Food

Holland is definately not known for its "exquisit cuisine".

For breakfast, if we eat any at all.., we have our coffee or tea, with a slice of bread with cheese or marmalade, on our way out to work, or bringing the kids to school and daycare, before that.
The luxury of making a fresh glass of orange juice, or putting on the oven to bake a fresh roll or croisant...we simply do not take time for it.
Eventhough tv- commercials try to teach us otherwise.
We only boil an egg on sundays.

For lunch, nothing better. If there isn't a cateringcompany at the workplace to provide something healthy and substantial, you bring your own lunchbox.
Yes, it will contain at least that one sandwich with cheese.

Or you go out in the street to pull your lunch out of the wall for a Euro or so.(Something typicly dutch, try it, it's fun).
Dried out burgers, and luke warm ,in old oil fried, things we call Kroketten or Frikandellen (the latter being waste parts of animals grounded in a long shape and only be eaten with a lot of sauce..)

Dinner for the Dutch is simple:
Patatoes, vegetables and meat.
Preferably all mashed together in one pot, (we call it Stampot).
The only variation is what kind of vegatable you wish to smash...

Luckily, Holland has a wide varity of cultures, so many different restaurants with kitchens from all over the world are here, so we can enjoy all their different tastes and kitchens.
A real treat!!

So what has this story to do with a hotel?
Simple..What do you serve for breakfast, with so many people being our guests from so many places around the world..?

Here it is:
Coffee,Tea, Chilled water,Chocolate to make chocolatemilk, Warm milk, 2 kinds of cereal. ,Orange Juice, Fresh milk, canned fruit, 3 kind of crackers, sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and pickels, cheese (ofcourse) and 3 kinds of sliced meats,fresh boiled eggs, 3 kinds of marmelades, honey, chocolate spread, Big fresch fruit basket,Bread to make toast. but mostly FRESH BAKED MUFFINS AND WARM ROLLS.
To get you off on a good start in Amsterdam.

If you run a 'bed and breakfast', at least you need clean sheets and a hearty breakfast.
We deliver, to all tastes!
Even serving breakfast till noon.

More about the different cultures and habbits later,

Bye

Harry

Marathon climbing

This is the weekend of the Amsterdam-Marathon. There are hardly any rooms available in town and the atmosphere is nice and sporty, with all those thousands of contestants having their early morning work-out in the various parks, to gear up for the event.



And most of them likely had an unexpected work-out this morning allready.
Climbing 'dangerously' steep stairs!



25% Of all hotelrooms in Amsterdam are in 1, 2 or 3 star hotels and these are almost all located in those typical converted Amsterdam-style (ware)houses, usually 3 or 4 stories high.
In the old days ,when these buildings were build, one was not rich, and each floor housed an entire family with more then the nowadays average 2.3 kids, and often even the grandparents.
In those days, city taxes were determined by the width of the house and the number of windows. So in order to save on those taxes, one built the houses small and high, leaving only room for steep and narrow stairs.



Nowadays ,it is still hardly possible to make alterations for more comfort, or build in elevators.
On one side there simply isn't any space to do so. On the other side there is the goverment refusing all neccesary permits, since these kind off buildings are protected heritage.



So one might end up being asigned to a room on the topfloor, having to drag all the lugage upstairs, having to go up and down carefully the entire stay.
Luckily most hotels mention on their website if an elevator is available or not, and mostly there is a willing hotel employee to help you get upstairs with the lugage.



For eldery people or people having trouble walking, it is highly advisable to ask in advance, when reserving, for a room on the lowest floor possible. That can save a lot of trouble and disapointment for all parties involved.



This also explains those hauling-hooks on top of every building in Amsterdam.
You think it is difficult to get your lugage up those steep, narrow stairs...
did you ever try a piano or a kingsize bed??
Harry.

Expectations.

Well, back at work for some time now, and almost over the disapointment of the apartment in Nice I rented (see previous posts), I just had an example of how things can go wrong without it being the hotels fault.
Someone checked in today, who booked a single room with shower, through an internet-travel website. He had everything printed out. Very good, I thought, I like it when people travel well prepared.
He was back down at the reception within 3 minutes, with a big stack of papers,obviously a little distraught.
"This is not the room I ordered", he claimed, and showed me a picture of the room he thought he had reserved, taken from the website. It was a picture of a large quad room with ensuite facilities. The caption underneath the picture stated that clearly.
This I explained to him, and showed him on the internet, on the website he booked on, which picture was the right one (including caption).

He refused to stay another minute in this xxxx-hotel. My offering helping him find a hotel that is more to his liking, got greeted with a middlefinger up, and he left.

I hope he is able to find anything at this late time of day on a friday night in high-season, but I am afraid he will end up in one of the last available rooms of a 4 or 5 star hotel, paying at least 5x more then he intended.

The lesson to be learned?
Only print out the relevant information to take on your travels, and read it!

Harry