I know, I know.
I know that I’ve previously pronounced Amish Country to be the least hospitable country on the planet (See post from 7/01/2014).
Except that I found a Groupon for this nice-looking place, the Berlin Resort,
And then it turned out that the place gave a military discount as well so we thought, eh, why not give Amish Country another try? If we didn’t like it we could spend the weekend in the hotel watching movies, right?
So we set off early Friday afternoon in the beautiful sunshine that belied the 10-degree temperature outside.
We picked up U.S. Route 62 where it passed through Gahanna and drove north-east for two hours over two-lane roads...
...to the town of Berlin in Holmes County, the heart of Ohio Amish Country.
Now, though surrounded by lovely farmland and scenic open areas,
Anyway, The Berlin Resort was on a hill on the outskirts of town.
Tucked about here and there were cozy little sitting spots:
Pool:
But in truth I was most intrigued by the prospect of an on-site movie theater.
Turned out it was a miniature theater that showed 3 movies a day, one at 5 pm, one at 6 pm and one at 8 pm.
For the other two time slots the hotel has a list of films to choose from and the movies are chosen by guests on a first-come, first-serve basis. So, for example, on Friday evening by the time we arrived the 6 o'clock film had already been chosen but the 8 o'clock slot was still open, so after looking over the list of movie options I requested "As Good As It Gets" for the 8 o'clock movie.
Tom decided to check out the Amish movie - interesting but a bit longish, he thought - while I stayed in the hotel room and chilled.
After the Amish movie we decided to got out and seek some chow. Of all the offerings of the Berlin Resort, a restaurant is not among them.
In fact, it seems to me that the whole town of Berlin, for all the tourists it supports, is decidedly short on restaurants. We could find only three along the main strip.
We opted for one of them, East Of Chicago Pizza,
..but best of all for dessert there were these little all-you-can-eat iced cinnamon rollesque things.
But considering that I about ate my weight in cinnamon roll thingies, the meal was a pretty good deal.
After dinner we got back to the hotel just in time for our movie, which we shared with about half a dozen more viewers. Tom and I took the front-row seats.
I could get easily used to watching my movies in a spot like this one.