Month: July 2007

New York City: Bike – Share Project: 42 years behind the Dutch!

Usually reading through my Google News Reader I get tons of inspiration for this Blog and I don’t have the time to convert all inspiration into actual posts here.

From time to time I click and share in my reader and so I sort of built a second Blog, gje’s shared items, of items I like to address and sometimes really do address, but usually don’t. Until now I haven’t found a better way of sharing the news from the travel and luxury Blog community. In a window in the right column you see the newest items I have shared.

NYC Bike Sharing

So in my Google News Reader i found this post Pedaling, the Bike-Sharing Project of Archinect. It caught my eye as I noticed recently there is a nice Bike Sharing running in Vienna under the name City Bike Wien.

For us Dutchmen this bike sharing is a very old idea. In 1965 Dutch Provo launched the White Bike Plan. Here is a nice write up about the anti establishment movement Provo. It also explains a bit of the origins of the Dutch coffeeshop culture. Her is another Write up that explains how the 2 White Bike (sharing) plans that actually were launched in Amsterdam didn’t work out. However there is a White Bikes plan running uninterruptedly since 1975 at the Dutch National Park De Hoge Veluwe.

After re reading this post, I decided I need to flesh this post out much more, albeit that the time constraints will make it appear in a bit random order:

  • This post is especially of interest after the magic 07-07-07 Live Earth series of concerts.
  • By coincidence (does coincidence really exist?) I noticed my fellow Travel Blogger Melissa Petri reported about City Bike Wien in her post Bike in Vienna for Europe String just last month….BTW Europe string was a finalist for the Travvies 2007 in February of this year
  • This seems a copy of the original Witte Fietsen Plan (“White Bike Sharing Manifesto”) by the Provo movement in the Dutch language.
    Original Dutch White Bike Sharing Manifesto
    Provo White Bike Sharing Manifesto

    The White Bicycle Plan proposes to create bicycles for public use that cannot be locked.
    ‘The white bicycle symbolizes simplicity and healthy living, as opposed to the gaudiness and filth of the authoritarian automobile.’

  • And here is a photo of the official presentation of the Provo White Bike Sharing Manifesto:
    PROVO PRESENTS THE WHITE BIKE SHARING MANIFESTO OFICCIALLY
    Provo presents the White Bike Sharing Manifesto
  • There even is is an official White Bike Sculpture in the Netherlands:
    White Bike Sharing Sculpture in Holland
    Dutch white bike sculpture.
    The man is real size, not the bike!
  • The Provo Movement in Amsterdam eventually led to the famous sleep in of Yoko Ono and John Lennon in Amsterdam Hilton:
    LENNON ONO HILTON SLEEP IN
    John Lennon and Yoko Ono Sleep In
  • I have a feeling there are European subsidies for bike sharing projects if I read this: Case Study
  • Bike For All, a site dedicated to Biking news brings the news that on 07 07 07 4 friends will arrive at the London Tour de France prologue start having biked 777 miles across 7 countries in 7 days, visiting 7 Tour de France Prologue cities in order to raise money for World Bicycle relief and for Jole Rider in order to enable them to donate Bikes to third world countries

Zwolle: First Sandton Pillows 5* Hotel to open 1st August 2007

Pillows Front
Hotel Pillows Front (artist impression)
Pillows Suite
Hotel Pillows Suite

Thanks to Tourpress I know that small independent Dutch hotel group Sandton will open its first Pillows 5* Hotel with 44 rooms in Zwolle, The Netherlands, on August 1, 2007.

A first, because Sandton has announced a second Pillows hotel for 2008 in Amsterdam and considers more hotels with the Pillows concept.

I announced this hotel in June last year.

Happy Hotelier on Facebook

Some people believe Facebook is the hit for 2007 in community building. To say the least: It grows considerably.
Induced by A Luxury Travel Blog I have decided to give it a try, created an account on Facebook and started Facebook | Happy Hotelier.
Feel free to join!

Valencia: America's Cup by Louis Vuitton post # 14: Hurray for Alinghi!

