amsterdam

Sea Cloud Cruises Goes Cycling

Next spring, for the first time, Sea Cloud Cruises will initiate something new and beguiling--- cycling cruises through Holland and Belgium aboard the River Cloud II. Three eight-day cruises during April are planned with prices starting at $3,340 per person. This will be old-world travel in the slow lane during the day and all the comforts of a luxury hotel at night. If you have marathon knees or hips, you should know that the biking will be on flat, flat country ---no steeps and at a leisurely pace.

Tags: Amsterdam, Antwerp, bike trips, keukenhof, river cruises

Continue reading “Sea Cloud Cruises Goes Cycling”

Discredited Art Collector's Treasure A Van Gogh After All

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

It's no Starry Night but "Le Blute-fin Mill" is a Van Gogh after all. Experts have said that the painting of windmills and people against a pale sky is by the Dutch artist. The painting doesn't immediately strike the eye as a Van Gogh, but experts at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum have verified that it dates back to 1886.

"Le Blute-Fin Mill", was put on display in the Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle, Amsterdam. It was bought 35 years ago by Dirk Hannema, the founder of the museum, who kept the painting in his own home until he died in 1984. The painting then made its way to the museum but was only displayed a couple of times. Hannema paid around $2,700 for the painting in Paris and was certain that it was an original. His words went unheeded because he had been discredited years before when he bought a Vermeer (one of the works of forger Han van Meegeren) and made it a star exhibit. Hannema had a preferences for seeking out the works of masters that were yet to be attributed to them, the problem was that he was not always right and his eagerness made him an easy target for an enterprising forger (for a riveting read on van Meegeren, check out The Forger's Spell).

The museum had tried back in 1993 to have the windmill painting authenticated but at that point the experts weren't available. Its is believed that Van Gogh painted the work in Paris, the canvas bears the stamp of an art store that he was known to buy materials and pigments from, according to an AP interview with Louis van Tilborgh, curator of research at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Gallery: The Brief And Prolific Life Of Vincent Van Gogh

Tags: amsterdam, art, dirk hannema, DirkHannema, van gogh, VanGogh

Infiniti Presents Exclusive FX Millionaire Edition in Holland

by Noah Joseph (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

While Range Rover may have had the market cornered once upon a time, today buyers in the market for a luxury sport-utility or crossover have no shortage of choices. But those European buyers looking for something a little more exclusive have a new option in front of them: the Infiniti FX Millionaire Edition.

Set to be unveiled next week at Amsterdam's Millionaire Fair, the special edition FX crossover is available with either a 3.7-liter V6 or 5-liter V8. It can be ordered in either Obsidian Black or White Moonlight, and is complemented by special dark graphite trim around the grille, windows, roof rails and 21" wheels. Inside the Millionaire Edition gets all the latest electronics (including Bose surround sound, Around View Monitor and satellite navigation) in a cabin draped in micro-suede with brown stitching and offset by carbon fiber trim.

The special package doesn't come cheap, though: the FX50 Millionaire Edition sells for an immodest €95,450 – about $144,000, or twice what a stock model would cost in the United States.

Source

Tags: amsterdam, amsterdam rai, AmsterdamRai, infiniti, infiniti fx, infiniti fx millionaire edition, infiniti fx37, infiniti fx37 millionaire edition, infiniti fx50, infiniti fx50 millionaire edition, infiniti millionaire edition, InfinitiFx, InfinitiFx37, InfinitiFx37MillionaireEdition, InfinitiFx50, InfinitiFx50MillionaireEdition, InfinitiFxMillionaireEdition, InfinitiMillionaireEdition, millionaire edition, millionaire fair, MillionaireEdition, MillionaireFair

The World's Most Expensive Cocktail Shaker

by Annie Scott (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits

The World's Most Expensive Cocktail Shaker

While I was running around Amsterdam on Museumnacht (an annual event where museums across the city stay open into the wee hours), I found something for which I didn't know I was looking: the world's most expensive cocktail shaker.

The Boston Shaker, as it's called, is located in the gift shop of the House of Bols, a flavored liqueur company whose on-site museum/training facility is worth visiting -- they won the the Dutch Design Award for Best Exhibition & Experience in 2007 and you get to play "guess what flavor you're smelling." It's just across the street from the Van Gogh museum.

The Boston Shaker was created as a collaboration between The House of Bols and their neighbor, Coster Diamonds. It comes packaged as above, in a unique leather case designed and made by French family business Établissements Bernard RDB. The shaker itself is silver, 18 karat gold, and is encrusted with 480 brilliant-cut diamonds weighing 19.05 carats.

The price tag on this one-of-a-kind blinged-up barware is €35,000.00 or approximately $52,164.00.

This trip was paid for by the Netherlands Board of Tourism, but the ideas and opinions expressed in the article above are 100% my own.

