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croze-hermitage for the price of a beer!

It’s hard not to love Paris.  Of course, it helps when it feels like home 🙂  When the out of commission billet machine at Arts & Metiers station is no problem because you still have a ticket from your last visit eight months ago…

You pull out the map briefly to check if it is left or right from the hotel and in less than five minutes you

Paris sans instagram!!!

Paris sans instagram!!!

are on the incredible Paris métro.  You discovered last year the hotel is conveniently on the metro line direct to Printemps and one stop away from Galèries Lafayette.

In the past I have always shunned Galèries Lafayette and still think Le Bon Marché is more charming but, if you are into shoes, Paris is your city and the basement of Galèries Lafayette the perfect gateway drug…

Being famous for my shoes, I have shopped for shoes all over the world – how I discovered Paris was the best city.  And what is cool about Galèries Lafayette is that it represents what I love about shoe shopping in Paris.  There are famous brands with dizzying prices to match the killer heels around the periphery but there are also lots of creative, well-crafted, more reasonably priced options in the middle of the 21st shoe temple.

I have just arrived in Paris so this was a scouting mission.  Too many objects to lust over on just a brief visit but luckily I need to haul my suitcase through a few more train stations and airports before I leave Europe so some restraint needs to be exercised!

I am not yet sure in which order I will post my scribblings but I have two visits to both Paris and Amsterdam on the clock, neither of which has been fully reported.

Sadly I saw some cool exhibitions in Paris last year, which I meant to promote in the moment to encourage further visitation but the time has now passed so no taunting allowed.  One of the cool things I did last September CAN be repeated – and I am doing it so the endorsement is notable.

If you read my ramblings on a regular basis, you will note that I am very fickle 🙂  In life I am the opposite and have friendships spanning decades to prove my commitment.  But I love cities and interesting hotels.  So I am always trying to mix it up.  A new neighborhood.  A new design.  A new concept.

A hotel has to be pretty awesome to warrant a second visit 🙂  But last year I ran through Paris, primarily on Sunday and Monday.  I do not recommend it.

not a typical hotel

not a typical hotel

Jules and Jim is in the Marais, a neighborhood I have flirted with but never fully explored.  And the hotel is one of most memorable I have visited.  When you rock up at the impromptu front desk and the cute boy says in his charming English, “you must be Marla”, you wonder “is this the hipster Claridges?”

http://www.hoteljulesetjim.com/en/

Pretty much.  The rooms are petite but perfectly designed.  You get Molton Brown products and free wi-fi.  I know from last year you can hang out at the bar with a serious budding mixologist who is thrilled to ply you with his innovative (and excellent) cocktail creations.  (His name is Antoine).

There is wall art in the form of shrubbery – and art installations worthy of the Pompidou.  It is a hotel where the hotel is part of your Parisian experience.  George V service at a fraction of the cost 😉

I am writing this in one of those ubiquitous Parisian brasseries.  The food was decent.  The atmosphere is historic (in a good way – retro ceiling fixtures, advertisements from the art nouveau period plastered to the walls and menus on chalkboards).

But the real treat is the wine.  There were options.  Normally I peruse the wine list with a discerning eye and maybe even a Wine Spectator vintage chart…

But what is so amazing in Paris is that generally there is no “vin rouge” but nor is there a specific wine producer, let alone a vineyard or vintage.

You order a Croze-Hermitage and see what happens.  A little magic it appears.  It came in a plain bottle.  I have no idea what it is – besides Croze-Hermitage.

But it’s delicious – and the same price as a beer in Amsterdam.  Paris, je t’aime 😉

 

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travel is my drug

It rained practically the entire time I was in Amsterdam.  It was like my trip to Iceland where the sun shone as I arrived and then tantalized the morning of departure, as though I had committed some grave sin and was being punished.

