Its one of those helmets with a story: first a hotel review from "somwhere":
"In a bohemian neighborhood, this hotel in an 1892 town house is perfect if you prefer atmosphere over comfort and has received favorable press and TV notices around the world. Most rooms are large but spartan, some being furnished with hospital beds and with plumbing from 80 years ago; the front rooms have small balconies. Breakfast is served in an Art Nouveau/Art Deco room eclectically decorated with a zebra skin brought from the Belgian Congo by the owner's great uncle, a Canadian World War II steel helmet, railway signal lamps, copper pots, and a Buddhist prayer wheel. Monks from the Dalai Lama's entourage once stayed here and left mystical symbols in one room. Alas, owner Paul Pauwels usually enforces a midnight curfew."
My dad stayed in this hotel severam times over the years, and the hotel is closing down now. The positive thing is that the WW2 canadian helmet is coming to me, thanks to my dad. The hotel owner is a very nice person. He told me that the helmet was left in the hotel on May 8th 1945. A bunch of soldiers got drunk, and amongst them was a canadian soldier. He had already come to the hotel at the end of WW1 as a 16 year old soldier, so know, on the last day of WW2, he decided to leave all his equipment in the hotel, telling the owner to keep all these things untill WW3!
I havent seen the helmet yet; and hope the helmets anatomy will go along with this interesting story.
JL
"In a bohemian neighborhood, this hotel in an 1892 town house is perfect if you prefer atmosphere over comfort and has received favorable press and TV notices around the world. Most rooms are large but spartan, some being furnished with hospital beds and with plumbing from 80 years ago; the front rooms have small balconies. Breakfast is served in an Art Nouveau/Art Deco room eclectically decorated with a zebra skin brought from the Belgian Congo by the owner's great uncle, a Canadian World War II steel helmet, railway signal lamps, copper pots, and a Buddhist prayer wheel. Monks from the Dalai Lama's entourage once stayed here and left mystical symbols in one room. Alas, owner Paul Pauwels usually enforces a midnight curfew."
My dad stayed in this hotel severam times over the years, and the hotel is closing down now. The positive thing is that the WW2 canadian helmet is coming to me, thanks to my dad. The hotel owner is a very nice person. He told me that the helmet was left in the hotel on May 8th 1945. A bunch of soldiers got drunk, and amongst them was a canadian soldier. He had already come to the hotel at the end of WW1 as a 16 year old soldier, so know, on the last day of WW2, he decided to leave all his equipment in the hotel, telling the owner to keep all these things untill WW3!
I havent seen the helmet yet; and hope the helmets anatomy will go along with this interesting story.
JL