And now, Montpellier

[dagibbs]

Getting here was a bit tricky, though. The GPS nav system (both of them, I had two) couldn't find the street my hotel was on -- oops. So, I said... ok, let's select Montpellier, then find hotels near there... and found the Mercure Montpellier, my hotel. And, I arrive at the hotel, and it appears I got to the OTHER Mercure Montpellier. Gah. But they directed me how to find this one... from their front door, not the parking garage. I did eventually find this one, though.

The visit with Tasha & Alan & Naomi in Grenoble was nice. I spent much of 24 hours being a jungle gym for a 5 year old (Naomi). She has, apparently, charmed every shop-keeper in a 4-block radius, as they all greet her with hugs. (And she greets them the same way. This is NOT a shy child.) Unfortunately, today she started to get a bit sick -- so I'm really hoping it didn't attach itself to me. We will see.

And, Europe is NOT the land of free wifi with the hotel room, no it isn't.

Comments

[shyska.livejournal.com]

No free internets? :(

You are Not Allowed to get sick. (Hey... it might work. *shrugs*)

Glad your visiting went well. :)

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Most US hotels, at least at the business travel level, have free internet access. Some of the nicer ones don't. Most European hotels don't have free internets.

Yes, Ma'am.

[elizilla]

Actually, the free internet has been moving downmarket - most cheap motels have it, nowadays. I think the more expensive business hotels jumped on the internet bandwagon first, and spent the big bucks for systems that allowed them to collect ten bucks from anyone who wanted to use it. They're still amortizing that equipment so they continue charging for internet.

The cheap places jumped on the bandwagon later, when the cheap consumer equipment arrived. Free costs them almost nothing, but a fee scheme would be expensive and difficult, so they just do free.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's about right. The fancier places still charge... the not-so-fancy, down to cheap, have it for free.