It costs forty pounds a year to join, and you get free delivery on their wines.
The showroom in Stevenage is a fun place.
Angela Lansbury and George admiring grapes at George's Villa in Cyprus. Photo by Trevor Sharot.
George's Villa Big Breakfast
I and my husband started out day sharing the spa bath in the large red-walled bathroom beside our spacious bedroom. I managed to get a decent photo, decent in the sense of showing no private parts, by crossing my legs and folding my arms.
We dressed quickly, ready for the owner's wife Hana, to arrive with our breakfast, costing five euros per person, on a wicker tray. We had white bread, cheese, slices of processed meat, two bananas. The room already had apples and oranges. Pecan nuts. She brought some spreads. And Hawaiian juice. Boiled eggs. Fried halloumi cheese - very tasty.
Tea Time at George's Villa
When we returned from the Greek side of the divided capital, Nicosia, at tea time, it started to rain. The car park beside the guest house wall is open air. But Hana came rushing out, all smiles, carrying two umbrellas.
She asked, "Would you like honey for tea?" By the time we reached the top of the outside staircase and the bedroom door, she was already there with the honey. She filled the kettle with water and took out two cups for us and the tea bags and Nescafe.
The motorway is less than five minutes away. We reached Nicosia in an hour.
If you want to cross into the Turkish side, remember your passports, which will be checked four times, by the Greeks as you leave, as you enter the Turkish side, returning from Turkey into the short walk along the suburban road which is now no man's land, and back through the Greek side.. I had already done that earlier in the week with my walking group. On this day trip we heard the Greek point of view at the Observation Tower.
Fond Farewell
On the morning when we left, both George and Hana helped us out to the car with our suitcases and packages. Charming George's last words to my husband were a positive remark, a compliment to me and my husband, "Look after this treasure!"
We stayed in several amazing hotels in Cyprus but George's Villa was an unending pleasure and a non-stop surprise. His email message on the morning of our arrival was reassuring. George is, if not eccentric, at least an individualist. He has a huge number of solar panels, putting power on and off the grid, and chickens to provide breakfast eggs.
We had expected it to be good because it had rating of over nine out of ten on booking.com. We were a little apprehensive when we turned off the motorway, though narrow lanes across a field, under graffiti-covered pillars of the motorway, twisting turns around more fields, along a narrower and narrower road, past a derelict building, up to the a remote wall with barbed wire on top and a high gate.
However, it was a relief when the gate swung open and a beaming little man raced forward to greet us. Followed by his two dogs and several cute cats. How many cats?
They have about twenty cats - 'I've lost count!' grins George. Two docile dogs.
We parked beside his solar panels. At my husband's request, George gave us a guided tour of the panels and told us how they work and how he sometimes takes power from the national grid and sometimes passes power back to the grid.
A cage of ducklings. Swallows' nests. Arbors of grapes.
The bedroom was up an outside wooden staircase. He helped us carry up our suitcases. His Vietnamese wife, Hana, came running to help us.
Beautiful Bedroom
The big bedroom has a big bed. More than twenty three pin sockets. Two phone adapter slots. A Tiffany style bedside lamp. Loads of hangers. 34 handles to drawers or cupboards to wardrobes.
The kitchenette area with full size, double door, working cold fridge.
The large glass top desk, big enough for two of us, had a black world map on the top (actually stuck on the underside where it cannot get damaged and showing through the glass).
Best Bathroom
When using the Jacuzzi bath allow fifteen or twenty minutes to fill it. You must cover the outlets with water. The top jets send water arching up, so you should fill the bath with water higher than the water jet.
A glass of fresh orange juice was presented to us on arrival.
Hana (think of Hannah) brings a breakfast tray at only 5 euros per person extra, well worth it, for the food and fun. The room had a toaster. Anything missing - butter. No coffee maker, but a kettle and Nescafe. I should have saved the coffee capsules from our one expensive night, the expensive luxurious hotel Indigo in Larnaka, three times the price of George's, and decanted the coffee grounds.
Hana is a nurturer. She is quick to understand complicated questions when you ask and point.
Surprises? Search for the toilet control behind you to flush the toilet and you will set off the single water jet in your behind.
Shower
The shower has six working body level light sprays, activated when you turn one of the knobs. (Another knob is on off for the water shower from the hand held shower fixed on a slider.
I didn't find out what operated the overhead shower. Three kinds of shower in one shower is one up on the two in the other hotels we visited. I read on Tripadvisor that the radio controls worked a few years back. I did not get them working but didn't spend time trying them out.
Noise and Windows
The noise from the motorway is heard on the terrace, but cannot be heard in the bedroom when the shutters are shut.
Insect Netting
The windows are shielded from insects with metal netting - another thoughtful touch missing from every other hotel we had visited.
We though George's villa was a bargain. (In the photo of me beside the spa bath, I am wearing another bargain, a butterfly pattern top bought in Nicosia for three euros. See me in more clothes on my other blog dressofthedayangela.cblogspot.com)
If you google George's Villa you will find that there are several George's Villas around the world. The one which I visited and recommend is the one in Perakhorio, Cyprus.
Useful Websites
https://www.booking.com/hotel/cy/george-39-s-villa-perakhorio.en-gb.html
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g190383-d11788132-Reviews-George_s_Villa-Nicosia_Nicosia_District.html
Celebrity Park in Kielce in Poland has the perfect place, a public park with bust of the famous from around the world, as well as Polish personalities, an artist, a writer and a film director.
Some of the statues (alphabetical order by surname)
A-D
Ingmar Bergman, film director.
Marc Chagall, painter, of The Fiddler (inspiration for Fiddler on the Roof) and producer of stained glass windows in Notre Dame Cathedral, Rheims; Switzerland; Hadassah Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel; New York, Paris Opera house;
Charlie Chaplin, film star, silent movies
Salvador Dali, surrealist painter
Miles Davis, jazz player, 'Prince of Darkness'. Kielce also has a full size statue of him.
(See the post in this blog on Miles Davis.)
E-K
George Gershwin
Jimi Hendrix, guitarist. See his house Museum in London beside Handel's house museum.
James Joyce, author (1882-1941), Irish novelist, wrote The Dubliners, Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake.
Franz Kafka
Tamara Lempicka, artist
L-R
Edith Piaf, French singer. Famous song Je ne regrette rien.
Marilyn Monroe, film star, in "Some Like It Hot", married to playwright Arthur Miller
S-Z
Igor Stravinski
Wikipedia has articles on busts of people by country of origin, busts of Romans, busts of religious figures, even busts in Poland by city, but has not been updated to include Kielce.
Useful Websites
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Poland
Poster of Young lady with gloves by Lempicka can be bought from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kielce
https://www.cheapflights.co.uk/news/celebrity-park-where-to-see-jimi-hendrix-marilyn-monroe-and-
About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel researcher/writer and photographer, author and speaker.
You can contact Angela through Facebook, LinkedIn, and Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters on Facebook or Toastmasters Interntional.com find a club . Angela is a member of four Toastmasters Clubs and BHA IPP, Immediate Past President, and VP PR (Vice President Public Relations) for 20202-2021
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