The Bristol Hotel on Rab Island

Guests at the sumptuous waterside four-star Hotel Arbiana on the Croatian island of Rab may wonder how the Cocktail Bar Bristol got its name. The fact is that when the hotel was built in 1932, it was called the Bristol. Four years later, Wallis Simpson and the Prince of Wales arrived on the island and bathed naked on a discreet beach, establishing the island's reputation for naturism. Their voyage is told in "High Noon for the King's Moll", a chapter in High Times at the Hotel Bristol. The chapter can be read online. The hotel's name changed during the Communist years, though not all Bristols were erradicated in Yugoslavia. In Skopje, Macedonia, the Bristol, built in the 1924, is still in business. The only hotel in the street to survive the 1963 earthquake, it features in the "A Motoring Lesson from Macedonia". The story can be heard on YouTube.