A Weekend in Amsterdam

Janneke van Geuns is one of our blog followers and a native of Amsterdam. She kindly created this post just for our CrazyTravelGirls blog to give you an exclusive look at a great weekend in Amsterdam that is not-so-touristy. Enjoy!

There is so much more to Amsterdam than the red light district, the wooden shoes and the coffee shops. (Why do they call them coffee shops when all you can get there is weed…?) Anyway, Amsterdam is a great city to visit in the spring or summer. Here are some tips for a long weekend break:

Friday night

If you want to mingle with fellow Americans you should go to the Leidseplein or Rembrandtplein. If you would you rather mingle with the cute locals and the hip crowd, go to the Pijp! This neighborhood is known for its trendy bars and quality restaurants. Go for dinner at Café Helden, the Chocolatebar or Bazar and enjoy great affordable food. After dinner you can go to one of the many bars that the Pijp offers such as ‘t Paardje, Café de Pijp or Barca. The bars stay open until 2 a.m. Hopefully you are not tired yet because the night just started! See what is going on in club Paradiso or the Sugar Factory near the Leidseplein and dance till the lights go on.

Saturday

Don’t sleep in too late because the city is waiting. Get on your rented bike and explore the city. Visit one of the many museums such as the Rijksmuseum or the Van Gogh museum both located on the Museumplein. After so much culture, you are probably hungry. There is a big supermarket, the Albert Heijn, on the Museumplein where you can find loads of delicious food. Walk or bike to the Vondelpark and find a place near the water and enjoy all the activities that are going on: music, sports etc!

Time to move! Find you way back in to the city center: we’re going on a boat tour. Don’t do the things the tourist way so get your private boat. You can rent one via www.latenvaren.nl. See Amsterdam from the water and be amazed by its beautiful architecture. Your captain can tell you all about the city.

Saturday Night

Another trendy neighborhood is the Jordaan. Just like the Pijp you can find many restaurants and bars here. If you want to spot Dutch celebrities go to Cinema Paradiso, a nice Italian restaurant with great desserts. It’s just a five minute walk to the bars that are perfect for spending a Saturday night: Proust, Finch and Tabak. In the mood for dancing? Go to the Jimmy Woo!

Sunday

After shopping on for example the Leidsestraat, you might want to get out of the city and see more of the Netherlands. What many people don’t know is that there are great beaches. On Sunday the best place to go is Bloemendaal aan Zee. It is only a 30 minutes train ride from the central station in Amsterdam. This beach is known for its parties on Sunday in the summer. There are great beach clubs that offer good food and music such as the Republiek or Bloomingdale. Put those flip flops on and dance till the sun goes down.

Monday

If you have time left you might want to take a peek in the red light district so you can tell your friends that you have seen it J. The district is close to the new public library, which offers, besides a broad collection, a great view over Amsterdam. Another tip is to take the free ferry to the north side of Amsterdam: NDSM. It is an upcoming area with –again- great restaurants!

More Tips!

----Try to schedule your visit around the 29^th of April, which is the day the Royal Queen of the Netherlands celebrates her birthday and everybody celebrates with with her! The whole city is orange, everybody is on the street dancing, drinking and partying. Kids are selling their stuff in the parks and there is a boat parade on the canals.

- -You can also see a boat parade during Gay pride, which is often scheduled at the beginning of September. Take a look at the wonderful customized boats and the beautiful outfits people wear.

Crazy Travel Girls! Now in Filming Locations!

Today, Let’s move on to famous spots you might have seen in reknown films.
For those who haven't seen these movies, you should check them out to make this post more interesting and exciting.

Leon
Leon, stylish thriller, is set in New York.
Most of the scenes are in Spanish Harlem, Chinatown and Wall Street.
The hotel of precocious Mathilda, where she loses her family in a savage attack.
The Chelsea has far too much history to list here: Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001 while staying here, Andy Warhol filmed The Chelsea Girls, Bob Dylan wrote Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands. The hotel is now probably best remembered in pop culture as the hotel in which Nancy Spungen died and Sid Vicious was arrested – see Alex Cox’s Sid and Nancy, which filmed within the hotel. It’s not a five star haven of luxury; in fact it can be a little ramshackle, but that’s the charm of the chelsea – there really is nowhere quite like it.
Mathilda’s Hotel
Hotel Chelsea, 222 West 23rd St. New York, US

Notting Hill

The heart of the film is Notting Hill’s Portobello Road street market, in the top ten of London’s tourist attractions – a fact you’ll appreciate if you visit durring the weekend. But that really is the time to see it. On weekdays, locals buy fruit and veggies. Second-hand goods are included on Friday, but on Saturdays the road is packed for the famous antiques market.

