As a small family run furniture retailer, we are proudly independent! We also like to celebrate the other family run businesses who put so much love and care into their work! So here is our shop fairy Antonia celebrating her favourite family-run business!
I have visited the small 4-star hotel Glockenstuhl in Gerlos ( website address http://www.glockenstuhl.at/about-us-gerlos.html), Austria every year since I was a child. I fell in love with the place, the people and the mountains. It’s located in the Alps in the lovely village Gerlos in Zillertal, surrounded by mountains, meadows and flowers.
Their slogan “We are here for you as only a family can” sums up perfectly how welcoming, warm and friendly the atmosphere is – the perfect stay for a relaxing holiday! When my family visited the hotel for the first time, our car broke down just before a long mountain pass that leads to the hotel. It was during our winter holidays and we stood there in the freezing cold with the biggest amount of luggage. We called the hotel and the owner sent a small van to pick us up. The owner, who is also the chef of the hotel’s restaurant, prepared a wonderful warm dinner for us, even though dinner was over hours ago. We all sat down and spent a lovely evening together. All the trouble from the journey was forgotten – arriving at the family-run hotel is just like coming home for me!
It’s a small hotel with only 27 rooms, and it has a warm and friendly feel. We soon find ourselves chatting along to the other guests and the hotel owner’s family. All members of the family help to run the hotel, whether it’s serving the guests in the restaurant during breakfast or dinner time, or cooking delicious Austrian and Tyrolean specialties, or massaging guests in the wellness area. After work is done, they usually join us and the group of friends we travel with; we always end up having a laugh and playing games and music together until the middle of the night. Staying at the hotel Glockenstuhl makes you feel like staying with a big family that always welcomes you warmly! These nights are so special to me and I will always remember them.
The rooms are decorated with beautiful wooden furniture, which creates such a warm ambiance and reminds me of the furniture we sell at Scape back in Bournemouth. What I also love about the rooms is a sky full of stars mounted in the ceiling. It looks so real that it actually feels like watching the night sky while lying in bed at night. I remember how much I loved falling asleep under it when I was a child but truth be told, it still fascinates me just as much these days.
The hotel also has an indoor swimming pool that was designed in an Indonesian style with a lot of sculptures imported from Bali. If you love travelling as much as I do, you will love to just drift away and unwind in the wellness area. When I was a kid, I spent many hours in that pool with my friends and running around playing hide and seek. I still remember every single corner of the place like the back of my hand.
To me, there is nothing better than exploring a new country, with the comfort feeling of home you get when staying at a lovely family-run hotel. My family and I have visited the hotel Glockenstuhl countless times for generations already – we always love to be back and I’m already counting down the days to my next visit!
“Going to the mountains is going home.” – John Muir
Let’s all celebrate independent businesses! Love Scape xxx