Grand Resort Bad Ragaz is part of Bad RagARTz
21-7-2015
Grand Resort Bad Ragaz is part of Bad RagARTz. Many sculptures from the exhibition are to be found in and around the hotel.
The Swiss town of Bad Ragaz is called Bad RagARTz from May 9 to November 1, 2015, this because they house Europe’s largest outdoor sculpture exhibition. The park of Grand Resort Bad Ragaz is one of the centers of the exhibition. If you want to know more about the sculpture exhibition BadRagARTz you can check the images in Google. Many enthusiasts have put beautiful pictures on the web.
Pillars of the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz
Grand Resort Bad Ragaz has an extensive park where a lot of sculptures are exhibited during BadRagARTz.. During the exhibition they show sculptures of international artists from 13 different countries including works by David Bill, Robert Indermaur, Igor Mitoraj, Werner Pokorny and Sophia Vari. The columns in front of one of the hotels are part of the exhibition. A beautiful way to display a column series! They also have a number of sculptures placed in the hotel, for example around the central staircase and in the entrance.
About Grand Resort Bad Ragaz
The Resort is member of ‘Leading Hotels of the World’ and ‘Leading Spa’s of the World and is situated in Bad Ragaz, Switserland. Grand Resort Bad Ragaz is just four miles from the Tamina Gorge, where the physician and alchemist Paracelsus documented the healing powers of the Bad Ragaz spring water in the 16th century. The Grand Resort comprised of two hotels: Grand Hotel Quellenhof & Spa Suites and Grand Hotel Hof Ragaz. The resort has a wellness centre of 12.800-square-meter spa, one of the largest in Europe. The hotel also offers rooms with medical care where you can recover from surgery or an injury.
Playground CS is a pop-up beach opposite to Amsterdam Central Station
10-7-2015
A pop-up beach for young families with children opens opposite to Amsterdam Central Station on 15 July. For six weeks, the former construction site of the North / South metro line will be a pleasant and safe place to play.
Playground CS
The pop-up beach is named ‘Playground CS’ and will be located at the Prins Hendrikkade. The beach will be over 1500 square meters and approximately 250m3 sand is shipped to the spot from the former World Cup beach volleyball court at the Dam square.
Initiative
Playground CS is an initiative of a group of entrepreneurs and is supported by the municipality of Amsterdam. The project is part of the ‘City in Balace’ program, which experiments to find a healthy balance between the growth of Amsterdam and the city life in clever ways. The project is conducted in collaboration with Tosti Creative and Amsterdam Verbindt.
Program
Creative and sporty activities will take place on the beach every day for six weeks starting from 15 July onwards. Children can join activities like jeu des boules, a sand castle contest, child yoga, painting courses or an outdoor movie night. Although the initiative is mainly focused on children, it should be a nice place for parents and local residents as well. Adults can participate in tai chi or yoga classes in the morning, or start their day with a coffee and a newspaper in the sun. Cold drinks and snacks are for sale in a shipping container on the premises. More information about the project and its programming will be available on the Playground CS website.
Co-founder Joost Aartsen (Tosti Creative): “We hope to see five hundred happy faces daily at this exceptional location. It’s great that the municipality supports this initiative and wants to realize the project with ambitious entrepreneurs. The goal of this project is to form an Amsterdam collective to get the city in motion together. Anyone with good ideas is welcome to contribute.”
ID&T and Coca-Cola collaborate for recycling at festivals
26-6-2015
Entertainment company ID&T and manufacturer Coca-Cola have been partners in sustainability since 2012. Together they want to encourage visitors of festivals and events to recycle. This summer they are working together for recycling at festivals in The Netherlands.
Recycling at festivals
ID&T and Coca-Cola are working together at three festivals: Defqon.1, Mysteryland and Welcome to the Future. At each festival there will be a couple of facilities available that will give people the chance to recycle. There will be ‘Green Teams’ walking around the terrain that encourage the visitors to throw their garbage in the right bins and they keep the terrain clean as well. There will also be a recycling-booth present where visitors can learn why recycling is important and how they can contribute.