Tags: amsterdam, cocktail shaker, cocktails, CocktailShaker, diamonds, house of bols, HouseOfBols

Stay in Rotterdam's Crazy Cube Houses?

by Alison Wellner (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

Rotterdam is a great city for architectural enthusiasts -- and actually, for enthusiasts of construction, since the city is really proud of its ongoing modern building efforts, which includes a complete redesign of the city's train station. (The city feels like a modern palate-cleanser if you visit after an immersion in Amsterdam's historic canal-lined streets, although some will look at you funny there if you say you're going to Rotterdam. Don't step into the middle of this one, Rotterdam thinks it's way cooler and more creative than Amsterdam.)

One of the most iconic structures in town are the Cube Houses, designed by architect Piet Blom in the late 1970's, built in the mid 1980s, and they definitely capture the feel of that era. The city apparently was considering using the cubes as ex-convict housing, but now, Stayokay is using it as a just-opened youth hostel. So if you want to really go retro, and return to your younger days, you can stay in a cube in a shared room for under 20 euro a night. Personally, I'd visit #70, which is open as a museum, and stay at The Westin.

Source
Source

Tags: amsterdam, architecture, holland, hostel, hostels, rotterdam

Dali Swiped From Dutch Digs

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

Armed robbers absconded with two paintings from the Scheringa Museum for Realist Art in Spanbroek last Friday. One of them was a piece by Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali. An exact number of thieves was not reported, but they were "several," and they wore masks. Walking into this museum with guns, they threatened the museum staff and dashed off wit the prize.

Driving off in a little black car, the art bandits left with "Adolescence," painted by Dali in 1941, and "La Musicienne," by Polish art deco painter Tamara de Lempicka (1929). Both paintings ~~are~~ were owned by the museum.

If you have a taste for Dali, look for the fence. Just don't get caught!

Source

Tags: amsterdam, art, art theft, artist, ArtTheft, dali, netherlands, salvador dali, SalvadorDali, surreal, surrealism, surrealist

Minibar Nightclub Lets Patrons Serve Themselves

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

In a bad economy one of the reliable jobs seems to be restaurant work but could the cocktail waitress soon be obsolete? The Minibar nightclub in Amsterdam offers individual minibars that let patrons serve themselves. You check in with the concierge who gives you access to one of 45 small fridges which is stocked with beer, wine and spirits (there are also special bars just for beer and champagne only). The private fridges are stocked with snacks and you can also order from a delivery menu of fresh sushi and seasonal dishes. It's too soon to say if the concept will catch on and spread.

[via Springwise]

Source

Tags: amsterdam, minibar, nightclub

Beastie Bags: A Handbag Made from Sea Bream?

by Alison Wellner (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Handbags, Luxury Travel & Hotels

As a confirmed accessories aficionado, I thought it couldn't get any better than the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto -- until I visited Amsterdam's Tassenmuseum, which is the Museum of Bags and Purses. Like Bata, the Tassenmuseum has a permanent collection which tells the history of the handbag via a collection of some 3,500 purses which date back to 1500, up to the present moment.

On display now until August 23 is "Beastie Bags", a small exhibition of handbags made from, or inspired by, animals. There are bags made from the usual suspects, crocodile skin, for example, and there are older bags using materials from animals that are now protected or endangered, including ivory and tortoise shell.

Contemporary bags include those made from the leather of sting rays and toads, but the most compelling contemporary bags of the collection are by Netherlands designer Evelyn van Oosterhout, who has made handbags from fish -- in the bag pictured here, sea bream lined with hare fur. The exhibit notes that fish leather is thin, but extremely tough. (She also made a very witty, if totally gross, bag made from used fly paper, also on display.) Carrying one of these on your arm will certainly be a conversation starter.

Van Oosterhout's site is in Dutch but has many more photos of these purses, including the fly paper purse, and other accessories. Warning: some images not for the squeamish. Van Oosterhaut says her bags range in price from €280 for a small red snapper bag to €550 for a sea bream bag.

Tags: amsterdam, handbag, museum, purse

Amsterdam's Red Light Rooms Become Art Studios

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

Amsterdam's red light district has always been as much of a tourist attraction as a place of infamous business but now some of the brothel rooms are being turned into art studios. Reuters reports on Redlight Art Amsterdam, a project that is part of plans to revitalize the city by limiting the number of brothels and coffee shops selling marijuana. Prostitution is still legal in the Netherlands and some women are still in business next to the artists.

Some of the purchased buildings will eventually be given a permanent function for the city but for one year they offer national and international artists a chance to display their creations. There are eight artists participating in the project and a final exhibition is planned for the second half of the year.

Amsterdam has been wrestling with its most notorious industry for a long time. The move to legalize prostitution in 2000 took place to help curb gangster activity in the sex trade. The Dutch government is trying to clean up organized crime but some feel that it is going to far and that tourism will suffer as the city loses its edge. A large portion of the tourists who visit the city are attracted by the cannabis coffee shops and the liberal attitude toward prostitution. The city is hoping that by limiting the spread of the coffee shops and prostitution to a few key areas it will be able to attract a new crop of tourists more interested in Amsterdam's museums and scenic charms.