The hotel wasn’t as exciting as most but it was cozy – and did lots of stuff right.  It was in a historical building in the center of the city and customer service was excellent so if being on the bleeding edge is not part of your travel criteria I would definitely recommend it.  (Convent Hotel)

http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/hotel-1159-the-convent-hotel-amsterdam-mgallery-collection/index.shtml

when the sun shines

when the sun shines

I was feeling very cozy there on Saturday night as I ordered some food at the bar and debated whether I should chance going outside to battle the weather.  But it was Saturday night in Amsterdam and it seemed pretty lame to just hide in my hotel room.  It’s not like I come from a country without weather…

And it was clear skies when I stepped outside! I strolled up Warmoesstraat until I got to Zeedijk as I knew there was lots going on there (from my Stanley Cup watching in Amsterdam – another story…)  Indeed, there are lots of options on Zeedijk and the big question is what random spot to check out.

I thought a bar with a bearded man in drag wearing a wedding dress would offer some entertainment value…  I was not wrong J  But the place was tiny and packed!  I think it was a gay bar.  There were a couple of women in there so I might have been wrong.  It was an entertaining crowd, all I ever seek.

And the music was quite good.  It was obscure, however, just what was going on.  For sure there was a gigantic television screen and people were singing, apparently in some sort of competition.

I watch the news a lot when I travel (it’s often the only station in English 🙂 so I knew the Eurovision song competition was on – but this didn’t seem to be that.  But people were singing along and marking score sheets… everything was in Dutch.

I might well have stayed for the night but I was being constantly jostled by the crowd milling back and forth through the tiny bar so decided I would finish my beer and then wander off into the night, potentially back to my warm bed if nothing caught my attention.  At least I hadn’t stayed home on Saturday night!  In case, you weren’t following, the bearded lady from Austria DID win the Eurovision competition so I am sure the bearded dude in the bar in the wedding dress was an homage…

On my way back to the hotel I was lured into some full moon party at the Winston.  It was in the red light district so I hoped everyone inside would be fully clothed but I thought I should try and not be totally lame as it was Saturday night.

http://www.winston.nl/

Amsterdam is apparently the land of amazing random decisions 🙂  No other city has provided so many incredible life moments where serendipity – and possibly pixie dust – fueled the adventure.

Winston proved to be a proper dance club – with real music – lyrics instead of thumping drum beats.  Once they had played Vampire Weekend, I was hooked 🙂  Shortly after the song ended some young man full of mind-altering substances put his head on my shoulder and declared that he loved me. Luckily, he had a handler so she quickly towed him away.

I was content to just dance in the corner alone to the great music but some cute guy with a killer smile started dancing with me.  He had real style so we quickly became a duo.  And then he told me he was from Montreal!

Sebastian was also a little over 25.  He was a great dancer – and had that Latin charm that is very hard not to fall for.  So I ended up staying a lot longer than planned.  And had sore muscles the next day.

But in the best way.  We egged each other on so it became not just shuffle around but let’s try out for “Dancing with the Stars”.  I was glad to see that I could still bend that close to the ground 🙂

Sebastian then became my designated bodyguard and walked me back to the hotel because that is what his mother would expect.  The young kids can have their hooking up.  There is something magical about being properly courted… if only he had been on his way to Paris instead of Nice…

a place you could fall in love...

a place you could fall in love…

“Travel is my drug” is Sebastian’s phrase, not mine… obviously a boy from my tribe 😉  He’d had to buy a better umbrella but had spent four days in the rain wandering the canals. It was so cool to meet someone else who came to Amsterdam not for cheap Heineken, myriad forms of pot or beautiful hookers, but to indulge his senses in one of the world’s most incredibly romantic cities – even when the monsoon hits – just don’t bring your best shoes 😉

 

I always have so much fun in Paris and have now had two trips that haven’t made it to the blog – but some of the exhibitions are now over – and I will always be back in Paris again so I am going to condense the Paris chapters a bit so we can get to Norway – and catch up on Cambodia and Slovenia…

 

p.s. my blogging is being severely handicapped by my obsessive watching of the World Cup.  It was also inspired by my real introduction to the wonders of Amsterdam.  I was watching the Nederlands in the last World Cup in preparation for my date in Amsterdam with some Dutch guy I met in a bar in NYC.  An event that inspired so many incredible moments in my life since – and meant that I was cheering yesterday 🙂  But my jersey is German – dating Deutsch has been more successful 😉

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not quite dutch – but getting closer ;)

I can ride a bike but it’s been a few years since I actually pedaled one so normally I walk in Amsterdam – and try not to get hit by a cyclist 🙂  I also get lots more offers for rides when I walk so I have never felt motivated to rent a bike.

