Teaching Hotel Château Bethlehem

Needing a second stopover on the way from Italy to Ijmuiden we chose this hotel for its location, free parking and reasonable price. It also looks nice in the photos. In reality it looks even better, like a fairytale castle with its tower and moat surrounding it. (Anyone planning a romantic break based on this please read on...) On arrival one of the students showed us to our room then disappeared before we could ask the two questions that immediately occurred to us. My wife wanted to ask "Why is there a toilet IN our bedroom?" whilst I wanted to ask "Why is there a bed in the bathroom?" We tested the bed, logged into the wifi and settled down to actually read some reviews. Almost everyone comments on the room layout and the hotel replies that it is a designer feature. The hotel never says what the designer normally designs - I'm wondering is it prisons? (I'm not speaking from experience but I have seen the movies.) They should also name the designer so that anyone local who is contemplating having an en suite bathroom fitted will know to engage an architect who knows the bathroom should be behind a wall and a door. And if there is a good reason for not having the toilet behind a wall I would have expected a ventilation and extraction system of the type used in bio-warfare labs. If our extractor worked at all it was completely silent. On a more serious note there were a couple of other things the student could have explained. There was no literature in the room or anything on the TV about local facilities. All we gleaned from the TV was that the restaurant was closed on Sunday, the day we were there. We had to resort to google and found a very good chip shop five minutes walk away (after a seven hour drive we didn't fancy getting back into the car and driving into the city centre to find a restaurant.) The student could also have reassured us that the LOUD music coming from the field next door (it must have been the end of term) would not go on all night (it stopped dead at 23:00.) There followed a very quiet and restful night, very peaceful apart from the occasional honking of the geese and croaking of the frogs that live in the moat. Next morning's breakfast buffet was very good. The stars for the room are mainly for the comedy value!

I was here with a friend. The staff was very friendly and make you feel right at home. The room was very original and the food in the restaurant was delicious. The food was not expensive, but perfect.