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The starship has gone. Space was the last frontier, now it is the lost frontier. All that is left is the hotel; a Marie Celeste marooned in a car park the size of an ocean. Yet this Marie Celeste is not abandoned and adrift, and nor has it been colonised by alien beings despite the swallows on the rooftop screaming and jostling as they prepare for their own giant journey through time and space.
Reception has glints of sparkling stone in the tiles to give a starlit feel to the floor
No, here the Captain of this enterprise, Franck Bauchwitz, who tells me with a roar of laughter that his names translates in English to ‘belly laugh’ has doubled occupancy to around 60% and now also has higher rates than the average for Bremen. His starship crew are smiling, and the prospect of a Primark in the 120 stores opening in the abandoned ‘space centre’ next door, revamped by the owners of the Hotel site, British developers L&C Properties has the young staff almost dancing with delight. The second opening of a Primark in Europe will help to draw crowds of shoppers to Bremen’s latest Mall, giving a new lease of life to the deserted car parks and riverbank park by the hotel, and justifying the bold decision of Innside to build here.
The hotel was themed around the now departed space park. ET has gone home, but movie echoes delight the children who ride up and down in the lifts wide eyed at the view of space seen through the glass lift walls, glowing in the ultraviolet lamps that line the lift car edges. Stars and constellations drift by as they ride the adventure to their floor, girls clutching their father’s hands, boys aggressively waving imaginary light sabres as they conform to archaic stereo types of behaviour.
Colour is used in the lighting throughout to create theatre
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Intrepid travellers approach the starship entrance doors
Room doors, alas, open quite normally - no sliding with a quiet hiss as on the Enterprise...
Bar lighting shifts and changes
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