But I do see lots of locals on bikes, though, so it shouldn’t have come as a shock that everyone was biking around town on Friday night.

To get to my biking adventure though, we will need to backtrack through time a bit.  Not a galaxy far, far away – but Vancouver August 2013.  That was where I met Rune.

As is likely obvious from these pages, I love meeting locals.  At the time, I was the local and he was just wearing a name tag that said Amsterdam.  I told him I come to Amsterdam regularly so we arranged a meeting.

He is a co-founder of an accelerator so a very interesting guy.  He invited me to come to his company on Friday and listen to a talk he was hosting for his budding young entrepreneurs.  An interesting way to spend a Friday night in a foreign city.

Europe is a lot more relaxed than North America so there was also lots of beer since it was Friday night.  I ended up speaking to a lot of the entrepreneurs and their enthusiasm was infectious.

Since Rune is Danish, I also met some Danes visiting for the weekend.  Finally it got to the time of night that the Dutch go out into the greater world.  It was decided we would go to Roest.  It was in the trendy east so a decent bike ride – and definitely not walking distance.

http://www.amsterdamroest.nl/

It was in an interesting complex and definitely expanded my experience of Dutch nightlife.  You can get there in a taxi but I would make sure you have a number to call to get back home if you are intrepid and want to party like a local.

amsterdam transportOr you can be really local and rent a bike!  The Dutch appear to not need sleep so when Roest closed down the plan was to go to a bar in the newly gentrifying east.  The two of us without bikes would ride on the back.

I’ve had offers along the canals but so far had just stuck to walking but sometimes you have to try a new adventure.  So I learned how to ride on the back of a bike.  The key is balance.  You need to keep your legs out of the way of the spokes and the peddler and make sure you absorb the bumps and the turns so you don’t topple over your escort.

All the effort ended up being for nought as the bar was closed.  I ended the night in a taxi but, crawling into bed at 5am having drunk a good amount of local beer and spent time on a bike in the wee hours of the morning, I felt a little closer to being Dutch 😉

For more on Rune’s entrepreneurs, check out RockStart:

http://rockstart.com/accelerator/

 

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how do you spend your days…

world press photoI wrote about the World Press photo contest in an earlier post.  The first time I checked it out I was on my way to Egypt in the middle of the first democratic election in its history so it was especially poignant to see all the photos from the Arab Spring.

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/awards/2014

world press photo contestThis time the poignant photos were from the Philippines.  I was in Australia when the storm hit so saw lots of coverage along with lots of talk of global warming.  Sadly a lot of the winning photos depict conflict and devastation.  That is, of course, the stuff of photojournalists.

The contest though is about photography so there are some happy photos too.  And all sorts of interesting subjects, from a cougar stalking the Hollywood sign to a lady who has rescued so many stray dogs it seems there is no room left for her.

It’s a fascinating mix of subjects and points of view to consider.  It definitely makes one examine one’s own life and – in my case, appreciate how easy my life is and how privileged I am.  The winning photo this year is beautiful and haunting, like a master painting.  It depicts migrants standing on a beach on the coast of Africa, holding up mobile phones trying to get a signal so they can communicate with the people they’ve left behind and give an update on their progress in finding a better life.world press photo winner

As I noted last time, it starts in Amsterdam but moves around so check it out if it comes to a city near you.

It was also a way to escape from the rain in Amsterdam.  It is a city that is noted for its “four seasons in one day” weather but this time there seemed to be only one – I think it was winter.  It was windy, cold, with lots of persistent rain in any event.  It was pretty miserable but it’s still hard not to love Amsterdam.  And one has to admire the Dutch, biking with an umbrella in one hand!

I still haven’t written about last year’s trip to Amsterdam so I am going to mix it up a bit to hit some of the highlights from both visits.

