Holidays

Exactly right, the film was Carry on Abroad. The Pinewood Studios car-park was covered in sand to portray the Spanish resort of Elsbels.

I think it was films like that that put my Dad off foreign holidays but you didn't have to go abroad to find dodgy hotels. We stayed in one in Cambridge one winter where there was a hole in the ceiling through which I could see stars. The mattress was mouldy, made of horse hair and so dusty I had a massive asthma attack. Thankfully we were only there for one night but I still remember the name of the hotel all these years later... and it's still there.

We came home for Christmas when we were living in Luxembourg. There was a lot of snow so we decided to travel the day before and stay over night so we would not miss the ferry. We were crossing from Boulogne. I swear Basil Fawlty was running the hotel. The radiator started to leak so the chef came up and stuck a bowl under it.