A successful collaboration
Milou Hamelers, Recycling Manager of Coca-Cola Enterprises, says that they are very happy to work together with ID&T because their festivals attract hundreds of thousands of visitors. “This is a wonderful chance to show our involvement in sustainability and recycling.” she says. In an inspiring way ID&T and Coca-Cola would like to show people that a lot of garbage still has value after being thrown away in a bin.
Rooftop concert by Hooghoudt and Kensington
23-6-2015
The Dutch band Kensington and Hooghoudt distillery will end this summer with a bang. They join forces for a rooftop concert somewhere on a roof in the Netherlands.
Rooftop concert
The rooftop concert will be held at the end of the festival season, early September. Consumers can win tickets for this special experience by buying a Hooghoudt bottle or a Hooghoudt Kensington package at one of the Gall & Gall stores in the Netherlands. The Hooghoudt products contain a unique code that could provide access to the concert. The promotion runs from 22 June to 15 August 2015.
Cocktail Maker
It’s also possible to win tickets through the online cocktail maker tool of Gall & Gall. The practical website guides you to the perfect cocktail recipe and looks a bit like the Gastronomixs tool. After choosing a cocktail recipe people can submit suggestions for ingredients. Anyone that sends in suggestions for ingredients via the website, can win a Fever-Tree cocktail workshop as well.
Smaakmakers
Hooghoudt started the collaboration with the band Kensington to attract a broader audience. Check out the road movie from Hooghoudt about these talents from Utrecht. Besides working with Kensington, Hooghoudt works together with young and enthusiastic professionals since January 2015. They call them their ‘Seasonings’ and award-winning bartender Lennart Deddens is one of them. With the ‘Seasonings’ they want to inspire and give everyone access to special mixes and exciting recipes. “But inspiration is more than just good taste, it’s also acquired by shared experiences, such as a unique rooftop concert” says Niels Grootenboer, marketing manager at Hooghoudt.
Stories from WaterReijk Weerribben Wieden
19-6-2015
The campaign “What drives you?” is an initiative by WaterReijk Marketing in collaboration with businesses, residents and visitors to the region. The campaign aims to acquaint the Dutch audience with the stories from the region.
Life-size milk carton
Besides the launch of the online magazine www.enwatdrijftjou.nl, a life sized milk carton from Weerribben Dairy was revealed and is one of the examples of how the campaign is being promoted throughout the country. The carton was unveiled by entrepreneurs Klaas de Lange from Weerribben Dairy and Martin Kruithof of the Restaurant Lindenhof.
Famous icons
Via the famous icons such as Giethoorn and the Weerribben the campaign seduces (online) visitors to explore other stories and secrets from the area as well. The stories are told by entrepreneurs, residents and visitors in the form of videos, interviews, blogs and photos in the online magazine. The first stories are movies of the Weerribben Dairy and Restaurant de Lindenhof. Various event posters, social media and joint promotions will support the campaign.
Cooperation with Weerribben Dairy
One of these joint promotions is with Klaas de Lange from Weerribben Dairy. The story of Klaas in the Weerribben is one of the stories in the campaign, it is brought into the country via a life-size milk carton. In the milk carton hides a refrigerator with cups of milk to promote the campaign.
Bundling stories
WaterReijk Marketing intends to bundle remarkable stories of the area in this campaign. Entrepreneurs, residents and visitors are also invited to share their story and become ambassadors of the region.
Changing pop-up location Rotterdam Central Station
18-6-2015
Pop-up food concept ‘Eten Centraal’ opened at Rotterdam Central Station on 16 June. It is a new initiative by The Food Line-up in collaboration with NS Stations. The pop-up location changes every two weeks with another small street food entrepreneur from the city.
Changing pop-up
The Food Line-up was one of the initiators of the street food debate about new permits that would benefit diverse and sustainable street food. Now they’ve set their crosshairs on high traffic destinations like the Rotterdam Central Station. With pop-up stores like ‘Eten Centraal’ railway stations will surprise travellers with a weekly changing selection of several local entrepreneurs. The focus is now on empty shop spaces that require temporary filling at Rotterdam Central. If successful, this may result in temporary fillings of empty spaces at other stations. It makes stations thus even more attractive for everyone.