Alinghi Winner of America's Cup
Valencia, 03 07 2007
America’s Cup Match by Louis Vuitton.
Alinghi.
©ACM 2007/Photo:Guido Trombetta

Swiss Team Alinghi has won the 7th match sailing race from Emirates Team New Zealand with only 1 second delta!

As this is their fifth win in a best of 9 contest, they have won the 32nd America’s Cup for the second consecutive time.

Quote from the official 32nd America’s Cup Official Website:

This final race of the America’s Cup was befitting of what has been the closest, most exciting America’s Cup in recent history. Emirates Team New Zealand spent much of the race ahead on the advantage line, but with Alinghi in strong tactical position on the right hand side of the race course. The Kiwis were never able to get a big enough lead to cross ahead and switch sides.

After making a pass on the first run and leading through the leeward gate by 14 seconds, Emirates Team New Zealand again found it couldn’t get across the bow of SUI 100 on the second upwind leg.

With both boats approaching the top mark separated by just a few meters, the Kiwis, approaching from the left on port tack, faced Alinghi roaring in on the privileged starboard tack. Both boats went into a ‘dial-down’ and the Umpires penalized the port tack NZL 92 crew for not keeping clear of Alinghi. That, effectively, was the race. Alinghi rounded the top mark ahead by 12 seconds and looked secure for the win.

But then, an enormous wind shift saw Emirates Team New Zealand able to lay finishing line which was now upwind. As Alinghi struggled to drop its spinnaker, the Kiwis turned into tack to fulfill its penalty obligation. Now down speed, the Kiwis could only watch in horror as Alinghi slid across the line, just one second ahead.

Added July 4:

And I was right by just one second.

which reminds me to just 2 suites….

Ask me why.

Really Quick: Chic Retreats

Chic Retreats Logo

The title of Chic Retreats‘ website is:

Boutique hotel collection – Chic Retreats is a portfolio of hip hotels, small luxury hotels, boutique hotels and charming hotels all with less than 30 rooms.

Now that is a cry from my heart, as the term “Boutique Hotel” (I found a description at Hospitality Net in an article from Lucienne Anhar dating back to 2001) seems to have been devaluated to “Just another Boutique Hotel”, certainly now Ian Schrager, somehow the inventor, or at least an avid promoter, of the term “Boutique Hotel” has announced a new cooperation with good old Bill Marriott..the multi hundred room hotel advocate…

I tagged Chic Retreats on my Deli Icio Us page on August 19, 2006. However I am sure I had the link between my favorites much earlier.

Last week I clicked them again coincidentally and I quickly found two hotels from my wish list – Sezz in Paris and Hollmann Beletage in Vienna – in their portfolio. So, on a spur -or should I say a whim?-, I filled out their form to become a member hotel. I got an immediate answer that showed acceptable flat rates and no commissions. I answered back our interest immediately. Today, cecking my e-mail: Big surprise: I found that Lulu , the owner of the site, had put our Haagsche Suites already on the website. Now that is really quick! Chapeau!

Side note:
Editing this post is slowed down considerably by the America’s Cup Anywhere application while waiting for the postponed start of what is probably the last race in the 32nd Auld Mug Match (who said man cannot do two or more things at the same time?) …Ok, “race abandoned” it says now. I am glad I am not on the race committee there! AC Anywhere clicked away and further concentrating on this post:..

The Chic Retreats site is nice, user friendly, quick, with one disadvantage though: It doesn’t offer links to the properties….and the site does not offer much information about Lulu.

Some research brings to the surface from Live Style Retreats:

Lulu Townsend is a qualified tennis coach and a qualified reflexologist.

She speaks French, Spanish and Italian and has lived in all three countries – 36 yrs young, dynamic and passionate about small hotels – she was responsible for marketing of her parent’s hotel Palazzo Terranova, one of the finest country house hotels in Italy.

She really believes that quality doesn’t always have to only mean luxury and high prices but personal service and attention to detail – guests like to be a person and not just a room number.

Lulu is married with a two young beautiful daughters.

Additionally I found a Food and Wine interview with her.

More admiration here, as she is attending the Luxury Travel Fair in London this weekend, changes her website in between while undoubtedly changing some diapers under way, and does not even go to see tennis at Wimbledon (or taste the strawberries there)!