But there is no ‘Travel Book Company’ on Portobello Road, the down-at-heel shop owned by William Thacker. The store was Nicholls Antique Arcade, now furniture store Gong, 142 Portobello Road. The real Travel Bookshop, on which William’s establishment was based, can be seen around the corner. It’s the travel bookshop 13-15 Blenheim Crescent, just off Portobello.

A few yards away across Portbello Road, at 280 Westbourne Park Road is William Thacker’s flat (Hugh Grants house in the film). However, the owners didn’t like the attention gathered from having their home featured in a major motion picture and so now it looks nothing like it does in the film. It’s now been painted all white.
William Thacker’s flat, the blue door –280 Westbourne Park Road, Notthing Hill, London W11, England, UK

Harry Potter
Kings Cross, Pancras & Euston Road, London, England, UK

Harry needs to get to Hogwarts. How? He needs to take the Hogwarts Express train of course! But you’ll have to catch it at paltform 9 3/4's, which is actually the arched wall between platforms 4 and 5. Don’t go running into that wall. It doesn’t work!

A Gothicised 13th century abbey in Lacock, three miles south of

Chippenhan in Wiltshire, which supplied many of the classrooms and the site of Madame Hooch’s flying lesson. This place is open daily(except Tuesday) from the beginning of April to the end of October.
Hogwarts’ classrooms: Lacock Abbey, Lacock, Wiltshire


Serendipity
Serendipity restaurant made history by being used as a location shot for the movie of the same name, Serendipity. I know the place was a hot spot before the movie came out, but now everyone knows about it so it can sometimes be difficult to even get in there. The wait is worth it though, so I certainly recommend going.
If you are planning on going on a Friday or Saturday night, be prepared for a wait of, at the very least, an hour or more. Once you get in, you will be happy you waited as you check out the funky, eclectic décor. Wild decorations give the whole place a flea market feel.
There are two floors for seating, but upstairs is where the scenes from the movie were filmed. My favorite seat is upstairs, a table right by the front window. That way you can look out on the street, and the people below that are waiting to get in.
This place isn’t just all celebrity. The food is great. The main attraction and signature menu in Serendipity is the “Frozen Hot Chocolate.” Yes, it is both frozen and hot. This dessert is what Serendipity is known for and some people come here just to order dessert and nothing else.

Sleepless in Seattle
This is the one we asked you to wait for!
Sleepless in Seattle served up a romantic idea of what life would be like living in a houseboat: Walking over water on a deck to access your home and once inside, the sensation of being afloat, as waves gently lap your door step.
Originally houseboats were built for the poor in Seattle but are now more for the wealthy with their rapidly increasing prices. Only 487 houseboats exist and because of shoreline management laws, no more can be built. The demand definitely exceeds the supply.

This is not a house for those looking to have tons of privacy since it is on several tours. If you do buy the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat, expect to have many visitors stopping by to check it out and wave as you sit on your porch. You shouldn’t actually be sleepless in this house as boaters know the best place to sleep is on the water and the visitors won’t be coming by at night.

The Weirdest Places in the World in 150 Seconds

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Crazytravelgirls here!

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We have the "Top 4 weird places in the world" for you today!

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Ready to explore? Great!

Here comes a quick, 150 seconds news!

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Seattle, more interesting than you think!

What comes to your mind when you think of Seattle? Rain, Sleepless in Seattle...

Those definitely represent Seattle, but also there are so many interesting places you can visit there!

1) Bill Gates and Microsoft - Bill Gates' home on Lake Washington

Do you know who is the wealthiest person in your state?

Well, it's pretty easy to guess for people in Washington state. He is one of the richest not only in Washington but also in the world actually.

This is Bill Gates, who is living in Mercer Island, Washington.

(Well, he drops to No. 3 on billionaire list this year from his 13 straight year’s No. 1 position as the richest man in the world.)

His house is very famous for high-tech innovation and design.

Everybody is curious about how billionaire's house look like.

For those who want to see billionaire's,

here are some pictures of Bill Gates' house!

Everything about the home is large, from its eight bedrooms and four building levels, to its 2,100 square foot library and 1,500 square foot theatre.
It has a 17 x 60 foot swimming pool with an underwater music system and a glass wall you can swim under to get to the terrace outside.
It also has a 2,500 square foot exercise room, a 1,000 square foot formal dining room, a guest house, an underground garage, a grand staircase, and offices, as well as an elevator and an estuary replete with salmon and trout. It has hidden cameras are everywhere, including the interior stone walls. Also floor sensors can track you - up to 6 inches.

And you'll see his car in garage

Anyways, interested in viewing Gates Mansion?

