High Five (8): 5 Reads for Travel Bloggers

Happy-Hotelier-High-Five-5

Long time no see my High Five. I’ve decided to pick it up again: It is a great way of getting ideas and finds across quickly and to declutter my meandering mind an my backlog of drafts (currently over 80).

  1. Sheila explains to those who want to engage a travel blogger what kind of breed travel bloggers actually are. {OOPS! it seems at the moment of publishing this post the blog of Sheila is not entirely in order…here is: a Google cache link}.
  2. Scott Kelby gives some great tips about taking photographs when traveling (or blogging) in Shooting. As you can see me doing with my “high Five” logo, I’m trying to further myself in the oh so difficult Adobe Photoshop ins and outs…even a copy and past is not easy…I want five high fives, but thusfar only was able to create 3…
  3. I discovered fellow Dutchman Joost van der Valk (AKA Yoast)’s WordPress SEO – Definitive Guide To High Rankings For Your Blog, excellent read.
  4. Same Yoast has 40 WordPress Optimisation tips. Also worth considering. However it confuses me no end whether I can use these tips together with my new theme…
  5. For the next skiing holiday to consider: The best Ski-Hotels worldwide | World’s Luxury Guide.

You can find more about my high fives in the category High Five

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2009 The Hague Sculpture – Mexican Javier Marin’s solo Exhibition

javier-marin

In a couple of days “2009 The Hague Sculpture”, an open air sculpture exhibition, will open. The exhibition will run from June 9, 2009 till September 9, 2009. This year the steering committee has deemed it fit to have a one sculptor exposition rather than a multi sculptor exposition. The sculptor chosen is Javier Marin. His work is more than life size and will work excellent between the green of the trees of the location, the recently refurbished Lange Voorhout. Yesterday and today some impressive sculptures have been put on their places already. Time for me to stroll (or bike) along the site with my camera(s). I believe the exposition itself will be worth a visit to The Hague!

javier-marin-head

About Javier Marín
Javier Marín was born in Uruapan, in the region of Michoacán in Mexico in 1962. He graduated from the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City – the city where he now works and lives.

His original focus was on painting and graphics, but he later concentrated on working in terracotta, resin and bronze.

From 1983 on, he took part in a group exhibition in the Casa de la Cultura in Morelia (Mexico). In 1986 he had his first solo exposition in Mexico City. Since that time, his work has been displayed in the Museo de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, the Espace Pierre Cardin in Paris, at the 50th Venice Biennial in 2005, on the Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid, on the Piazza del Duomo in Pietrasanta, and currently in the Rotonda di via Besana and on the square in front of the Scala in Milan.

More to follow

German Hotelier wants to sell his Hotel via an Internet Lottery

schwanen

According a short post of L’Tur German Hotelier for 17 years Reinhard Bairische of the Swan Hotel in Hettingen, has a creative idea to sell his hotel: He organizes a lottery via an internet site in Austria, as private lotteries are not permitted in Germany. He plans to sells up to 7,500 lottery tickets for Euro 99.- per ticket. If you want to have a small chance of getting a hotel in your name for a small amount. This is the way:-). Unfortunately there are no details yet as to where to buy the tickets. The Swan hotel dates back from the 15nd century and is located in the German town Hettingen, halfway between Stuttgart and the Swiss Bodensee.;

Kinetic Wave Sculptures – Scene 360 Illusion

I had seen this before but the wave maker keeps me mesmerized:

A very interesting video interview with kinetic sculptor Reuben Margolin. Documented by Make magazine.

via Kinetic Wave Sculptures – Scene 360 Illusion

Elzenduin, a Perfect Restaurant near The Hague, brings new fame to Ter Heijde

battle-of-scheveningen-slag-bij-ter-heijdejan-abrahamsz

Recently my wife and I had dinner at restaurant Elzenduin in Ter Heijde. Elzenduin is a 27 room hotel with a restaurant, a beach pavilion and a beach terrace. We had heard and seen good reviews of the restaurant, its brasserie and its beach pavilion. Recently it had undergone a total renovation and its beach terrace won the 2009 Dutch terrace award.

Ter Heijde is a very small township in the dunes of the Dutch North Sea coast half way the 30 km between The Hague (actually Scheveningen, the beach resort of The Hague) and Hoek van Holland or “Hook” as the Brits who visit The Netherlands via ferry use to call it. Ter Heide is part of the village Monster and the municipality Westland.

On July 31, 1653 (according to the Julian calender in use in England) or August 10, 1653 (according to the Gregorian calender in use in the Dutch Republic of Seven United Provinces) Ter Heijde became (in)famous because of the Battle of Ter Heijde (also named the Battle of Scheveningen) during the first Anglo – Dutch war. Eventually there were four Anglo-Dutch wars. Dutch Admiral Maarten Harpertz Tromp leading the Dutch fleet of about 104 man of war on board of the Brederode was defeated by George Monck leading an English fleet of 105 on board of the Resolution. You can see them engaged in the middle of the painting of the battle by Jan Abrahamsz between 1653 and 1666. Not long before Tromp had twice engaged with a fleet under Admiral Blake, the “Father of the Royal Navy” in the Battle of Goodwin Sands (or Battle of Dover) and the Battle of Dungeness where he had defeated Blake. Tromp died during the battle of Ter Heide by a bullet from a sniper on board of the ship of William Penn, the father of the William Penn who founded Pennsylvania. Actually I am a bit disappointed Elzenduin doesn’t elaborate a bit more about these historic events than in the one sentence their site devotes to the battle….

Most details are from Wikipedia and some details and the photo of the painting of the battle are from the blog History of the Sailing Warships in the Maritime Art

Back to dinner at Elzenduin: This is a picture from its window. It is located at the path between Ter Heijde and the Beach. So you look a bit up at the dunes and can see the sun setting behind the dunes.

This was our starter. A painting in itself.

And this was the well sculptured and fine tasting desert we had. I predict that the chef will acquire his first Michelin star very soon.

Update 2014

Only a very short time has this high standard been maintained by the restaurant. Currently it is middle of the road again.