For now we will stick with culture.  The other thing that got me to drag myself across town in the pouring rain was an exhibit at the Hermitage.  The Hermitage in Amsterdam is pretty cool.  I have been there on most visits as the concept is that they will bring a subset of the 3,000,000 (I think) objects from the Hermitage in St Petersburg to Amsterdam as part of a special exhibition.

http://www.hermitage.nl/en/

The current exhibition is called The Silk Road and it provides a glimpse into centuries of world history.  There are artifacts from all kinds of countries, some that sounded familiar and some not.

I learned quite a bit of stuff from the exhibition but what was most interesting is that the Silk Road wasn’t just an ancient highway.  It was a network of intrepid merchants and few travelled the entire length of the trading area.  There was a lot of desert and camels involved and oases were key.

It certainly makes my current trip around Europe look like a piece of cake.  Without all those early entrepreneurs, our current 24/7 world would not have been possible.  They carried silk, spices and other hot commodities but they also carried ideas and influence.

It all definitely makes you think of your daily life, your goals and your impact on the world.

p.s. I also picked up a book on the Silk Road by Colin Thubron since I needed some English language reading material 🙂  Why haven’t I discovered him before?  Highly recommended!

 

 

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the museum whose name I can’t pronounce…

But I’m working on it!  It’s called the Stedelijk Museum but you can also just refer to it as the Museum of Modern Art when you are here and people will likely know what you are talking about.

a little different than the rijksmusuem...

a little different than the rijksmusuem…

http://www.stedelijk.nl/en

You should definitely go!  Like the Rijksmuseum, it’s been going through a giant renovation and relocation so I’ve only seen a mini exhibition on a different street.

I’ve been going to museums since I could read so it’s been interesting to watch the evolution of the concept.  There were a few museums that really wowed me as a child but generally the 21st century incarnations (or reincarnations) are far superior.

There is a clever use of technology via pre-recorded audio guides in many languages. Not as charming as following the French tour because it’s the one going at that hour – but you do understand more 😉  And don’t have to jostle others to see the objects.

When I first started going to museums I would try to read and see everything, absorbing as much as possible.  Anyone accompanying me would normally be hanging out in the gift shop or sitting on a bench near the exit.  Once you’ve been to most of the famous museums in the world multiple times you need to reassess your strategy.

The museums of a city are a reflection of its culture – how often the weather forces people indoors, the interests of its citizens and the wealth of its economy.  I’m not sure if bankers “get” all the art but they definitely like seeing their names on display 🙂  It’s no accident London and New York City have no many world class museums.

The museums in cities without armies of investment bankers or who have been the epicenter of the art world like Paris are smaller, more provincial affairs.  It’s easy to dismiss them.

But every museum holds a few treasures, whether some local art or artifact native to the region or some painting from a favourite artist you’ve never seen before donated by a local collector.  What people collect and choose to display, include the design and architecture of its showcase, will reveal some secrets about the local culture and enrich your understanding of it.

The Stedilijk is not the Pompidou but it is well worth a visit.  And learning how to pronounce will improve your Dutch 🙂

look at those cakes!

look at those cakes!

p.s. after you have explored museums, head to the Pijp for cake at De Taart van m’n Tante – it’s worth the walk

http://www.detaart.com/en/home.htm

 

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giving the mona lisa a run for her money ;)

I really need to quit travelling so much as I have so many half-written posts now, spanning three continents… and I am travelling again, knocking off country #48…  have decided the best strategy is to just start in the past and knock them off country by country… so my current travel destination will be revealed in future… some of the post were written in the moment so we’ll stay there, even if the moment was in 2013 🙂

With the preamble out of the way, let’s go to Amsterdam!  First with a post from last autumn…

I booked this trip so my KLM points wouldn’t expire.  But I also wanted to check out the renovations of the Rijksmuseum.  It has been going on for years and finally completed in April 2013.

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en

the grande dame restored

the grande dame restored

They promised me a brand new museum last night and I think they were not mistaken.  It’s been a long time since my first visit to the Rijksmuseum but the 21st century version is definitely impressive.  And crowded!

