It was a last minute decision to spend the weekend in Amsterdam. The weather forecast promised a fine weather in the days to come so we thought we?d rather go elsewhere than to spend a weekend at our backyard beach (we?re not so much of beach fans). ?been to Amsterdam years ago while Son did a thorough cultural study of the city just three months ago with his friends in college (school?s pre-requisite). Our railpasses stretched its use up to Essen from the capital city of Brussels, leaving us to pay just a fraction of the already discounted weekend tarief from Essen to Amsterdam. Quite a bargain. It was about two and a half hour comfortable ride from Brussels to Amsterdam Airport, where our chosen hotel awaits. Why at the airport and not at the city center? I?ll tell you as I go along.

As soon as my son and I decided to spend the weekend in Amsterdam, we tried to book a hotel room at the city center itself. I guess we decided too late, as most of the hotels that we know of were either fully booked or the prices had gone sky-high. The only option for our hotel budget was outside the city center---where we found one nearby the Schiphol airport. Not bad, as we also love airport scenes. Call us mad, but we do love lingering around the airports and malls---and Schiphol (Amsterdam?s main international airport) isn?t just an airport but a mall as well---or shall I say Amsterdam?s Mall WITH an international airport attached to it.

There were several hotels in and around Schiphol Airport, ranging from one to five star accommodations: Etap, Ibis and Mercure are a few of our favourites. They offer a free shuttle service from the hotel to the airport. Sheraton Hotel is located and connected to the airport itself, but it was far-out of our budget range. Then, we discovered a new hotel just a few steps from the airport--- very trendy and young. We read a lot of reviews and the majority seemed positive about it. We even watched some videos and were pleased with what we saw; but personally, we chose this hotel becauseit was very much within our budget.

OUR HOTEL


CitizenM Schiphol is the trendiest hotel that we have ever been to---it is just about a few steps from the main entrance of the airport. The building from afar is like a grey/beige box with the name of the hotel written on it. At the back of it is literally the runway of the airplanes. In front of it is the main highway to the airport. ?sounds noisy, isn?t it? BUT IT ISN?T! It is actually quiet and very open. The walkway to the hotel from the airport is covered, therefore, rain and snow proof, I may say. The hotel entrance was very red, with its red glass doors and red glass hallway. The friendly English-speaking young man greeted us and booked us right away. Our hotel room was all ready when we got in at around 10 am. Key card was scanned and not stuck in the key slot. Son loved it instantly, while I had to analyze it logically and get over it. It was beautiful at first glance but definitely weird. Intelligently and tastefully designed but?still weird! usually, people call me weird, but this??

The room is controlled by a computerized control panel. When you get into the room, the panel greets you welcome. From there, you can control everything in the room---the lights, the window blinds, airconditioner, tv, etc. You can choose which mood do you want your room to be---business, romantic, love, etc. Super cool! Room has a large wall-to-wall bed with a big flat screen tv in front of it. Toilet and shower are two separate round cubicles but still is a part of the room. Its shape and location in the bed room is really awkward yet tasteful. It is like a cubicle where you utter the words : ?Beam me up, Scotty?, or the bedroom of one of the teenage kids of the Jetsons. A hotel mascot awaits you in your room when you come in. It?s a rag doll and it's there to accompany you during your stay. If you decide to adopt it, you will be charged ?19.95. Shampoos are in dispensers. You can buy the same shampoo with CitizenM?s logo on it from the souvenir shop of the hotel. There are about 60 tv channels in different languages. Film tv channels are free of charge.

My favourite part of this room is the wide glass window fronting the runway of the planes! Watch the planes land and take off from your bedroom window---how cool is that? Inspite of its closeness to the airport, this hotel is really SOUND PROOF! You can?t hear any sound at all! The bed itself is also the most comfortable bed that I?ve ever slept on. Lots of large pillows and the linens were soft and clean!
The bar downstairs is very cool and trendy. There are ready made foods that you can take by yourself. The price of the meals are very reasonable. Sushi costs around ?8 for 8 pieces, noodles, rice meals, salads and vegetarian dishes were also available at reasonable prices. Breakfast is available twenty four hours and there are so many places to lounge around, conference rooms to hold your meetings and a computer area where you can use about 6 of their computers and printers FREE OF CHARGE! The overall design of this hotel is very young and futuristic. Very attractive to the youth, the young-once and the modern business people who wish to stay there for a lay-over.

INTO THE CITY


After checking-in at the hotel, we decided to get into the action right away and boarded the train from Schiphol to the city center of Amsterdam. There is a tourist information just in front of the station. Here one can buy an I AMSTERDAM pass for 24, 48 and 72 hours. This entitles you to a free entrance for most museums and free use of the busses and trams in and around the city. I could have bought one of those but since we were just staying for one weekend and since we arrived already very late in the afternoon, I thought I?d just go around first and look at the bird?s eye view of Amsterdam and visit some interesting museums as we go along.

