Month: June 2007

New five star Grand Hotel Amrâth Amsterdam opened

Amrâth Exterior
Amrâth Exterior

On June 8, 2007, only a couple of months later than planned, the new five star Grand Hotel Amrâth Amsterdam opened in the beautiful historic Art Deco building, the “Scheepvaarthuis” (The Shipping Companies’ Building) once belonging to the rich Amsterdam shipping companies.

The shipping companies have long disappeared, and their ships no longer proudly sail the oceans of the world. But the Scheepvaarthuis still stands, completely intact, as a beautiful monument to those times.The romance of the sea and the building’s creators can still be seen and admired, given shape in authentic materials of the time.Within this space and ambiance, a grand five-star hotel is being created with all the respect due to the monumental beauty of the building. It is a new lease of life for the Scheepvaarthuis! The grandeur of the past is being combined with modern-day comfort and luxury – technically perfect and benignly comfortable. The guests are accommodated in the past as well as the present – in a unique artwork as well as the most
beautiful luxury hotel in modern-day Amsterdam.

So far the quote.

It has 160 rooms and 15 suites which will be available as of December 2007. It is located on walking distance of the Central Station and has some beautiful views on the Historic Shipping quarter with the still active Dutch Royal Marine basis (yes blocked out on Google Maps) and the

Scheepvaartmuseum Amsterdam
Dutch Historic Shipping Museum wit “Amsterdam” replica

Historic Shipping Museum of Amsterdam with its replica of the VOC (Dutch East India Company) trader “Amsterdam”. Alas, for the time being the shipping museum is closed due to an extensive renovation.
Last edited by GJE on December 5, 2011 at 5:09 pm

Dutch Eden Hotel Group is expanding rapidly

Bergere Maastricht
Lobby of Design Hotel Bergere in Maastricht

Recently Dutch privately owned Eden Hotel Group (E.H.G.), established in 1977, acquired four hotels:

  • March 5, 2007 the Eden Crown Hotel in Eindhoven, 130 rooms.
  • March 27, 2007 the Sofitel in The Hague which has been renamed into Hotel Eden Babylon, 143 rooms.
  • June 1, 2007 the Holiday Inn in Eindhoven, which will keep its name, 200 rooms.
  • July 1, 2007 Designhotel Bergere in Maastricht with 74 rooms and plans to expand to 109 rooms.

Valencia: Louis Vuitton Cup – America's Cup post # 9

Sad! This will be my last post about the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup. We are now 1/2 hour in the fifth race. The Kiwis have won 4 races already. They only need one more win. They are approximately 100m in the lead in the second leg of this fifth race. I think it highly unlikely they will give up this winning position and so the Kiwis will be the LV Cup winners and will as challengers sail 9 races with the Swiss over the Auld Mug from June 23 through July 7.

Added June 7, 2007:

My feeling was correct.
Here the LV Cup is celebrated by the Kiwis after they walked over the Italians:

LV CUP WINNERS
Valencia, 06 06 2007
Louis Vuitton Cup Finals
Louis Vuitton Cup Docking and Prize Giving.
©ACM 2007/Photo:Stefano Gattini

Dutch Design (14): Grijs (Grey)

Grijs
Grijs Logo

I discovered Grijs, a nice Blog with a nice style about Dutch Design and more important in the English language. Started in January, 2007 by a Dutch lady and mainly about European design.

Valencia: Louis Vuitton Cup – America’s Cup post # 8

A few minutes ago Emirates team New Zealand has won the first of the best of 9 match races in the Louis Vuitton Cup Finale with a 45 m lead (only 8 seconds delta) over Italian Luna Rossa Team.