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| History Once upon a time - but not so long ago - there was a little village of fishermen with about 300 inhabitants called Playa del Carmen, where nobody really liked to stay. Because there was no place to stay. Visitors only came to get the ferry to the island of Cozumel. Cozumel, known since Jacques Cousteau discovered in the 60ies the corral reefs and sleeping sharks, and back then already famous being one of the 10 finest diving areas in the whole world and being the second largest corral reef as well. Called "Island of the Sun" because the first sunrays to hit Mexico in the morning fall onto this peace of land, the island of Cozumel. Who would have wanted to stay behind in a non-village like Playa? Sometimes escapists stayed or came back from Cozumel because land was too expensive there. This is the way I came back to Playa as well and at first didn't really know what I would do here for three weeks. But the crystal clear Caribbean sea in all the shiny turquoise blues, the silence, the sun, the friendliness of the few locals and the nearly exclusively young visitors enchanted me and wouldn't let me go.
This was the place where I wanted to stay forever... That was in the 80ies, 1991 I bought the piece of land where today the Hotel Posada Freud stands.
The first restaurant that we rented out on the front of the building was called Piccola Italia, but after the owner had to leave in a hurry due to fraud and debts, the restaurant was never opened.
The second restaurant that rented the place was called Media Luna and had a lot of success. For three years we had a wonderful work relationship with the owners and we are still friends. During my fifth month of pregnancy I survived my first hurricane and finally in February 1996 our sunshine was born and grew up in the Hotel Posada Freud. That way many of our guests have come to know my daughter since her toddler days. When she started going to school in 2001 we decided to sublease for 5 years and moved out of the Penthouse of the Hotel, wich had been our flat back then. This gave us the opportunity to travel again and help our daughter during her first years of school. In these 5 years the hotel lost most of its former charm. When we came back in February 2007, we discovered that the hotel had been neglected and the amount of work and repairs we faced seemed overwhelming. A grand restoration was undertaken. If you had already known our hotel from former years then you would see the changes immediately. A new Studio, new decoration for the rooms, new colors, furniture, lamps, curtains, more Cable-TVs and ACs and last but not least this new Website with photos and a renaissance of the "Freud" style. Just 100% Hotel Posada Freud!
Thus, instilling an all encompassing world monarchy, in order to bring peace to, what in his mind was a downtrodden country, but rich in natural resources. The crown was offered to the Habsburg, Maximilian, who had already become a bit disliked in Austria, due to his liberal ideas - a plan that suited France and Austria alike. Ferdinand Maximilian felt chosen to bring the blessings of the monarchy to a undeveloped people and to give them a better life. What he didn't know was the fact that he was bringing a throne to a country that didn't know who he was and didn't want him as their monarch. Mexico was already a democratic republic. He went to Mexico in 1864 together with 7000 other Austrians intending to bring peace and stability, which turned out to be a big illusion, and only ended with his execution in Querétaro on 19 th of June 1867. They say his last words were "Viva México"!
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