Our journey started at the Dam, the central square of the city. There were some street performers, a lot of tourists and the ambiance of everyone ?high? from their holiday hormones---including me of course. I wish I could start telling you now what all those monuments, attractions and site are all about, but the space on this blog will not be sufficient, therefore I will make my tips about it on a separate page. What to see at the Dam are the Bijenkorf, a very big and beautiful mall, the famous Hotel Krasnapolsky, Madame Tussaud and the Royal Palace. Then, we moved on to visit the Rijksmuseum, a museum that recently re-opened that houses several paintings and arts of famous artists. The Van Gogh Museum was hard to miss since I have been a fan of him since I was just a little child. My sore feet flattened by the heavy weight of my obessed body gave up and we were forced to take the tram to get us to Leidsplein where we took a cuppa at the imposing white and yellow building of the café Americain. Leidsplein is where the action is---lot of good shops and restaurants. Walking back to the station, we passed by the very busy shopping streets where bargains were still on and people still unreluctantly buying stuffs. To end our day we passed by the Albert Heijn supermarket to buy some fruits and vegetable salads for our evening meal, that is, after we quenched our thirst for window shopping at the Magna Plaza, a large mall of nothing but signatures.

Back at the hotel at precisely 7pm. Feet sore, head turning from fatigue, rested-muscles aching and hunger pangs active, confined us at our room for a while. Cold aircon took my fatigue away (but not my sore feet). Son experimented with the control panel of the room while I checked on my mails from my laptop-served with a FREE WIFI. By the way, I forgot to mention---aside from the free wifi, every hotel room is equipped with a safe fit for every laptop. I found it very handy. Because of the proximity of the hotel to the airport, we thought we?d take a drink at the panoramic bar/restaurant of the airport and watch more planes go by. Then, we went back to the hotel, lounged around at the lounge area and used the hotel's computer at the lobby FREE of charge.

THE DAY AFTER


Ahhhhh?a brand new morn! I have dozed off pretty deep. ?woke up with smile on my face rather than ?gosh! What time is it? Darn!? sort of morning. It was 5am and ?was ready to hit the road. Unfortunately, Son was still in his REM state and I dared not destroy his peace or it would be war the rest of the day. I opened the window blinds to have an early glimpse of the comings and the goings of the planes that must have taken me to or taken me home from a holiday of my dream. Oh well, watching them pass by my window was exciting enough. Next time, it will be my turn to travel farther ---to my dream destination. TV was set on the free film offered by the hotel. Actually, there were two film channels where I was zapping to and fro until I fell asleep last night. Can?t remember what they were. I was so tired to really watch them fully.
At 6am, I finally hit the shower. The shower wasn?t really privacy-friendly. Although you can set the light inside the cabin on the mood of your choice, the walls and doors are see-through. Not convenient if you are sharing a room with a specie of opposite gender. Although there was a white curtain in between the shower and the bed, the curtain was also see through! Surely the interior designer of this room was a male, lol! :o! Sooooo, anyway, I decided to put off the light, opened the blinds of the window and let the lights from the runway lighten up the room and conceal the shower cubicle from the bed to protect my privacy---just in case Son wakes up and have a shock of his life. The shower was great though---the rain shower gave me the wow feeling of having--- a shower, well, ahhh, in the rain! Son woke up at 7am, had his share of public display in our shower room and off we went to the airport to take our breakfast at Starbucks. (BTW, if you want total convenience, CitizenM also offers breakfast at a very reasonable price!)

Back to the city center at 10 am, locking backpacks at the luggage depot of the central station. The fee was minimal and you can pay with your debit card or credit card. Should you want to pay in cash, ask the person-in-charge so that he can help you. Friendly staff---they are always there to help.

Our itinerary for today is pure relaxation with a bit of shopping and city orientation. Son asked me if I wanted to see the famous sights of Amsterdam and I eagerly said YES. So, he brought me to the ---Yeah? yeah?the Red Light District. Didn?t really see much, I just wanted to get out of there right away. Too wild for an aging female like myself, I guess. Soon, we were window shopping at the coolest streets of the Negen Straten (9 Streets) Wowowee! This place is awesome. It?s all nine streets of delightful shops and restaurants---

Brunch we did at the restaurant De Jaren. It is a grand building on the side street of the Negen Straten; quite clean, classy and trendy place to eat. Then, we went to visit the museum of the famous ANNE FRANK. Since it was forbidden to take pictures inside the museum, I took the liberty of taking the picture of the actual house where Anne used to live in, and the lower part of the house where Anne?s father used to work. We also visited a few churches such as the Nieuwe Kerk, St. Nicholas Kerk and Westerkerk. The views of the canals were phenomenal. The last part of our visit was way back to the Dam again and see more of the places that we?ve missed the day before, such as Madam Tussaud and the Bijenkorf. Our final goodbye was at the top restaurant of Bijenkorf where we had a delicious apple cake, coke and coffee.

Amsterdam is not so far from our place and yet the least visited city in our list. Now that we?ve found the cheapest way to get there via public transport, the Amsterdamers will surely see a lot more of us in the coming days.
WIJ ZULLEN TERUGKEREN! (We shall be back!)