The Argosy Lake Washington Cruise goes by his and many other millionaires houses. It even stops in front of it for a while and lets everyone take pictures. Their "Kirkland Lake Cruise Tour" or the "Seattle Lake Cruise Tour" both ought to get you close enough for a peek at the Gates Mansion.
http://www.argosycruises.com/publiccruises/lakeseattle.cfm

2) The first Starbucks store – in Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle!

Besides Microsoft, there are many companies which started in Seattle area, Washington more than you imagine.

Starbucks coffee company, the largest coffeehouse company, started in Seattle as a local coffee bean roaster and retailer.

The first Starbucks store is located in Seattle, Washington in a pike place market.

It still keeps its first logo which is different from the one you can see in other area these days. Many tourists are visiting the first Starbucks store and buy special merchandises.

Even though they close under-performing 600 stores in U.S. this year due to a current hardship these days, only 19 stores are closed in Washington state.

This means Starbucks motherland, Washington, will still have total 635 stores including 388 company-operated stores and 247 retail fronts (basically, the crappy Starbucks inside Safeway).
Hopefully Starbucks will do better in the next few quarters.

*** Location : 1912 Pike Place, Seattle, Washington

3) Grey’s Anatomy – Where is the Seattle Grace Hospital?

Arguably, the most popular network television show on right now is ABC's Grey's Anatomy.

You may want to look for Seattle Grace Hospital during your Seattle trip! Unfortunately, the actual hospital is not in Seattle.

Fisher Plaza, which houses Seattle's ABC affiliate KOMO-TV, is used for some exterior shots of Seattle Grace Hospital. The building looks strikingly familiar to the Seattle Grace we see on TV, featuring blue-tinted windows and even a courtyard.

A giant SGH was even painted on the helipad, which could be seen from the top of the Space Needle.
Obviously, the shots of the Space needle and other recognizable Seattle landmarks are stock footage. This Seattle Grace conveniently close to the Space Needle, the Seattle Monorail, and other local landmarks.

You can also see the various spots around Seattle including pike place public market and very beautiful Bainbridge Island where the show has filmed outdoor scenes for the series.

Picture : Ellen Pompeo who plays Meredith Grey, is interviewed by local media after shooting a scene on the ferry.

The setting for Meredith's house is actually Queen Anne Hill, a beautiful old neighborhood full of multi-million dollar homes about a mile from downtown. In some scenes, we also see Meredith Grey drive to work on I-90 or Highway 99, both picturesque highways for filming purposes but neither of them needed for what her real-life commute would be.

4) Chihuly - world premier glass artist

A pioneer of the studio glass movement, Dale Chihuly has transformed the form and function of glass, making the Pacific Northwest a vital region in the contemporary art scene. Dale Chihuly is a Seattle-based artist who works primarily in glass. He creates many of his works inspired by beautiful nature in Seattle and Washington area. He also has been selected as the 2006 Seattle-King County First Citizen for his indelible contributions to the local community and world at large through his art.

Chihuly has contributed to the evolution of public art, creating memorable installations for both architectural and natural settings beginning in the late twentieth century and continuing today.

These are pictures I took at the Chihuly Art Glass Exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.

Aren’t those beautiful? I also brought some pics more from siverbo.com

Here is the schedule of complete Chihuly exhibition in this year. I strongly recommend you to go and see his exhibition if you’re near!!!

*** 2008 exhibition schedule

• September 5 – November 30, 2008 Chihuly SeaformsColumbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina


• September 27 – January 4, 2009 Chihuly at RISD Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island


• October 3 – December 19, 2008 Wrapped in Tradition: The Chihuly Collection of American Indian Trade BlanketsThe Museum of Art at Washington State University, Pullman, Washington


• October 4 – November 1, 2008 Chihuly Black Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia


• October 16 – November 15, 2008 Chihuly exhibitionGalería Marlborough, Madrid, Spain


• November 22 – May 31, 2009 Chihuly: The Nature of GlassDesert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Arizona


• November 29 – TBAChihuly installation Imago Studio , Palm Desert, California

5) Sleepless in Seattle

Go back to the very classic movie which actually makes Seattle very popular all around the world(even!)... ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ is in the middle of the story. Well, I’ll keep this story by next week. Expect something more fun. It is coming up soon!!!

Happy traveling !

- Crazytravelgirl from SEATTLE !

Dare you try this food?

Crazy Travel Girls here, your one and only source into the craziest place of the world.

Be brave, be adventurous, keep your appetite, because today we will take you to Guangzhou!

Guangzhou, the city in southern China, is famous for its FOOD! In Guangzhou, you will come across food that is far beyond your most fantastic imagination!

Are you ready? Try the chicken claw soup as your aperitif.

