amsterdam Travel Guide

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MYOB: Make Your Own Banner Arrives at Amsterdam's Airport

December 7, 2011 at 9:24 AM | by | Comments (0)

Scribbling out a welcome sign on crumpled paper from your backseat usually doesn’t promote a warm welcome, so that’s why Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport is ready to help you out.

Those tasked with picking up loved ones—or the company CEO—now have a new option at the airport. AMS just installed some sort of banner-making vending machine; so all you have to do is pop in a few euros and pick out your salutations.

BannerXpress is the company behind the idea, and they’re thinking about expanding the fun to more airports, stadiums, and other spots. Users are welcome to select all kinds of different things to create their custom sign including font size, colors, and background images. It’s not cheap at €15, but after waiting three hours instead of 15 minutes to pick up a pal, we probably couldn’t resist taking the machine for a test drive.

[Photo: The Consortium]

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Can You Believe This is Airport Food?

Where: Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, Netherlands
August 15, 2011 at 5:07 PM | by | Comments (2)

Okay, okay. So we just finished spreading the gospel of Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport, but we're kinda not done since we didn't say anything about the food. Oh, THE FOOD!

Instead of giving you a huge gallery and making you drool on a Monday evening when you're likely nowhere near the international departures area at AMS, here are just a few tidbits to give you an idea—hints to get your appetite going on a day you're traveling through Schiphol. Here's the biggest tip: save your tummy for some good stuff; skipping breakfast or another meal is fine if you're on your way to this airport.

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Inside Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport: The Ginormous KLM Crown Lounge

Where: Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, Netherlands
August 12, 2011 at 5:27 PM | by | Comments (0)

Welcome to Amsterdam Week here on Jaunted! Each day, we're coming at ya with a Double Dutch of features: two stories on a city (and its airport) that stuns with its beauty and nearly overwhelms with everything there is to do. Got any Amsterdam tips of your own? Share with us in the comments!

Today at Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport, we're visiting the KLM Crown Lounge for international (non-Schengen) departures

Now we've reached the end of our week-long series on Schiphol Airport, but we're leaving you in KLM's international departures lounge for flyers with KLM or SkyTeam status. It's a perfect place to leave off, since this is where many travelers really begin their journeys and it's through these glass doors and beyond this KLM-blue desk that you really want to be.

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Foreign Grocery Friday: Freaky Deaky Dutch 'Hagelslag' Sprinkles

August 12, 2011 at 10:42 AM | by | Comments (2)

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

Two words: CHOCOLATE SPRINKLES. They aren't just for kids anymore, and in fact, never really were since the Dutch adopted them as an alternative to Nutella. That's right; for breakfast (and sometimes lunch), millions of Dutch are sitting down to a helping of Hagelslag, or chocolate sprinkles covering a buttered piece of toast.

Hagelslag has a long history in Holland, as sprinkles are even used on little toast rounds to celebrate the birth of a baby (so much for chocolate cigars). The most traditional flavors are anise, milk chocolate or dark chocolate, although vanilla and fruit are also popular.

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Damn Good Gouda: Go Cheese Tasting at Amsterdam's Historic Reypenaer Proeflokaal

Where: Singel 182, Amsterdam, Netherlands
August 11, 2011 at 4:18 PM | by | Comments (0)

Welcome to Amsterdam Week here on Jaunted! Each day, we're coming at ya with a Double Dutch of features: two stories on a city (and its airport) that stuns with its beauty and nearly overwhelms with everything there is to do. Got any Amsterdam tips of your own? Share with us in the comments!

Not gonna lie. Sometimes all we want out of life is to sit down and eat a block of cheese...wine would also be nice. In Holland though, cheese is not simply "cheese," but a lifestyle where even casual foodies pay attention to the producers.

Enter Reypenaer Proeflokaal, a store and cheese tasting room in the heart of old Amsterdam, where Ron Pieters—a master of cheese and spirits—instructs those who pay 12.50 Euro for a class on the finer points of six traditional Dutch cheeses (and their proper wine and port pairings). Ron wants you to know what it is you're eating, and to know how properly to savor it when you've chosen well and paid plenty.

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Inside Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport: The Branch of the Famous Rijksmuseum

August 11, 2011 at 12:35 PM | by | Comments (2)

Welcome to Amsterdam Week here on Jaunted! Each day, we're coming at ya with a Double Dutch of features: two stories on a city (and its airport) that stuns with its beauty and nearly overwhelms with everything there is to do. Got any Amsterdam tips of your own? Share with us in the comments!

Today at Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport, we're visiting the outpost of the Rijkmuseum.

Confession: during this most recent visit to Amsterdam, the long lines to enter the massive Rijksmuseum in the city foiled our plans to visit. Alas, we comforted ourselves with the thought that it's not like we won't ever be back and plsu—the Rijksmuseum has a mini outpost right inside the airport!

The museum-cube sits on the main drag called Holland Boulevard, in the international departures (non-Schengen) terminal. To one side is the Airport Library and to the other the Holland Casino, but its the museum above and its gift shop below that are most easily spotted. Entrance is free (unlike the real Rijksmuseum, which costs 12.50 Euro per adult) and the exhibits change, so if you're a frequent traveler through AMS, we wouldn't write it off after just one visit.

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Everything's Better With Kittens: Amsterdam's 'Kattenkabinet' Cat Artwork Museum

August 10, 2011 at 5:05 PM | by | Comments (0)

Welcome to Amsterdam Week here on Jaunted! Each day, we're coming at ya with a Double Dutch of features: two stories on a city (and its airport) that stuns with its beauty and nearly overwhelms with everything there is to do. Got any Amsterdam tips of your own? Share with us in the comments!

