The Happier the Hotelier, The Happier the Guest
Today Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands turned 74. Happy Birthday to our Majesty!
These two beautiful photos (from ANP) were taken a while ago when she visited a mosque in a Muslim country. Off course our peroxide blond parliamentarian asked the question why she made a political statement by covering her hat with a shawl. Luckily, according to certain polls, the guy lost 3 seats in Dutch Parliament after he’d posed the question on twitter.
It’s official now: The stork in The Hague’s coat of arms has its own book: The Hague’s Stork by Frans Schmit. The cover of the book has a photo of the official silver livery collar of the Mayor of The Hague which, of course, has a stork in it.
Today, on his birthday (hence on july 7, 2011 at 7.00 hr PM), Frans Schmit presented the first copy of his book officially in Paagman’s bookshop.
It features many photos of the stork and has a walking route through the Hague Center that highlights all the storks that you can find at various buildings. Frans has collected over 1.400 storks thusfar and discovers every day more photos. You can find a large part his collection on his Flickr set De Haagse Ooievaar
When I was making my rounds this morning I noted a huge road block in front of our hotel. It turned out Randstad Rail, a mix between a tram and a metro, that runs there although the road is too narrow for it in my view, had kissed another tram. Luckily there were no casualties other than three light wounded persons.
The collision was so powerful that both trams were pushed out of their rail and had to be put back by a ginormous crane. That had to be done very carefully and in phases, because of the electricity.
Anyway: The local public transport company made its point: If the tram doesn’t ride, just call a taxi:-)
I’ve uploaded a whole set of photos to my Flickr stream for those interested.
Always amazing how many official looking people are standing around with their hands in their pockets.
Ah and the “again” in the title is because there are of course more collisions, but this is one of the ones I’m actually aware of because they happen just in front of our house/hotel like this one.
Doutzen is probably one of our best export products. As a top fashion model she’s been the face of L’Oreal and Victoria’s Secret – Uhm maybe more than just a face…recently.
In January, 2011 the 25 years young lady has given birth to a healthy young daughter and just 8 weeks thereafter the media proudly announced her belly was back in form…
Yesterday it was announced (also by herself on Twitter) she has landed a Feature Film role for a project of Eye Works, Nova Zembla. It will tell a story about Dutch navigator Willem Barentz who attempted several times to discover a North East passage to India above Siberia. One of his attempts ended in his ship stuck in a field of icebergs which caused the crew to stay at the Nova Zebla Island during the winter of 1596.
I predict that Doutzen’s warm voice and personality will cause the ice to melt.
As I said earlier: The Netherlands is worth a trip solely to enjoy the beauty of its women! A (Michelin Guide) three star country in that respect.
Happy to see when I plea for a good cause, the revival of the Dutch Beach Chair, or more precisely the Scheveningen Beach Chair, – See Postcards from Scheveningen, a Plea to Revive the Scheveningen Beach Chair and see also my significant other blog Chair Blog – the plea is honored:-)
Marijn van der Poll designed this Kaigan chair for Dutch Office outfitter Ahrend. As far as I can see for indoor use, but hopefully they will develop one for outdoor uses as well.