanitized pen, sanitized room key (does this word exist?), wifi code Y more gel on the counter ; we use it again. Another guest arrives at reception and you don't need yellow lines to keep your distance. No to underlines, in hotels and in life.
The Urso elevator has just turned 106 years old
The Urso elevator has just turned 106 years old and it may be one of the most beautiful in Madrid; There is no proof, but there is no doubt about it either. They warn that it goes up one by one . Using the stairs is healthier, but doing it on it, with his padded chair , is more romantic and here we have come to play. You come to a hotel to do everything.
In the room everything is normal what was expected? A robot opening the door? An astronaut suit? There are people with masks and care ; no more no less. It is intuited (and later it will be verified) that for everything to seem easy a lot of work had to be done . We enter. The best hotelophiles maybe, at this moment, they are excited. Let's give the creatures a few seconds in touch with that feeling back . We will hang the mask behind the door, like at home, and it is curious to see it next to the light key ; We didn't have that image in February either.
We grab the spa menu to browse it. That same object will go into quarantine once the room is left . on the table in the room there is more gel and a card that says, in other words, “ you don't need to take the gel, there is everywhere”. There are more than 100 points in a hotel with 78 rooms . And a discreet reminder: if you want masks, ask for them at reception . They want to call and ask for one with our name.
There are fresh flowers . It was said that there would not be; flowers don't hurt. no magazines , which confirms that you always have to travel with reading . When this room becomes free it will begin a cleaning protocol of hours in which ozone will be used, stationery will be quarantined Y The entire space and its surfaces will be disinfected . Whoever sleeps here won't know anything about this, there is nothing to alarm and there is the luxury today : in what security is transparent.
Detail of the stairs of the Hotel URSO
As in a hotel you have to do everything, we are going to do everything. If there is a pool you have to go to pay your respects . Always. It is written in the " Book of Traveler's Unwritten Rules ”. The difference is that now you have to make an appointment . It is not that complicated and the advantage is that we will come across fewer people : with five more, to be exact. We take the opportunity to put our heads under water, that place where nothing has changed. Actually, it has changed: the pool is disinfected with bromine although floating everything is the same water.
Continue the trip, because being in a hotel always is . Now we'll lie down in one spa stretcher , between raffia walls, waiting to be pampered with a facial. Poor skin, how musty this first half of 2020. Every spa or beauty center is a sensitive point because of what contact and closeness implies. Again, conveying calm and control of the situation is key. The therapist wears a mask and screen , but the feeling is serene and enveloping. They say that Natura Bisse is preparing protocols for the eye area , so exposed now and the one that covers the mask, so little exposed now. In hotels, as in life, you have to know how to observe the environment and act accordingly. Sorry, these days we philosophize nonstop.
We must go to the pool to pay him all our respects
It's time to socialize. It is the lobby where the hotel staging takes place , where the choreography of the people shines more. In this hall, if we sneeze we will not harm anyone; now an air extraction and impulsion system has been installed that allows it . Holy science. A woman dressed in black (pretty, dressed, by the way) asks for a wine and a couple arrives – who-knows-from-where – with some suitcases. Hotels manage to make us always seem more attractive than we are.
In Half rations , the restaurant, continues the sense of normalcy . The verdinas with lobster and monkfish and the Russian salad are just as good as always, the wines (how are they), too. There is space, there are people, there are conversations . The day begins to end.
Hello. We open the curtains and stop, still bleary-eyed, at the sight. We are in a building from 1913 and we remember that dialogue of Girls in which the dilemma is posed: "Would you rather live in an ugly building with a nice view or in a nice building with an ugly view?" Here there is no dilemma, there is no choice . From the window we see the Palace of Villagonzalo ; It has been restoring for years and is almost ready. Your garden promises and it allows us to look at something green, which is always beneficial.
Any exercise? The gym is open 24 hours Y you have to make an appointment to use their machines . Oops, wow, we forgot. We can linger something else in the room. No apparent changes in the shower , thank goodness, and the amenities are their own, of a large size. reassuring to see that the new measures do not imply an overdose of plastic.
It's time for breakfast , a moment that intrigues us. One time discarded the buffet , how will it be done? It's easy: once the coffee and juice are served on the table a paper is delivered specifying everything that can be served : types of cut fruit, eggs, pastries, cheese, gluten-free, etc. You put a cross on it, they prepare it for us and voilà, we are already having salmon, eggs and delicious bread for breakfast. it wasn't that complicated or rather, It must have been complicated that it seems easy . All around there is life, people in front of a computer and a plate of fruit, a family with a baby, lonely travelers and somewhat self-absorbed; what would a hotel be without one of them. We were worried that hotel breakfast, one of those moments that have their own energy within a trip, had changed. It's still a hotel breakfast; and we keep ordering eggs benedictine.
The day continues: the work in the room, the book on the sofa and the life of the city, of which the hotel is a door. There is a sense of opening and discovery . Here everything is the same and everything is different, everything is different and everything is the same. First hotel, we will always remember you.
Ruled out the buffet, yes. But hotel breakfast is sacred.