The Switch
Every two weeks during “the Switch” a new business will build up in the pop-up store. In 46 days, more than seven Rotterdam heroes will serve a diverse menu including Old Scuola Pizza Napolitana, Man met Bril Coffee, Saté man with Toko to go, Fritez Haute friture, Pinky Rose lemonade, Jumble Korean Food and Rotterdam brewers. The website and Facebook will show the complete list of entrepreneurs and time tables.
Groundbreaking
“The pop-up street food concept is truly groundbreaking,” according to Lotte Wouters and Maartje Nelissen. “For the first time a high traffic location like this provides room to small local businesses next to the fixed formulas and usual suspects on locations like these. Travellers can now also enjoy the offerings of local entrepreneurs at Rotterdam Central Station, one of the most prominent places in the city, and taste the identity of the city and its inhabitants. “
Van der Valk Tiel glass room design winner
17-6-2015
AGC and Van der Valk have announced that architect Jasper Spigt from domainarchitecture has won the glass room design competition. The challenge was to show the versatility of glass as a material. In his design Spigt organizes the different functions of the hotel room with a single, folded glass wall.
Inspiration: co-creation around the glass hotel room
AGC Flat Glass Netherlands has taken the initiative to create an “AGC room” at the new Van der Valk hotel in Tiel. With the intention to be able to show their glass in practice, to interested customers. This idea was developed into a design contest for a glass room. A form of collaboration where everyone benefits: AGC, Van der Valk and the winning architect. They created media value for all parties and a lot of attention on social media. Inspiration for other entrepreneurs who want to put their products in the spotlights.
Van der Valk Tiel
In his design ‘Through the Looking Glass’, architect Jasper Spigt of domainarchitecture designed a glass wall from one piece for the hotel room. This wall has various functions in every section of the room, varying from transparent, matt, energizing, reflected, with lighting or art in it. In one section a wall of matt glass separates the sitting area from the bathroom, a bit further it expands like a ‘sky’ round the bed.
As the winner of the design competition Spigt receives a cash prize of € 2000,-. AGC Glass and Van der Valk hotel room strive to finish the glass room at the end of this year.
Runner-up: Colorize your stay
Runner-up is the design ‘Colorize your stay’ by Kees Marcelis Studio Arnhem (Kees Marcelis, Judith Westgeest and Frank ten Westereind) in collaboration with Alverre Techni Glass. In this design, colored and folded glass walls are placed behind each other to organize the space of the room.
A total of seventy designs were submitted. Next to the winner and the runner up there were also two honorable mentions, Arcade and Cocon.
Jury
The multidisciplinary jury for the competition consisted out of Elfi van der Valk (owner and general manager from Van der Valk Hotel Tiel), Judith Kaart (marketing manager AGC Flat Glass Netherlands), Rob Seuntiëns (interior architect at Dutch Concept) and Michiel van Raay (editor Architectenweb).
To beef or not to beef butcher’s brunch
12-6-2015
Top chef Erik van Loo ** serves a butcher’s brunch with three butchers at Parkheuvel in Rotterdam on 19 July.
Butcher’s Brunch
On Sunday 19 July butcher’s son Erik van Loo hosts a unique brunch with three butchers by the name of ‘To beef or not to beef’ at restaurant Parkheuvel. Herman ter Weele from Butchery ‘Ter Weele’ in Oene (GE), demo butcher Gertjan Kiers and culinary connoisseur Ernest Lebouille will join forces and will bone the meat live at the premises. They will give explanation and tell stories about the meat and boning craftmanship.
Erik van Loo
During the documentary ‘De Smaak van de Ziel (translated as ‘A Taste of the Soul’), it became clear that van Loo had much interest in meat because he is a butcher’s son. The idea for the brunch began when he got reactions about this after the documentary was premiered.
Tickets To beef or not to beef
‘To beef or not to beef’ begins on 19 July at 12:30 and lasts until 17:00. An all-inclusive brunch including drinks costs € 150, -. After the boning from head to tail by the butchers, van Loo will make ten to twelve dishes with the meat. The tickets are sold via the IENS website and there are 120 tickets available.
