DEIRDRE MCQUILLANstays at Hotel Adlon Kempinski, in Berlin
IN 1931 Charlie Chaplin nearly lost his trousers when a crowd ripped the buttons off his braces as he entered Berlin’s celebrated Adlon hotel for a film premiere. Arriving there recently was like a scene from one of his slapsticks when our luggage was driven speedily away by mistake down Unter den Linden. As we waved frantically at the departing taxi to stop, a hotel porter, keeping his head (and his top hat), sprinted after the car and retrieved the bags.
Minutes later we were looking down on Pariser Platz, watching rapt as the evening sun set on the Brandenburg Gate and Quadriga, its rays flooding the room with light.
As an introduction to Berlin and one of the most famous hotels in the world, it could not have been bettered.
The Adlon’s long, illustrious history and location in the heart of the city, close to the main tourist attractions and government administration centres, give it a unique status, particularly in a year celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1989.
It’s within walking distance of places such as the Reichstag, the Staatsoper, the Tiergarten, the controversial new Holocaust memorial and dramatic buildings by renowned architects such as Gehry, Foster and Rogers, testimony to the city’s extensive investment in reconstruction, especially around Potsdamer Platz.
Built in 1907 by Lorenz Adlon to the highest standards of the time, the hotel in pre-war years was Berlin’s most fashionable meeting place, haunt of the rich and famous, counting Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich among its many habitués. Destroyed in 1945, it reopened in 1997, completely rebuilt on its original site.
Today it has resumed its position as the city’s premier hotel, though many know it as the place where Michael Jackson dangled his baby from a third-floor balcony.
The entrance is grand but old-fashioned in a modern way, with a huge white marble staircase at the rear similar to the original, stained-glass dome and ornate Chinese pagoda fountain with stone elephants and frogs (formerly located in the winter garden), around which the tables and chairs of the lobby bar are arranged.
Our room on the sixth floor was spacious, elegant and well proportioned. The decor, typical of the hotel’s 382 rooms and suites, is a mix of western and Asian influences, of dark cherrywood and mahogany furniture and fittings, and a colour scheme in restful shades of coffee and cream, the work of the well-known German interior designer Anna Maria Jagdfeld.
A four-poster bed faced a writing desk with internet connections and a fireplace with plasma-screen TV surrounded by a sofa and armchairs. Chinese soapstone carvings made dramatic displays, typical of selected Asian antiques judiciously positioned throughout the hotel. A well-stocked minibar contained a selection of local wines, beers and spirits. High-tech lighting and air-conditioning systems are controlled by panels inside the bedside tables.
The centrepiece of the bathroom was a free-standing bath, steam shower and black granite washstands with bevelled mirror surrounds. Heated towel rails, Molton Brown toiletries, hairdryer and monogrammed towelling robes were par for the course, while underfloor heating provided additional comfort.
The hotel has four restaurants, three of which are Michelin-starred, though breakfast, a lavish display of cheeses, meats, fruits, mueslis, breads, juices and other specialities, was our closest experience of their gastronomic excellence. A gourmet dinner menu at the Lorenz Adlon cost €145 per person; the buffet breakfast, at €39 a head, was also pricey.
There’s much more to this huge hotel – a China Club, wine shop, ballrooms, a business centre, a shopping arcade, a well-equipped gym and pool, not to speak of its presidential suites with bulletproof windows and armoured doors, said to be the most secure hotel rooms in the world.
What’s particularly impressive, however, is the state-of-the-art day spa (also open to non-residents), where a Zen-like atmosphere is created by cool alabaster corridors leading to treatment rooms with limed-oak panelling and mood lighting, making it the most beautiful and most luxuriously appointed I’ve ever seen. You could spend a whole day here having treatments, from an eyebrow-shaping session for €20 to a 195-minute total detox for €430, under smouldering portraits of Marlene Dietrich, whose ghost, some say, still haunts the hotel.
WhereHotel Adlon Kempinski. Under den Linden 77, Berlin, Germany, 00-49-302-2611111, www.hotel-adlon.de.
WhatHistoric five-star hotel in the heart of Berlin, emblematic of the city.
Rooms382 rooms and suites (including two accessible by wheelchair and six rooms furnished for those with allergies).
RatesStandard rates from €300 for double occupancy. Anniversary rates at €112 per person per night; minimum stay two nights. See www.kempinski.com.
RestaurantsFour restaurants, three of which have Michelin stars: Lorenz Adlon (French cuisine; gourmet menu, €145), Ma (modern Chinese) and Gabriele (Italian).
AmenitiesGym, swimming pool, day spa, lobby lounge, boutiques, ballrooms, club bars, business centre.