ADONIS HOTEL MYKONOS

Day 10

We said good-bye to Maastricht and took the train to Rotterdam.

The Grand Hotel is located directly across the street from the Maastricht Train Station and was of special interest to me.

In 1974, my father, recently widowed took the three of us kids to Greece to visit his homeland. We spent 10 days in Athens, visiting distant relatives, seeing the sights and waiting for my mother's parents to join us. Just two days after they arrived in Athens, Turkey invaded Cyprus and Greece was on the brink of war. All foreign nationals were urged to leave Greece and we took one of the last flight out of Greece before the airports were closed.

We spent the rest of the summer like nomads, travelling through Switzerland, Belgium and France, arriving in Maatricht unannounced. My father checked us into the Grand Hotel and called my mom's cousin. We were told to check-out and her husband would come and get us in a few minutes. To our surprise, he arrived in a rush, hustled us into the car, urging us to hurry because his wife was in labour. The new baby was born just a few hours later and we spent ten days or so having fun minding her older brothers and exploring Maastricht.

I took a look inside the Grand Hotel and found that although it is the same on the outside, it bears no resemblence to the dark, luxurious interior I remember from 1974.

The view from my room in the Chi-Lin Pavilion of the Grand Hotel. It is similar to the previous photo, with Chiank Kai-shek Airport and the Tamsui (Danshui) River. The awning with autos transporting guests is in the foreground.