Share in Marie Cecile Thijs' beliefs that angels are all around us in plain sight. This captivating exhibit shows angels in various human forms with subtle touches. Plan a trip to the Mellwig during your stay at our hotel near Amsterdam museums.

Alfred Stevens went from a scenic painter to a recognized storyteller of high class women. This exhibit at the Van Gogh Museum chronicles this famed artist's career. Choose our affordable lodging during your stay in Amsterdam and be sure to see this exhibit.

Make your Christmas Day a special occasion with a classical music concert. Royal Concertgebouw chief conductor Mariss Jansons will be inviting famous conductors from the world over to direct the orchestra. Plan your Christmas vacation with our accommodations in Central Amsterdam.

Get your tango on during the week between Christmas and New Year's at the 12th Annual Tangomagia Festival. This international festival will be held at venues across Amsterdam City for five full days and nights. Experience the passion, intimacy and tradition of the tango during your stay at our hip central Amsterdam hotel.

Marked by the War is a collection of Dutch cartoonist Fritz Behrendt, featuring his early drawings and sketches. This exhibit showcases the work of one of the Netherlands' most renowned World War Two-centric political artists. Make your way to the Amsterdam Resistance Museum during your stay at our museum quarter hotel before this exhibit ends its run this month.

Contemporary photography can often blur the line between reality and abstraction. PRUNE is an exhibit from various artists, such as Lisa Oppenheim and Julian Faulhaber, on display at the Amsterdam Photography Museum. Book a room at our hip hotel near the Amsterdam museums and be sure to see the artistic photos rooted in reality yet directed towards the abstract.

when all the partying has got too much for you, head out to Volendam on the coast nearby. A service bus from outside the central station takes you to a tiny seaside town reminiscent of a disney set, where locals still wear traditional dress. Top it off with a short trip across the water to Marken, and pick up your bus from there to get back to Amsterdam in time for tea! Fab!

The Nightwatch 3D statue are now somewhere,maybe in belgium for rental purpose...

NIGHTWATCH 3D

Who would expect the famous fusiliers from the squadron commanded by Captain Frans Banning Cocq, as portrayed in 1642 by Rembrandt, to leave the canvas and to become a three dimensional bronze sculpture? But this time, not in the seventeenth century but in the twenty first century Holland.

The concept of this thoroughly unique project was conceived by two Russian sculptors ? Mikhail Dronov and Alexander Taratynov. The history of art has known nothing of the kind to date. The sculptors have created something fundamental and professional. They have modelled, sculpted and cast in bronze the figures of the 22 fusiliers; their exuberant outfits, arms, and various accessories. They, as it were, threw down the gauntlet to, everyday perceptions of the famous ?Nightwatch? painting.

want to know more?.>

http://www.nightwatch3d.com/information.htm

Glasgow is the city of Rennie MacIntosh, a architect with a view in the future. Beautiful buildings or designs for a chair can be seen in this city. On the other side it is also a city where you can shop till you drop. Everything can be bought here, from vintage in de Barras to Italian Design nearby George Square.

it is so cool to ride bycicle in amsterdam - you will get it free if you park your car in the park & ride of olympisch stadium. the price for the garage is just 6,-€ per day.

Hi there! In Amsterdam, I liked the Supper Club a lot, and the boats sailing from Rokin at Spui on evening cruises with wine, cheese and bread at a reasonable price. They are sailing for two hours on the channels. I also liked the cafe De Waag, nice setting! And the Anne Frank house gave a big impression, good to be reminded about what happened, considering the easy times we live in.

Unparalleled acoustics reign supreme in Amsterdam’s classical music temple. Besides top orchestras, also jazz and pop-artists seem to have found the way to its stage.

Podium, cinema, restaurant and club. This multi-faceted cultural powerhouse in the eastern part of town is the latest creation of the minds behind Kriterion a bar and cinema uniquely run by students. Great projects like these show the potential this neighbourhood has for the future.

Next to housing the world’s largest collection of paintings by the master himself, the van Gogh museum, an artistic masterpiece in itself, also showcases a remarkable range of other 19th and 20th century painters.

A microbrewery situated in the eastern part of Amsterdam. Its bodega opens daily from 3 to 8pm for you to sample their home brewed beers.

When in Amsterdam check out the Foam Art Gallery to catch great photography exhibits from well-known photographers as well as up and coming artists. http://www.foam.nl/index.php

One of the best Irish pubs in Dublin, located between the shopping center and Temple Bar at Stephen Street. It is enjoyed best for a quiet Sunday afternoon drink if you want to stay away from the tourist traps in Temple Bar. See http://www.dublinpubscene.com/thepubs/thehairylemon.html for a map of where to find it.

A church in an attic that's also a museum and a house and an art gallery. It shows all kinds of fantastic contemporary art as well as more traditional religious pieces.

For more than a decade, this gallery/store has been Amsterdam's go-to spot for the latest from emerging product designers.

Amsterdam's original modern art museum. Everything from old school paintings by Kirchner and Matisse to video art installations.

All the latest and greatest contemporary photography from around the world.

Good selection of contemporary artists including Marina Bramovich.