About IENS CarteBlanche
IENS CarteBlanche is a culinary event where a renowned chef gets the chance to perform a special concept for one day. That may be something with his favourite ingredient, something at a particular location or something completely different from what he normally does in his restaurant. The chef will at get a complete carte blanche. Unique events for food lovers!
Last year there was already a CarteBlanche at Parkheuvel, when the theme was based on the renovation of the restaurant.
Geef Café comes to Amsterdam with “pay as you can” restaurant
5-6-2015
Social enterprise Geef Café wants to make healthy and fair food accessible for all the people in Amsterdam.
Pay as you can
The concept is based on the ‘Pay as you can’-model where the guest decides what he or she pays. This allows people with less money to spend to visit Geef Café as well. After several successful pop-ups and an extensive trial period, it is time for the next step: a permanent location in Amsterdam. Therefore, the founders start a crowdfunding campaign and get help from Ben & Jerry’s.
Poverty
The Netherlands has many people who have little money to spend. As a result, these people often have no access to healthy food and eating out is an unaffordable luxury. Hence Judith Manshanden decided to establish the Geef Café with Laura Schön and Rogier Charles in 2013.
Trial and target price
Inspired by the pay as you can-movement in the US, the founders of the Geef Café wanted to open a restaurant in the Netherlands where everyone is welcome. The concept proved to work very well in Rotterdam and generated a lot of positive reactions. Over 80% of visitors were paying more than the target price. “Now is the time for a permanent location in Amsterdam, to inspire so many more people from The Netherlands and abroad,” said Manshanden. The Geef Café is supported by Ben & Jerry’s through the ‘Join Our Core incubator’ program.
Food Waste
Geef Café cookes with vegetables that are normally discarded. During previous pop-up dinners in Amsterdam and during the trial in Rotterdam, a total of 2.500 kilos of waste products was collected from wholesalers and used in their meals.
With the support of Triodos Foundation and the DOEN Foundation they’ve already built a budget. The last push is needed to provide a green light to the Geef Café, therefore they’ve started a crowdfunding campaign at the Doorgaan.nl platform. Donators get various rewards in exchange for a donation. For example, € 150,- gives you a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream party for 50 people.
The campaign ends on 16 July and after that the Geef Café hopes to open as quickly as possible at a permanent location. With 42 days to go they’ve acquired 55% of the targeted goal.
Pop-up King Charles II with Fever-Tree and Bobby’s Gin
3-6-2015
Fever-Tree and Bobby’s Gin from Schiedam join forces and come to Rotterdam for a tasting of the many possibilities with gin, tonic and botanical herbs for three weekends in June.
Fever-Tree
In 2005 Charles Rolls and Tim Warrillow stepped into the world of soft drinks because of the dissatisfaction they got from the existing mixers that were available on the market to use for cocktails. They joined forces to reinvent soft drinks. Back to the basics and nature, to create a mixer that can supplement spirits. Fever-Tree presents itself as a valuable ingredient of a cocktail, which often contains 3 / 4 parts of soda. Thus this must be a high quality soda as well.
Bobby’s Gin
‘Dutch courage mixed with Indonesian spices’ is the best description of Bobby’s Schiedam dry gin basis. By recreating the recipe from his Moluccan grandfather Bobby, Sebastiaan van Bokkel developed a unique gin together with Herman Jansen distilleries in Schiedam.
Pop-up King Charles II
This June King Charles II pop’s up above restaurant ‘De Engel’ in Rotterdam. Bartenders literally lead visitors through a garden of ingredients and show a world beyond the established Gin & Tonics. Magical new cocktails are created as gin joins freshly picked herbs and Fever-Tree’s Ginger Ale, Bitter Lemon, Lemonade, Ginger Beer, soda water or lemonade Sicilian.
Opening and food pairings
Between 21:00 to 00:00 hours King Charles II serves a tasting menu from restaurant ‘De Engels’ downstairs, for food pairings as worthy companions to the royal refreshments. To personally experience the magic of gin and it’s necessary to make a reservation before your visit.
Opening hours: 12 & 13 June & 18-20 June and 25 to 27 June – Booking via www.king-charles.nl or via 06-401530 83.