Not satisfied? Take some fresh-fried insects as an appetizer. They contain extremely high protein. They are crispy outside and soft inside. They taste like fries but are more healthy.

Do you like pork? Here are your main dishes: braised pig intestines, pork trotters in soy sauce and stewed pig tail.

Want to try some special order? What about braised snake? Or the buddha skipping wall, a traditional Guangzhou dish, will satisfy you.

Are you still alive? OK, we know it has been a nightmare. To be honest , most Chinese from other cities than Guangzhou probably dare not to try some food listed above. So congratulations for having strong nerve!

Here comes dessert. Pineapple Ice cream may be a nice choice. Guangzhou has millions of delicious dessert: Stewed Milk Beancurd, Egg Tart, Chaozhou Style Pancake, Sweet Potato Pancake, Golden Cake ... You can eat for a whole month yet never take one dessert for a second time. Just be careful and don’t swallow your tongue!

You know you love me
X.O.X.O.
Crazy Travel Girls

Don’t Even Go There Peter Greenberg!

I watch the Today Show on NBC every morning as I get ready for school. I love hearing about the news, latest trends, and, particularly, what new books to read. However, this week I was sorely disappointed.

On Tuesday, November 11, they featured a new book “DON’T GO THERE!” by NBC’s Today show travel editor Peter Greenberg. This book specifies where not to go, when not to go, and why you never should go.

I thought this was the LAMEST attempt to make money and market NBC’s travel editor. We are constantly hearing negative things about our nation’s economy, housing markets, health care, etc. The last thing we need is to hear about the worst places in the world to visit. I whole-heartedly believe that no matter where you go, you can enjoy the experience: You may not enjoy it in the moment, but looking back it will be a cherished memory. Click here to see the segment yourself.

I feel horrible for all of communities, attractions and destinations that have been demoralized from this book. For example, Greenberg says about Ashland, Virginia:

“Unless you can chart the entire universe and pinpoint Ashland, this city’s claim to be the ‘Center of the Universe’ has its flaws. And if it’s true, then God has a wicked sense of humor indeed.”

See what one resident of Virginia had to say in response:

“I don't know what [Peter Greenberg] has against Ashland, but to me this town is a model for the type of place in which we may have to live in the future. It is small, and people can get what they need by walking or biking. It has a railroad running through town, so Ashlanders have a good means of getting supplies and can get to other places without having to drive their cars. It even has Randolph-Macon College, which means it has the places and activities, for example, coffeehouses, performing arts, that a college town would have. With oil running out, to me Ashland is better prepared for the future than most other places in the US. To me if you are traveling along I-95, this is a must place to visit. Instead of making a snide God-referencing remark, Mr. Greenberg should instead visit this town and see for himself what it is really like.”

Click here for more reviews and responses.

So what do you think--Is his book a waste of time and money, or do you think people are interested in so-called ‘horrible’ places around the globe?

We need to focus on the good that is all around us. Let’s focus on the positive, humorous, unusual and crazy places all over the world! Send us your favorite places and help us spread the word about the good in each state, nation and continent!

Beijing, Crazy Mixture

One of the Crazy Travel Girls here, your one and only source into the craziest place of the world.

Today we will take you to Beijing, the city of history, the city of modernization, the city of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

The Forbidden City in winter

Kang Xi, the greatest emperor in Qing Dynasty

Beijing is as old as time. It was the capital of Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, the last two feudal dynasties in China’s 5000-year history. Today the emperor’s palace, the Forbidden City, is still located in the center of Beijing and it is now open to public as the National Palace Museum. Just pay 70 yuan($10) and you can experience the forbidden city, that for many years nobody but royal members could go inside.

The National Grand Theatre
Central Business District

Beijing is the city of modernization. Skyscrapers mixed with traditional building, the latest Cadillac is driven along bicycles. You can go shopping in GUCCI flagship shop, eat French cuisine and go to national theater to see a Beijing opera. The city follows the international pace perfectly while keeping its own graceful style.

This summer, Beijing was also the city of 2008 Summer Olympics. One of our Crazy Travel Girls luckily got a ticket for the opening ceremony! Following are some inside pictures taken by a Crazy Travel Girl.

Thousands of actors are showing movable type printing, one of the Four Great Inventions of Ancient China.Actors are forming the shape of ship, im memory of advanced maritime trade in Ming Dynasty.

Actors are showing peace dove. Their shining cloths are made by high technology.

People are practicing Taiji, a type of Kong Fu and Qi Gong that values the harmony of the body and spirit.

The National Aquatics Center is known as the Water Cube. The wall of the building is filled with water and can change colors.

See you soon. You know you love me
X.O.X.O.
Crazy Travel Girls