I followed Dutch history chronologically from 1100 through 1050 but I would recommend you head for the Rembrandt gallery as soon as the museum opens!

It wasn’t quite the Louvre in July, when I made my mom and niece line up half an hour before opening – and then dash to all the really famous sites within the first hour before the Louvre turns into an iphone launch scenario, but I bet Rembrandt wishes he’d been able to brand himself and put the Nightwatch on t-shirts in his day 😉

the rembrandt masterpiece

the rembrandt masterpiece

My first viewing of the Nightwatch was a transformative experience.  I was on my first European tour and learning art history by visiting many of the world’s greatest museums.  By the time I encountered Rembrandt I knew a little about art – and could recognize his extraordinary rendering of light.

I was certainly impressed by my first viewing of Nightwatch but this time I understood much better the extraordinary talent it took to capture not just the light – but all the movements of the various players in the portrait.  As I learned today, guild portraits normally had a bunch of stationary posed figures like a high school graduation photo.  Rembrandt’s lively composition was an evolution in Dutch art.

The evolution of Dutch art – and the Netherlands – is celebrated in grand style in the new/old Rijksmuseum.  I am still evolving in my understanding of Dutch – and European – history.  But there is definitely much that can be learned from the Dutch.  According to the Rijksmuseum, for a few centuries this tiny country was the most prosperous in the entire world – and even then there was a push toward a fairer distribution of wealth.

If the crowds snapping photos in the Rembrandt Gallery today are any indication, I am not the only one fascinated by the Dutch 😉  Like the Dutch, its beauty and power are subtle and you really need to see it in person.  No doubt you will become a fan – not just of Rembrandt, but of the Dutch who bred him 🙂

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exploring your inner Angelina Jolie ;)

You can’t go to Siem Reap without encountering Angelina Jolie.  Likely not in the flesh but her spirit is alive and well… and I think she does have a lot of affection for Cambodia so I was OK with all the Tomb Raider promotion 😉

You can skip the Tomb Raider cocktail but DO go to Pub Street, as much to eat as to drink.  You may discover the music volume is at its best on the street instead of in the clubs but maybe I just care about my hearing too much 😉  You should definitely have a beer at Angkor What? because it’s how you will imagine Cambodia – cheap beer, imported staff and weird graffiti (you will be able to hear the music from the bar across the street from that distance!)

https://www.facebook.com/angkor.whatbar You should of course drink some Angkor beer because, hey, you are in Cambodia!  And you should check out Pub Street in Siem Reap at least for a night but remember to see some temples too 😉

Of course, you have to go to Angkor Wat…. We will talk about it… but it is most likely your heart will be captured by a more underdog temple… there are a lot of temples! I should have likely planned more but I am working too much to have much time to obsessively research the travel destinations so I am generally improvising.  Improvising is not so bad if you do a few basics pre-trip.  I make sure I have some idea what to do and book a very well-researched hotel if I think I am going to need help getting around.cambodia 2 029

As already noted, I can’t say enough wonderful things about Shinta Mani so it was easy to just put myself in their capable hands… and that’s how I met Tiger.

http://shintamani.com/

cambodia 3 108I would recommend starting early and finishing before lunch to maximize the experience.  And you definitely need to check out Ta Prohm… or, as you will start referring to it, the Tomb Raider temple 🙂

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta_Prohm

When you get there, you will be tempted to start acting like a video game character J  It is wonderfully atmospheric – a bit swampy, with the jungle threatening to overtake the buildings.

The other temple that will blow your mind is Bayon.  Another crazy aristocrat possibly on drugs… but the faces will follow you and pop up in your dreams.cambodia 3 177

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayon

I am now in Amsterdam trying to force my way through jet lag so we may drift back to Europe… but there is still more I want to say about Cambodia so I am sure more adventures will find their way into these pages…

For now, all I can say is stay at Shinta Mani, ask them to book a tuk-tuk temple tour with Tiger and embrace your inner Angelina Jolie – but don’t mess up the temples with bullets 😉

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