— Hi, Mike! I know you were in London in summer. Where did you stay there?

— Oh, that’s rather an interesting story. I stayed at one of those old hotels, just like those described in Agatha Christie’s stories.

— Aah, I do remember Bertram’s Hotel, the Savoy, you mean these ones?

— Well, you are quite right, but of course not so expensive. But all the same, they say everything looked there absolutely the same at the beginning of the 20^th century.

— It’s really just like stepping back a hundred years, or even more! But of course, the restoration of such a hotel is very expensive, to make the place look Edwardian, or even older.

— I noticed, that people, coming mostly from Europe, stay ay such old-fashioned hotels, and Americans prefer modern décor, and food and all the things that make them feel at home.

— Certainly, when you say old-fashioned, you mean the style, right?

— Naturally, of course, the visitors of the hotel have all modern conveniences at their disposal: central heating, electric razors showers and so on. Besides, they can choose between a modern and an old fashioned variant of breakfast, I mean the traditional English breakfast.

— Ok, it’s really wonderful, that one can still find such a quiet place nearby London, and enjoy “Merry Old England” to the full extent. I also stayed at such a hotel in France a couple of years ago. Just when you enter the lounge, I found myself in the days of Louis the 14^th or something like that.

— It must have been extremely expensive!

— Not at all, we preferred to stay at such a hotel, only because the prices were quite equal to those of a modern one.

— In England it was a little bit more expensive, but I thought I could afford it for a couple of days.

— But all the same, were there any Americans?

— Really, but not many. There are usually even to separate sets of bedrooms. They are more capricious, so they require higher temperature in the room and so on…

— All right. I think that was wonderful, and you are full of impressions.

 

— Naturally! It just was old England!