July 2005 • Page 4 of 4 • Deep Fried Kudzu

July 3, 2005January 6, 2020

Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza, Cincinnati (OH)

Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza Hotel Room, Cincinnati OH

Room: The Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza ranks #1 among all Cincinnati hotels on Tripadvisor.com, and for good reason. It’s an old, beautiful hotel – and our room, on the 28th floor, was nice – it had a sitting area, a very comfortable bed (“the bed by Hilton”), a desk/chair, a large dressing area, and robes. Compared in size to an average hotel room, it was very large. We had views of the city on two sides of the room, and that evening there was a thunderstorm, so we sat like a couple of kittycats in front of one of the windows watching the lightning.

Lobby: The building is absolutely beautiful.

Service: Service was nice.

Food: We didn’t have supper at the hotel – there was a thunderstorm and Av had to work anyway – so we called in pizza delivery from LaRosa’s, which was really good.

Extra: Spend time soaking up the building – just amazing…the elevators are beautiful! After we made our reservation – a few days before we arrived – the concierge called to ask if there was anything he could arrange for us ahead of time. Nice!

Our experience is this: We would stay here again. The room seemed a little more worn than The Cincinnatian, but was worlds larger. Next time we would compare rates and let that be the deciding factor.

Fabulous view:

July 1, 2005January 6, 2020

Drury Inn, Frankenmuth (MI)

Room: This was our second stay ever at a Drury Inn. On the whole, I would say it is comparable with the average Hampton Inn. Everything about the room was pretty average; the room size was maybe a little larger than average. Internet access was included in the cost of the room. We checked in at an early evening hour and were given a handicap-accessible room; it seems like the hotel would want to keep those available for late in the evening so that if someone really needed that type of room, it would be available. ((I didn’t include a pic of the bathroom here since it probably isn’t indicative of what the other rooms have, with the special shower, etc.)).

Lobby: Average; area for breakfast to be served.

Service: Friendly.

Food: They served afternoon drinks and a small breakfast, but we didn’t partake in either.

Extra: A computer was set up in the lobby so that any of the guests who hadn’t brought along a laptop could check emails, etc. Drury Inn also had a promotion so that the first hour of long distance was free of charge (I haven’t seen that elsewhere). The mini-fridge included two free soft drinks and a bag of popcorn for the microwave. I think this is how (maybe only this particular Drury, I’m not sure) these hotels distinguish themselves from other chain hotels at this price point.

July 1, 2005January 6, 2020

Yay Frankenmuth!

I like Frankenmuth, Michigan.

It’s the ‘little bavaria’ of Michigan (like Helen, Georgia) – but in all its kitschy-ness, it really appeals to me! Most all of the buildings have an alpine-style architecture, even including the chain hotels.

Frankenmuth is famous for two other things: Bronner’s, the world’s largest Christmas store, and fried chicken – from competing Zehnder’s and Bavarian Inn.

Bronner’s is a *fabulous* place to pick up ornaments for friends for their Christmas trees….and they have a HUGE selection of Department 56 — in fact, they had a non-sectarian Krispy Kreme building that Av got. Yay!

As for the fried chicken, we’ve had Zehnder’s before, so this time we tried Bavarian Inn. Bavarian Inn’s chicken dinner was good, but not quite as good as Zehnder’s.