Dui, House & Hotel Magazine features the art of camping in A’dam. Like me many people in the Netherlands love the ups and downs of life. Looking to find a perfect new style of luxury in famously liberal A’dam.
A new camping experience in Amsterdam arrived, Holland is welcoming campers to stay the night in a unique and amazing ‘object’ at the Vliegenbos campsite, a 25-acre wood just north of the city. Amsterdam is well known for its amount of green spaces and a relaxing stay in Vondelpark.
Why not blending art with camping?
The team behind Urban Campsite – have enlisted 15 objects from artists and architects that double up as a place to sleep and enjoy outdoors. Accommodating one to four people, the pieces include ‘Markies’ (nominated for the Rotterdam Design Prize in 1996), a mobile cottage with folded marquee that opens up like a fan, and ‘Darwin’, a giant purple sperm pod with a bed and small desk tucked away inside (first installed at Scape Biennal in Christchurch, New Zealand). Each design is as fun as it is ingenious, and tailored to have as little impact on the environment as possible: a pod made from recycled polyester silo and another from grass, a house made of straw, a wooden closet, a caravan that dismantles into an artificial kitsch camping idyll and a recyclable bedroom. Our favourites are the ‘Treehouse’ (pictured), a cubic pod where you can sleep mid-air, suspended between trees and the forest floor, and a giant transparent canopy – dubbed as ‘X-Ray Camping’ – that allows you to see the clear night sky (or, weather depending, drops of rain overhead) from your bed.
Other useful objects are available too, such as a folded sauna, a fireplace that uses bio energy to cook food or heat your camp and a jumbo waterbike for exploring nearby lakes.
The Vliegenbos site is one of the closest campsites to the city with free public ferries travelling from Amsterdam Central Station every five minutes. Once off the ferry it’s a short walk (15 minutes, roughly) to the camp where there’s a restaurant, bar, bakery (making fresh bread daily), shop, laundrette, bathroom facilities, and a community vibe that encompasses everything worth loving about Amsterdam.
Urban Campsite Amsterdam, Camping Vliegenbos Amsterdam, Meeuwenlaan 138, 1022nd Amsterdam
(www.urbancampsiteamsterdam.com)
Resto tip in A’dam: Ciel Bleu
The restaurant is on the 23rd floor of the Japanese owned Okura hotel in Amsterdam. The picture windows across one side of the dining room give a fine view over the city. The dining room is luxurious, with generously spaced tables set out with fine linen tablecloths, and comfortable chairs.
The wine list stretches over 19 pages and is very well chosen, with excellent growers from around the world.
An array of nibbles appears as you browse the menu. We started with cannelloni of green apple and caramel with goat cheese and dried figs.
It was refreshing but best was a “shake” of sweet and sour cucumber with green apple mousse and a dried mushroom, which had great depth of cucumber flavour.Yummy.
First up was deep fried soft shell crab with avocado and beansprout salad, alongside langoustine with a spicy mango chutney. The soft shell crab was very good with a clever mix of tastes. Next was a cornetto of scallop with truffle mascarpone, served alongside a single cooked scallop with green pea coulis and black truffle, and a Parmesan mousse. The scallop itself was beautifully cooked. I enjoyed it.
Strips of cod were garnished with almonds, garlic and coffee and served alongside a warm foam of “belle de Fontenay” potatoes and horseradish. I never find cod the most exciting of fish, so overall for me the dish was just nice.
Later on we had a fine farm bread and topped with paletta Iberico bellota pata negra, with lardo di Colonnata, glazed black salsify and a dressing of Amontillado sherry. The fish itself was perfectly cooked and had lovely flavour, the sherry dressing a clever foil to the fish, while the pata negra was interesting.
For the main course, saddle of roe deer was served with black pudding cream, cannelloni of green cabbage and dried ribbons of venison with clove jus. The deer itself was excellent, though perhaps this dish had a flavour more than was really needed.
We had cheese, of course, we are in Holland and fennel ice cream with star anise, white chocolate ice cream, mango and soufflé of vanilla and yoghurt with Oreo biscuit crumble and coconut ice cream. It finished off the meal.
Overall I feel this is a fantastic two star level restaurant, the Chef was engaging and clearly passionate about his job.
Good bye Holland.
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