Tripadvisor Expands in China

This was not the post I had in mind about Tripadvisor. However It shows they are not sitting on their hands
clipped from thenextweb.com

TripAdvisor 300x176 TripAdvisor To Acquire Chinas Second Largest Travel SiteTripAdvisor, committing itself further to the Chinese market, has now agreed to acquire Kuxun.cn, a flight and hotel search engine and the country’s second largest travel site.
This will see TripAdvisor own two of China’s top ten travel websites along with Daodao.com who it acquired in April. The combination of DaoDao.com and Kuxun.cn will more than double traffic for TripAdvisor Media Group properties in China.
Steve Kaufer, founder and CEO of TripAdvisor says “With both DaoDao.com and Kuxun.cn under our umbrella, we will enhance our ability to deliver trusted content that travelers seek, and further position TripAdvisor for expansion in this fast-growing market segment.”
Founded in February 2000, TripAdvisor was purchased by InterActive Corporation in 2004 and spun off into its travel group of businesses under the Expedia, Inc. name in August 2005.

Opening 2009 Holland Dance Festival

Dance Outside awaiting Public at Holland Dance Festival P1050356

A lonely dancer is outside to welcome the public for the opening of Holland Dance Festival.

The 2009 festival is entirely dedicated to the Netherlands Dance Theater‘s 50ieth anniversary and Jiri Kilian’s departure as the resident choreographer of NDT in The Hague.

Holland-Dance-Festival-President-of-the-Board-of-Trustees-P1050369a

The president of the Board of Trustees of Holland Dance Festifal, Mr Gilbert Monod de Froideville welcomed the public.

Minister Plasterk Opens Holland Dance Festival officially P1050366

Dutch Minister of Culture, R. Plasterk opens Holland Dance Festival officially.

I’m sorry the photos are not as sharp as I would have liked.

To be continued.

Helping to save Panorama Mesdag?

clipped from www.denhaag.nl

News
€ 10,000 to save Panorama Mesdag

Adopting a piece of painting

  • Published: 13 October 2009
  • Modified: 27 October 2009

Deputy Mayor Marieke Bolle handed over a cheque for € 10,000 to Panorama Mesdag on 29 September on behalf of The Hague Municipal Executive. She did this to kick off the public campaign ‘Save Panorama Mesdag’ in The Hague.
In the coming time Panorama Mesdag is trying to collect as much money as possible in order to finance the museum’s urgently-needed renovation and maintenance project.
The museum is launching a campaign to save H.W. Mesdag’s gigantic panorama of Scheveningen at the end of the 19th century. Without financial support, the museum may be forced to close.

How you can help
On the special website Red Panorama Mesdag, you can become a donor for as little as € 5 (€ 5 to € 500) or you can adopt one or more sections of this beautiful painting (starting at € 1,000).
Don’t let the curtain fall. Save Panorama Mesdag!
This is a quick clip which I ill enhance with some comments later

Here are my observations: (added October 28, 13.30 hr)

  1. I’m really glad the The Hague City Council offers peace to Panorama Mesdag in this form.
  2. However, the City Council is partly to blame for the financial problems of Panorama Mesdag, since it appears there was insufficient supervision by the City Council when Hilton started building an underground parking garage very next to the Panorama building. That caused damage to the Panorama building. Panorama Mesdag has been fighting a long and costly uphill legal battle against the building permit and the building process itself and now finds itself in a situation where it has to structurally enhance the Panorama building…
  3. At least I would expect Hilton to match this gesture of the The Hague City Counsel….
  4. Note the new lay out of the The Hague website.

Proud 2010 Gault Millau Hotelier

Gault Millau 2010 sticker for Haagsche Suites

Yesterday, as the first of the 5 or 6 prestigious restaurant guides in The Netherlands, the Dutch version of the Gault Millau Guide presented its 2010 awards and 2010 guide with the best 500 and something Restaurants and best 220 Hotels of The Netherlands here around the corner in The Hague. I’m a bit sad I had to miss the ceremony…so near by.

Today I received the sticker proving the Gault Millau editors deem Haagsche Suites worthy to belong to the best 220 Dutch Hotels in their guide. Thank you Gault Millau for the quick service, that even beats the new listings on your own website 🙂

Gault Millau started in France as a restaurant guide in 1969. It was founded by two restaurant critics, Henri Gault (1929-2000) and Christian Millau. The French site is a mere window for their paper guide.

Yesterday the Belgian and Luxemburg Branche of Gault Millau also presented its 2010 Guide and awards.

I grabbed the following from the Misset Horeca Site:

Plaese note the best restaurant has been awarded 20 points out of 20 which is remarkable in the Gault Millau history. At the same time our Belgian neighbors awarded a Dutchman, Roger van Damme the Chef of the year award for his Antwerp based lunches only restaurant.

Gault Millau’s top 13 Restaurants of The Netherlands:

Points Restaurant City
20 Oud Sluis Sluis
19,5 Inter Scaldes Kruiningen
19,5 Beluga Maastricht
19,5 De Librije Zwolle
19 De Leest Vaassen
18 La Rive Amstel Hotel Amsterdam
18 Chalet Royal Den Bosch
18 De Lindenhof Giethoorn
18 De Bokkedoorns Overveen
18 Parkheuvel Rotterdam
18 De Zwethheul Schipluiden
18 De Leuf Ubachsberg
18 ‘t Brouwerskolkje Overveen



gaultmillau 2010 logo
Two of those top restaurants, Parkheuvel and De Zwetheul are easy to reach for a dinner when staying in Haagsche Suites.

Two other Restaurants Calla’s and Seinpost who also earned good points are even nearer to Haagsche Suites. Seinpost has the best wine food combining sommelier of 2010.

Austria, Italy, Germany and Switzerland each have their own Gault Millau guides.The US and the UK have their Gayot guides. Gayot was a friend of Gault and Millau and they published joint guides until a schism in 2000.

Gault Millau is said to be the guide of the food purists more than the Guide Michelin….

When in Rome…potter the Tiber in your Marble Yacht

Fabio Viale Marble Yacht

Via Today an Tomorrow, a blog curated – that’s a cool new term for what I usually do here:-) – by Berlin based Belgian Pieter I found Italian Sculptor Fabio Viale who cut his yacht from a whole piece of white Carrara and pottered the Tiber with it.