Late-youth hostel
Where did you go on your summer holidays? I took my mother to a youth hostel in Berwick-upon-Tweed, to celebrate her 80th birthday.
‘What a shameless cheapskate!’ I hear you cry. ‘What a penny-pinching skinflint! Couldn’t you have taken her to a nice hotel on the English Riviera?’
Not on your nelly. My mum adores Northumberland, and she can’t stand posh hotels. She’s always loved youth hostelling, she’d stayed in this hostel before and she told me it was really comfortable. I must admit I was sceptical (my memories of the Youth Hostel Association were rather Spartan) but I decided to give it a go. Well, it was her birthday, after all.
My recollections of youth hostelling are rooted in
