Ever slept in a Bishop's bedchamber?
Travellers and pilgrims seeking a unique experience can now uncover the ancient secrets of convents and monasteries around Europe. We reveal these atmospheric and affordable places that accommodate tourists or those pursuing a pilgrimage or spiritual retreat.
Goodnight and God Bless is the first in a series of guides to alternative tourist accommodation in convents, monasteries, abbeys and Christian hotels in Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic, run by various mainstream Christian religious denominations. As a result of a shortage of religious personnel, coupled with the increasingly high financial overheads in maintaining their ancient buildings, some religious orders have been forced to meet costs by offering tourist accommodation.
This book is about how to find inexpensive, good quality accommodation in places that are unique, safe, comfortable and friendly certainly a refreshing change from the innumerable run-of-the-mill, often tiny, cramped, over-priced hotel rooms so common in Europe.
I have enjoyed staying in many of the accommodations listed in this book and appreciate the helpful, informative feedback I have received from numerous others who likewise have stayed in convents and monasteries across Europe. The priests, monks, nuns and lay staff I have approached in regard to this guide have been helpful and encouraging and in the most cordial manner have either given me access to their establishments or enthusiastically offered photographs and information. However, while monks and nuns do live a life of prayer and devotion they are not always as easily identified as they may have been in the past. That gardener, tractor driver or good-looking young man showing you to your room mightwell be a monk; and the chatty, casually dressed waitress cheerfully serving you breakfast is most likely a nun.
Trish Clark, March 2008
