I am guessing this is a European thing, maybe not, but towels on the sunbeds before dawn is not just a myth, but alive and well.
My bodyclock, come work or holiday-time is permanently set to wake at 6.30am. If I don't have to get up, I can go back to sleep, but more often than not that is my up'n at'em time.
Surveying the early morning pool scene, last year and this, beds were routinely bagged before the sunrise (c..7am)...
So without any drama, if you can't beat them join them, right? I would pop down, reserve a couple, and believe me at 6.30am I was never first, and then retreat back inside.
All round the pool were notices saying that items used to reserve sunbeds would be removed, but hey, they never were.
Can you see where this is going?
I think it was 3 or 4 days in, and when I got up for the second time, and took a look outside, all the beds were empty!
Now I must mention that I only ever used the kids' towels, just in case, because they are older and cheaper than mine! So unperturbed I went to investigate.
There were folks wandering round like they were expecting a zombie-apocalypse at the choice they were faced with; unable in a half-asleep state at 7.15am, to comprehend how they could be first up instead of last.
I went and asked the manager 'please sir, can I have my towels back?', to be shown a storeroom with more neatly folded and stacked towels than I had ever seen. It was hilarious.
Even more hilarious were the grumpy faces of the people surfacing at lunchtime expecting their towels and beds to have remained 'reserved' for half the day, only to see others laying in their spots.
A few days later, some (new arrivals?) had slipped back into old habits, but the towels would vanish off to the manager's Aladin's cave soon enough.
I know it is not going to change the world, and may well be routine elsewhere, but it the first time I have experienced it, and it did mean I didn't have to go back to bed with sandy feet again for the rest of the holiday; and we still ended up on our beds of choice each day.
People are funny, especially the family next door who then just sent their daughters out to wait on the sunbeds until breakfast time!
Linking this 'probably just funny if you were there' tale with Cindy and the other Randomeers. Next week I will try better, I will, after all, have gone back to work by then.
Ha ha ha! This did make me laugh! When they are old enough I shall remember to send out my daughters to guard my sunbed while I have a lie in!
ReplyDeleteGo on then, how many of them were the stereotypical Germans? ;o)
ReplyDeleteoh that IS very amusing! You are one good storyteller too! ;-)
ReplyDeleteWhen we were in Turkey a few years ago, people would come back from their nights out and go and put their towels out then. Crazy!
ReplyDeletehahaha we had a holiday like that, but a few days in found another pool on the site which hardly anyone used so there were always empty chairs!
ReplyDeleteThis looks like somewhere I need to go on holiday having not the foresight or ability to get up early to bag a bed! Brilliant hehe! Glad you had a good time.
ReplyDeleteHysterical. This has cheered me up for the day!
ReplyDeleteLol! Following on from Katy's comment, how many were in their speedos?
ReplyDeleteToo funny. Actually the reserving of sunbeds when people had not intention of using them for hours would piss me off enough to remove their stuff and dump it in the pool. One year in B'mouth we went the first week of school holidays. Never again. The management had put signs up asking people not to leave stuff on sunbeds if they weren't using them. (People would go out for the morning and expect to come back to their choice of bed.) But people largely ignored this and staff were generally too polite to enforce it. One day we sat on the terrace over looking the pool and it was clear someone had bagged some beds and weren't anywhere near. We waited for ages for them to come back and they didn't. Niece was desperate to get in the Pool so we went down I scooped up the stuff and marched into reception with them suggesting they put them in lost property. :-)
ReplyDeleteI heard stories like these, but never knew if they were actually true (never been on a sunbed/pool holiday myself). It must have been so funny seeing it playing out in front of you...!!
ReplyDeleteWell my message disappeared (maybe in the lost property cupboard with all the towels?)
ReplyDeleteI love your neighbour's idea, but what if you haven't got kids with you? Maybe there's an way for other kids to earn some pocket money by doing sunbed sitting duties for you?
That sounds crazy - and would totally stress me out!
ReplyDeleteI cannot fathom folks thinking they could reserve a seat all day, but then again I don't hang out at resorts much. I would have thought the chairs would rotate over the day to those who were there for a swim and I guess that is what the hotel folks thought too.
ReplyDeleteThat is madness!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this story a lot!
ReplyDelete