Cleo's Hotel and Cafe in Kallstadt, Germany, some ninety kilometres south of Frankfurt, offers travellers a most unusual retreat. Consisting of luxury ensuite bedrooms on three floors in a centuries old, newly restored building in the heart of a picturesque German town surrounded by vineyards, this inn has unique style. Each bedroom suite is themed on a different part of the world, with no attention to detail spared. Furnishing and accesories set the styles in classic interior design approach, but mural and decorative art gives them a whole extra dimension of trompe l'oeil reality.

The journey begins in the cafe-restaurant, where arched windows pierce the walls dividing the space into separate rooms. On the wall of the innermost corner, a painted fake additional 'window' invites the viewer to look out, not on local scenery but on the River Blackwater in the south of Ireland.

Stairwell

The ascent to the first floor has a sharp turn after the first few steps, resulting in a deep, narrow well that is dark and without purpose. Mural art, and the addition of an attractive rock garden with water feature and up-lighting concealed in the stones, make the space into a special feature. The painted bricks of the arch match the bricks of the garden below, and the peacock adds life and colour to the painted view over the local vineyards and town of Kallstadt.

" Andalucia "

In this room the visitor can lie in bed and look on the hills of Granada in Spain, its gardens of the Generalife, and its legendary Court of Lions in the Alhambra Palace. The mural of the Partal Palace behind the bed reflects in the mirror opposite the bed.

"Provence - Cote d'Azur"

The long blank wall behind the bed is transformed with painting into a picture window and glass door onto luxury terraces, swimming pool and hot tub, all overlooking St. Jean Cap Ferat and the Baie des Anges at Nices on the French Riviera. The scene's illusion is strengthened by the inclusion of a painted key hanging on the frame of the glass door, inviting the viewer to open the door and step outside, and by the real drapes over the 'window'. The vista is reflected in the mirror opposite the bed for bedtime dreaming.

"Toscana" - Tuscany

Set into the plaster of the wall and frames with real ceramic tiles, this modestly sized 'pathway in Tuscany' breathes the gentle warmth of Tuscan sunshine into this tranquil room, again reflected for the visitor in a mirror opposite the bed.

"Asia"

Here the vibrant colours of India are given gentle finish with shadowy bamboo painted on the wall over the desk.

"Safari"

The atmosphere of the jungle is evoked in this room, and completed with the ceiling fan and the tiger painting over the desk.

"Manhattan"

In this room the visitor is the other side of the world, in the ultra-modern manmade world of Manhattan. Cool blues and silver, glass and clean lines characterise this suite, and the black-and-white theme of the cityscape photos behind the bed are carried through into the mural work with 'pen and ink' style sketched skylines featuring the Empire State and one of New York's many bridges.

"Egyptian"

This suite offers the ultra exotic setting to the visitor, rich, vibrantly coloured and textured fabrics dressing the bed, shadowy desert sand-dunes brushed over the walls, elaborately carved furniture and evocative lantern, with a 'mock tapestry' painting of a Egyptian market hanging over the couch. Most exotic of all, the entrance to the luxuriously tiled 'Cleopatra' bathroom, built as a portal to an ancient Egyptian tomb and painted with authentic motifs from Egyptology, cartouches of Tutankhamun and Nefertiti, and symbols of the Gods.

"Irish Cottage Suite"

For all those who fancy a trip to the Green Land of Ireland, this comfortable bedroom and living room offer painted views of a castle overlooking Killiney Bay, an ancient dolmen stone monument at sunrise, and a traditional thatched cottage at the foot of Benbulben Mountain in Co. Sligo.

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