Upside Down

When we went to Port of Spain, the capital of the island it was always a bit of a long do.

Early start and a two hour+ drive. First mother dragging me around all the shops to get things like cloth material for her to sew dresses or curtains or cushions. Really interesting for a 12-year-old. However, the sights and sounds of the bustling capital were quite different and exciting.

As midday drew close, we would drive up to the Hilton Hotel on a hill overlooking the capital and harbour. Spectacular views. We called it "The Upside Down Hotel" as the reception, pool, etc was all at ground floor but the bedrooms were downwards - i.e. built down the hill.

The views didn't interest me as much as my mother plonking herself down at a table around the pool, giving me my swimming trunks and off I went to the changing rooms.

It was quite common for a few friends to arrange to meet there and have their Club Sandwich lunch with a Tom Collins while children amused themselves.

It doesn't look as though I was ignoring the food though in those days!

From time to time we stayed there overnight but very rarely. I always remember there being loads of American's in Bermuda Shorts, running around with badges pinned to their shirts - the hotel did a good trade in organising congresses for US companies being part of the Hilton brand.

The more "noble" (read colonial) hotel was "The Queen's Park Hotel" opened in 1893, set on the edge of the large Queen's Park Savannah racecourse and football fields. Around the corner, the Queen's Park Oval Cricket ground and the place where the likes of Sir Garfield Sobers, Wes Hall, Clive Lloyd, Lace Gibbs were showing the English how to play test cricket. The English team would stay at the Queen's Park Hotel. Before the Hilton was built, that was the meeting point for us too, but the children were not impressed by the stuffy, leather chairs and cigar smoke. But the Club Sandwiches were better than the Hilton's. Can't speak for the Tom Collins - a Coke was a Coke.

And we stayed alongside the pool so long as the mothers were chatting and I guess with bleached out fingers, we were piled into cars and slept most of the two-hour journey home.