Hotel Wellington in Sherbrooke a nice surprise
By Manfried Helmuth
Nancy and I recently spent a day at the Sherbrooke Record and needed a place to stay for the night. We used Google and found an advertisement of this vintage hotel on Wellington street. The prices seemed reasonable and the distance to the newspaper plant just right for us city weary drivers. We booked the room via their automated booking system, immediately got a confirmation and showed up at 11:30 on Monday. Check-in time is stated at 3pm, but Marsi and Ali Karami, the Iranian born proprietors made us immediately welcome and issued us our room.
From the outside the hotel looks worn down, but the lobby is elegant, the elevators worked and to our great surprise, the inexpensive room was nicely appointed and sparkling clean. Linens and towels looked new, the television has an abundance of cable TV channels, a good quality alarm radio is supplied, as are free internet access and free local telephone calls. This is a case of not "judging the book by it's cover". The Karimis proved friendly and courteous hosts and we chatted for quite some time about the current political situation of their native Iran which they fled many years ago. The elderly couple is educated, Marsi is an engineer by trade and Ali is also a college graduate.
Our car was parked free of charge in the sheltered parking garage under the hotel, which we enjoyed in the morning, as it had been snowing all night.
A few meters away from the hotel is the fabulous Cafe/Bistro Bla-Bla, a 35 year old institution in Sherbrooke which we enjoyed tremendously over a large plate of all-dressed nachos and a pitcher of Boreale Blond, served by a pretty and vivacious Anne-Sophie Robitaille.
We shall re-visit both places as we enjoyed our stay there very much.
Ali Karimi even insisted to take my picture in the lobby:
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