Tag: Holland Travel

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No More Passing the Dutch as Holland Moves to Ban Tourists from Weed Cafes

November 14, 2011 at 3:36 PM | by | Comment (1)

It's happening! That ban on selling marijuana to tourists and allowing them in Dutch pot cafes—the one Holland's been discussing since earlier this year—will begin taking effect next year. And while "next year" seems like a far enough time away to not freak about this, may we remind you that next year is little more than a month-and-a-half away, and the ban hits January 1, 2012.

Don't go booking the first KLM direct to Amsterdam quite just yet, however. This first phase of the pot-for-tourists ban will only reach the southern parts of the country—Limburg, North-Brabant and Zeeland—where drug tourism is more of a problem (the rest of Europe just comes across the border down there for a joint or two, you see). Maastricht has been trialling the program since October, actually. Regardless, officials promise to include Amsterdam and the rest of the country in the ban come January 2013.

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Best Ironic Holiday Gift to Give? Your Face, Painted on a Royal Delft Plate from Holland

November 2, 2011 at 10:48 AM | by | Comment (1)

If you have ever flown KLM long-haul, you probably already know to get psyched for the in-flight shopping to start. This excitement is not due to tax-free bottles of liquor or J.Lo's latest perfume. Well, maybe for some it is, but the magic is really in the Royal Delft souvenirs.

If mini porcelain houses aren't your thing, Dutch Tourism (@visitholland) recently tweeted to say that visitors may design their own plates using the iconic hand-painted blue and white Delft pattern. This is your chance to get your face on a plate, people! After some thinking and wandering around the Royal Delft website for gift ideas, we came to the conclusion that this might actually work for a few people on our list this year.

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Maastricht Keeps the Sticky Icky for Itself, Bans Foreign Tourists from Weed Cafes

October 3, 2011 at 10:35 AM | by | Comment (1)

We're not going to say "I told you so," but we kind of did back in May when Holland first announced plans to possibly close "coffee shops" to tourists after crime rose. Now, from this last Saturday, the hammer has dropped and foreign tourists are not permitted in the coffee shops of Holland's southernmost city of Maastricht.

There are exceptions: Germans and Belgians are still welcome, but no Americans or Italians or English or French or...we could continue but you get the point. And if you are German or Belgian, then be prepared to show your passport and allow the coffee shop to retain your identity information for up to two days, even if you're only in the shop to smoke weed for fifteen minutes.

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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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