Fit as a fiddle, goes the old saying, and it’s probably pretty adept. If a fiddle breaks a string the music stops. If a young or not-so-young human breaks, say, a hamstring, activity stops. Thank you Jumeirah for including the image above in your ‘thoughts for the month;.
Girlahead thinks of all the Jumeirahs she has exercised at, a list that is led by CARLTON TOWER, JUMEIRAH, London, where its rooftop The Peak has the best views, and among the best equipment, in London. Then there are all the hotels in Jumeirah’s Dubai MADINAT JUMEIRAH complex: top memory there is being taken by boat to ‘Greenland’, one of The World man-made islands, and the host sat and smoked a cigar and watched as his guest ran round ‘Greenland’ eight times before they both went back to the mainland for breakfast.
How many developers consider outdoor exercise when choosing locations for their properties? In 1963 the people planning what is now MANDARIN ORIENTAL HONG KONG had a no-brainer. They planned their Hong Kong Island hotel on Connaught Road, right on the water’s edge. Now, dredging and other operations mean the hotel is a good 500 metres from the water.
Mandarin Oriental’s 24th floor fitness centre is 24/7, which should be a requirement of all 5-star properties, and there was a wide range of weights (ibid). A nice extra is that the really-new Technogym pieces have Sudoku among the games to play. Addicts therefore stay longer and use more calories. The hotel, amazingly celebrates its 60th this year, also makes it easy to start scaling The Peak – yes, a real one, 552m ASL and variously called Mount Austin or Victoria Peak. Across Statue Square next to the hotel, through Standard & Chartered Bank, cross Queen’s Road Central and, following your nose take stone staircases and steep inclines up towards The Peak. On a Sunday this is especially enjoyable. The Square and temporarily-pedestrianised road around resemble an upper-class Manila market and St John’s Cathedral, on the route as you climb, has a full-scale sung mass, with doors open, at around 5.30 pm.
Switch to Mandarins for a moment. MANDARIN ORIENTAL, at its south-west corner, is ideal for Central Park runs, MANDARIN ORIENTAL LONDON HYDE PARK for a nip around The Serpentine, and MANDARIN ORIENTAL GENEVA offers immediate countryside immersion. Follow along the ban of the Rhône, heading away from town. You certainly feel fit as that fiddle after a full half hour of that.