It is our conclusion that the internet needs more cat pictures, as does the world as a whole really. One place that totally agrees is Amsterdam's KattenKabinet, a mini-museum dedicated to artwork featuring and inspired by...cats. It's also a fun-to-say word.

You don't have to be a "cat person" to love this little slice of culture; Kattenkabinet is all Amsterdam, but without buslouds of tourists and with its sense of history intact. Still the rooms are filled with curiosities like a costume from the Broadway musical Cats, a ginormous painting depicting a cat-god/devil wreaking havoc (our favorite), and a specially-printed US dollar bill bearing the portrait of J.P. Morgan—though not Morgan the human captain of industry, but Morgan the owner's cat that inspired this entire place.

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Inside Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport: The Indoor-Outdoor Green Park

August 10, 2011 at 12:43 PM | by | Comments (0)

Welcome to Amsterdam Week here on Jaunted! Each day, we're coming at ya with a Double Dutch of features: two stories on a city (and its airport) that stuns with its beauty and nearly overwhelms with everything there is to do. Got any Amsterdam tips of your own? Share with us in the comments!

Today at Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport, we're visiting the super new Airport Park.

While passengers heading out of Amsterdam on international departures get the fun of the Airport Library, those flying to nearer Schengen countries have a special airport area all their very own: an entire indoor/outdoor park. The space, only just opened in May of this year, is complete with live greenery, picnic tables, a stand selling fresh-cut tulips, a juice bar, a computer section with internet access and outlets, and—get this—chaise lounges and bean bag chairs!

Needless to say, we fell head over heels in love with the unique space and can say that it's got more going for it than some actual parks.

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Not Quite a Museum But a Mecca of Modern Design: Welcome to Moooi Gallery in Amsterdam

Where: Westerstraat 187, Amsterdam, Netherlands
August 9, 2011 at 4:46 PM | by | Comments (0)

Welcome to Amsterdam Week here on Jaunted! Each day, we're coming at ya with a Double Dutch of features: two stories on a city (and its airport) that stuns with its beauty and nearly overwhelms with everything there is to do. Got any Amsterdam tips of your own? Share with us in the comments!

Moooi. Say it aloud: "moooooooi." It rhymes with "joy," so long as you extend the "o" sound long enough. So what does this curious word mean, anyway? Well, it's an invented word based on the Dutch "mooi," meaning nice or pretty. The extra O is inserted to emphasize this definition, and give a name to a magical place on Amsterdam's Westerstraat, in the funky Jordaan neighborhood.

This place, Moooi, is something of a museum of modern design, but also a gallery where everything is for sale. Anyone can visit and see up close some of the iconic modern pieces only previously spotted in glam fashion photo spreads or in interiors magazines. Furniture, design and art nerds seek it out, because Moooi is also the location of Dutch industrial designer Marcel Wanders' studio. Indeed it is his flagship, though the 7,500 square feet also prominently features the work of a range of artists and fellow designers.

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Inside Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport: The World's First Airport Library

August 9, 2011 at 3:18 PM | by | Comments (0)

Welcome to Amsterdam Week here on Jaunted! Each day, we're coming at ya with a Double Dutch of features: two stories on a city (and its airport) that stuns with its beauty and nearly overwhelms with everything there is to do. Got any Amsterdam tips of your own? Share with us in the comments!

Today at Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport, we're visiting the Airport Library.

Oh wow. There's actual books without pricetags at Schiphol, and you're free to grab one off the shelf, curl up on a designer chair and enjoy a layover read next to a (fake) fireplace. Welcome to the Airport Library, which Amsterdam Airport claims is the world's first.* Located on Holland Boulevard (the main way between Piers E and F after security in the international departures area (non-Schengen)), the Airport Library is a super popular hideout for the bookish and the tired.

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The Two Coolest Cafes for a Fresh Mint Tea Fix in Amsterdam

August 8, 2011 at 5:24 PM | by | Comments (0)

Welcome to Amsterdam Week here on Jaunted! Each day, we're coming at ya with a Double Dutch of features: two stories on a city (and its airport) that stuns with its beauty and nearly overwhelms with everything there is to do. Got any Amsterdam tips of your own? Share with us in the comments!

We got addicted to something in Amsterdam. Green and leafy and irresistible, and luckily available almost everywhere so we didn't have to go too long without some. We're of course speaking of fresh mint tea, a lovely little beverage which is as aesthetically pleasing as it is tasty.

Like we said, you can find fresh mint tea—a few just-cut sprigs of mint haphazardly plunged into a steaming clear gas of scalding water—just about anywhere, but we've got two favorites to share:

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Inside Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport: The Panorama Terrace (and Its KLM Fokker 100 Airplane Showpiece)

Where: Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, Netherlands
August 8, 2011 at 1:07 PM | by | Comments (0)

Welcome to Amsterdam Week here on Jaunted! Each day, we're coming at ya with a Double Dutch of features: two stories on a city (and its airport) that stuns with its beauty and nearly overwhelms with everything there is to do. Got any Amsterdam tips of your own? Share with us in the comments!

Today at Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport, we're visiting the Panorama Terrace

Believe it or not, the Panorama Terrace is accessible to the public! That's right; whether you're traveling or not, you can head up to the extremely ginormous deck on top of the terminals for the best views in the area (and for free)! Just follow the signs from the departures area and ticketing desks, and a few flights of stairs will bring you to it.

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