DUTCH HOTELS

DUTCH HOTELS offer some interesting contra Amsterdam you’l rows of canalhouses kno through to make one hotel. Decorated with great panache, these places mix antiques with contemporary urban Away from the big cities, you’ll find smart rusticity: old box beds, or flagged floors and candlelight, and great cooking. The level of hospitality is high, with some hotels prepared to set up the Jacuzzi or light a log fire for your arrival. If your taste is for gritty realism, head instead for the bustling port of Rotterdam, where the ‘left bank’ has been retivalized with bars and cafés, presided over by the Hotel New York , a stylish hotel in a landmark port building.

The West

This region includes the cities of Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Rotterdam – known as De Randstad or ‘rim towns’. Each offers distinctive townhouse hotels. Amsterdam’s attractions include its canals and three big museums (namely the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh and the Stedelijk). The palace city of  The Hague is the seat of government.

Smaller cities with equally attractive places to stay include Maastricht, home to a flamboyant carnival in February and a gourmet food festival in August; and Delft, known as the Prinsenstad (city of princes). Three other attractive towns worth a visit include Utrecht, with its pretty canals, alleyways, and specialist shops in the streets around the old centre; Leiden, an historic university town; and Gouda, famous for its cheese.

The North

Friesland is an intriguing area of farms, lakes and black-and-white cows, with its own language and cultural identity. There’s a grand hotel in Leeuwarden, a town of small canals and shopping streets. In the otherwise rural province of Groningen you can stay in an old guardhouse on the former toll bridge in the university city capital (also called Groningen).

The East

The provinces of Flevoland, Gelderland and Overijssel were created from reclaimed land. This is the site of the Hoge Veluwe National Park, the principal national park of the Netherlands and one in which you can stay, in a ‘cottage’ hotel at Otterlo (page 129). In this area of canals and fertile farmland, there are many other relaxing country hotels offering excellent food.

The South

The region encompasses Limburg, Noord-Brabant and Zeeland, the delta province. This is a pleasure-loving area and the food here is said to be the best in the Netherlands. Limburg’s Geul Valley is really special, overlooked by a beautiful hotel at Valkenburg and the half-timbered Winselerhof, a 17th-century farmhouse serving good food at Landgraaf .

FOOD AND DRINK

CLASSIC DUTCH cooking is generally brasserie-style food in generous portions, with especially good grilled meat and fish. There are plentiful fresh supplies of mussels (mosselen), eel (paling), served smoked, and herring (haring). Traditional standbys include a pea soup thick enough to stand your spoon up in (erwtensoep) and mashed vegetable dishes (stamppotten), many of them incorporating lard.

Perhaps more enticing are the pancakes, sweet mini pancakes (poffertjes) and hard waffles (stroopwafel) of traditional Dutch cooking. International cuisine is the order of the day in city restaurants, and many hotels offer a Dutch-French hybrid. Vegetarians won’t do too badly, especially if they don’t mind fish. Holland’s colonial past means there’s a wide choice of Indonesian and Chinese restaurants, where the rijsttafel (‘rice table’) is a feast of many dishes. Amsterdam is home to the atmospheric bruine kroeg (‘brown cafés’), warm boltholes (named due to colour of decoration) that are sometimes literary cafés, and sometimes simply a venue for enjoying a cup of coffee, a glass of wine or a beer. There are also modernist white cafés which tend to be more popular with a younger crowd. You’ll also find the occasional proeflokalen (tasting house) bar which traditionally used to serve only spirits such as the national drink jenever (gin) made from juniper berries. Lunch is often just a snack or a cold collation known as koffietafel which can be had from 11am to 2:30 or 3pm. Many restaurants do not open for lunch, but open for dinner from about 5:30pm; most shut at about 10pm in the provinces, 11pm or later in cities. The traditional day of closure for restaurants is Monday, and sometimes Tuesday as well. Restaurants with rooms may be shut on one or both of these days, too.

BEDROOMS AND BATHROOMS

ROOMS IN canalhouse hotels are often at the top of narrow rickety wooden stairs and it’s the exception rather than the rule for these small hotels to have lifts – so while there will be someone to help you with your bags when you arrive, they might not suit those who have restricted mobility. Rooms in these historic hotels are often small, or narrow, but of course what they lack in space they make up for in character.

BREAKFAST IS usually an extensive buffet of different kinds of bread, cheese, cold meats, hard-boiled eggs, yoghurt, muesli and stewed fruit.

Language

English is widely spoken and understood, so too is German and, in some places, French.

Currency

From 1 January 2002, the European euro (written ‘EUR’), made up of 100 cents.

Shops

Generally open 8:30 or 9am–5:30 or 6pm Mon– Sat; many close on Monday mornings, and from 4 or 5pm on Saturdays. Late-night shopping is on Thursday and Friday evenings. In Amsterdam many shops stay open until 10pm. Banks are open 9am–4 or 5pm Mon–Fri; in some places they are open until 9pm on Thursday evenings and open on Saturday mornings.

Tipping

Generally, you’ll find a 15 per cent service charge added to restaurant bills. Otherwise, it’s normal practice to round up the total, the tip being left in cash, not added to the total on the cheque or card.

Telephoning

Public call boxes take mainly phonecards and credit cards, though a few still take coins. Post offices have booths where you can pay the amount due after your call. Inside the country, dial the full area code. To call the Netherlands from the UK or US, dial 00 31, then the number, omitting the initial zero; from the US, 011 31.

Public holidays

1 January; Good Friday and Easter Sunday and Monday; 30 April (Queen’s Day); 5 May (Liberation Day); Ascension Day; Whit Sunday (Pentecost) and Monday; 15 August; 25 and 26 December.

USEFUL WORDS

Breakfast Ontbijt

Lunch Lunch

Dinner Diner

Free room? Kamer vrij?

How much? Wat kost?

Single Een eenpersoons kamer

 Double Een tweepersoons kamer