I began my emails in May 2003 and reserved three rooms at the Victoria Hotel through their Internet site. In December, I emailed to ask if we could have our rooms early on our day of arrival, say, 7am. I got an answer immediately saying there was no problem with early check-in and no charge. It made our day. We went up to our rooms, showered, shaved, and slept for four hours--what a treat. We were even upgraded to a junior suite. The junior suite was smoking, and I had requested non-smoking, but the room didn’t smell horrible, so I was delighted with the upgrade.

I chose the Victoria Hotel for its location, just three blocks from the Haupbahnhof. We were able to walk there easily in 5 minutes. We also could walk everywhere that we wanted to go in Frankfurt since there was no way we were going to master the public transportation in a day and a half. The neighborhood around the Victoria is not the best, but I never felt threatened, especially since we were in a group of four. If sex shops or street people offend you, then this may not be the best location for you.

Our junior suite had a sitting area with its own TV and a large bathroom with the deepest tub (just great for soaking those aches away after a long day of walking or a long night on a plane). The room was decorated with pretty French Empire furniture, a trouser press, minibar, bathrobe, desk with chair, hair dryer, a large closet with shelves, and plenty of good lighting. The basic color scheme was a very soothing yellow, with the drapes and the bedspread matching. In the usual German fashion, we had a feather pillow and a feather bed instead of a top sheet and blanket. The mattress was good and firm, and we had plenty of towels in the bathroom. We had two English channels on the TVs: CNN and BBC--not exciting but enough to keep us informed of world events. We also had free Internet access from the computer in the lobby.

Bob and Joe had single rooms, and I have to admit these were the smallest rooms we had ever seen. They were immaculately clean and had all the amenities that we had, but space was really at a premium.

Our excellent rate (85 euros/double) included a buffet breakfast. In addition to tea, coffee, or hot chocolate, we could have boiled eggs, lots of fruit, both whole and cut up, four choices of cereal, meat, cheese, pickles, sliced tomatoes, peppers, cubed cheese, pickled herring, and more. We were very happy with our choice of hotel--the staff was wonderful, and everything about it made us want to return. Thanks again, Mr. Klotz!

The hotel can be reached at http://www.victoriahotel.de/.