Gallery: Scenes from Amsterdam

40th Anniversary of the Bed In For Peace

Source

Tags: amsterdam, art, art studios, ArtStudios, public art, PublicArt, red light district, RedLightDistrict

JP Morgan Chase Sues Dutch Museum Over Painting

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

The beautiful painting shown above is now part of a dispute between Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum and JP Morgan Chase. The painting, Gerrit Adriaensz Berckheyde's The Bend in the Herengracht near the Nieuwe Spiegelstraat in Amsterdam (1672), was purchased by the museum from Dutch businessman Louis Reijtenbagh last year. But it turns out that the painting is on a list of art that Reijtenbagh used as collateral to secure a loan. The bank got most of his art collection earlier this month and now wants this painting too. JP Morgan Chase filed a claim in a New York federal court to seize the painting saying that the businessman shouldn't have sold it to the museum if he was using it as loan collateral.

The painting is currently in Washington D.C. It is on loan to the National Gallery through May 3 as part of the exhibition "Pride of Place: Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age."

Source

Tags: amsterdam, art, jp morgan chase, JpMorganChase, painting, Rijksmuseum

Tiffany & Co. Heads To Amsterdam

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

Jewelry store Tiffany & Co. is planning to open its first store in Amsterdam this fall. The new store will be approximately 2,100 square feet and located in a historic building on PC Hooftstraat, the Dutch city's main shopping street. Tiffany's architects and designers have pledged to preserve the building's original façade while giving it the Tiffany treatment on the inside with brushed stainless steel, custom furnishings and of course plenty of robin's egg blue boxes and diamonds.

Melvyn Kirtley, Group Vice President, Tiffany & Co. Europe says that opening the first Tiffany store in Amsterdam is a strong vote of confidence for Tiffany's growth potential in Europe. In the U.S., Tiffany recently announced plans to close its pearls-only store chain, Iridesse.

Source

Tags: amsterdam, jewelry store, JewelryStore, tiffany

Bols Genever Amsterdam Gin

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits

Lucas Bols, the world's oldest distilled spirits brand originally established in 1575 in Amsterdam, has relaunched its Dutch Genever gin, a white spirit created almost two centuries ago. The word "gin" has disappeared from the new bottle (above) in favor of "grain neutral spirits", as the old world Genever bears little resemblance to the dry London gins we're familiar with these days. Bols Genever is made by blending a unique distillate called maltwine with a carefully selected secret blend of botanicals; the result is a superior quality spirit with a unique smooth character that can be made into a variety of delicious cocktails. Genever has in fact been an essential cocktail ingredient for nearly two centuries; Jerry Thomas, author of the world's first cocktail book The Bartender's Guide cited it as one of only four essential cocktail spirits back in 1862.

Gallery: Bols Genever Gin

Tags: Amsterdam, Bols, Bols Genever, BolsGenever, Gin, Holland, Jerry Thomas, JerryThomas, Lucas Bols, LucasBols

Win Tickets To Amsterdam With Gadling

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

Our slightly older sister site, Gadling, the source for travel news, is holding a contest to celebrate their birthday this week. They are giving away a pair of round trip tickets to Amsterdam on the newest premium carrier, OpenSkies. OpenSkies is the new premium carrier which flies rom the east coast into Europe. Earlier this year they launched their first route between JFK and Paris, and as of October 15th they're starting their second route from JFK into Amsterdam. The tickets are for Prem+, OpenSkies' signature upper class service which offers wide leather seats, a comfy cabin and attentive service on your journey. To enter head on over to Gadling and tell them why you need to go to Amsterdam.

Source

Tags: amsterdam, gadling, giveaway, open skies, OpenSkies

CitizenM Hotels

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

The latest hotel brand promises "affordable" luxury" for travelers on the go. Citizen M is a new Dutch hotel group which takes its name from the idea of mobile citizen. The rooms include a super king-size bed, a wall-to-wall window for plenty of natural light, a flat LCD television, ambient lighting and a rain shower. Each room can be customized with mood, light, temperature and music preferences. The lobby is stocked with Vitra furnishings and canteenM offers a 24-hour choice of sandwiches, salads, sushi, warm dishes and more. In-house baristas prepare coffee and other beverages and there is a bar for cocktails in the evening. The first citizenM hotel will open at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam with 230 rooms at the beginning of 2008 and rates will start at 69 euros a night.

Gallery: CitizenM Hotels

Source

Tags: amsterdam, citizenm, hotel brand, hotels

New Five-Star Hotel Opens in Amsterdam

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

The newest luxury hotel in Amsterdam is the Grand Hotel Amrâth Amsterdam, a five-star hotel which recently opened its doors in the heart of the city center. The hotel is located inside Amsterdam's famous "Scheepvaarthuis," the Shipping House which is an Amsterdam landmark and a symbol of Holland's history of shipping. The new hotel has 163 rooms and suites which have a nautical theme. Other seafaring touches are seen in the main entrance hall which has a stained glass ceiling depicting the globe, the seven oceans and star signs and a marble staircase decorated with shells, octopuses and other figures. The ground floor is home to a bar/lounge and the Seven Seas restaurant. The former safe will become a wine bar set to open in the fall. A planned wellness center with a pool and a gym is also set to open later in the year.

Source

Tags: amsterdam, holland, hotel, travel, vacation

amsterdam

Featured Galleries

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular

Also on AOL