travelswithalice

August 31, 2017

From Zürich to Konstanz

THREE ZÜRICH DINNERS

1. In a medieval armory- Zeughauskeller

Touristy but a necessary stop for Stuart whose avowed mission is to verify the authenticity of Palms Country Club's version of Zürich geschnetzeltes. This was the first of several samplings in the city. My roast pork shank was traditional hearty fare, lots of it, and quite delicious.

2. With Marc Chagall & friends- Kronenhalle

Traditional Swiss, punctilious service, olde worlde charm. We had liver dumplings and more geschnetzeltes.

Let's face it, we were there for the art. Our hotel concierge instructed us to ask for the Chagall Room but the whole restaurant is chock full of art from the owner's collection: Picasso, Klee, Kandinsky, Rauschenberg, Giacometti, Miró, Chagall, to name a few droppable names.

A lady we met sometime later told us that the current collection is, sadly, much reduced from ten, twenty years ago.

Upstairs, a more intimate space. There's a bar, a clubby smoking room, more art pieces, lamps by the Giacometti brothers, carpet and wallpaper by Yves Saint Laurent.

3. At a Farmhouse- Adlisberg Farm

A small chicken cooked in hay...

...a field of frisky horses...

...a water-color sunset...

...and a shy crescent moon.

_____

TO LAKE CONSTANCE BY TRAIN.

Having packed everything into two small wheelies, we took the Dolderbahn from the hotel, then hopped onto Tram #3 for the train station. We had booked two nights at a hotel on Lake Constance, and have no further plans for the next two weeks.

Street art outside Konstanz main station.

A Dominican monastery in a former life, the Steigenberger Inselhotel sits magisterially on a private island at the edge of Lake Constance.

Befitting its monastic heritage, our room has beautifully crafted furniture and built in cabinets of wood and leather but no art on the walls, save an exhortation:

Whatever you do, do it gladly; do the right thing and do it right.

Out on the town, picturesque houses...

...and street art, the officially sanctioned kind...

Labels: Adlisberg Farm, Kronenhalle, Marc Chagall, Zeughauskeller

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # August 31, 2017

August 29, 2017

ZÜRICH- a tale of two hotels

The Zürich leg of our holiday didn't start well. Taxis at the train station wouldn't take us. One said our luggage was too big for his car; another claimed Park Hyatt was too near, actually suggesting we could walk there. Not true! The nice lady in the tourist office tried to help, called a taxi by phone. Nada.

The infuriating thing was, upon being informed of our predicament, Park Hyatt, our all-time favorite hotel, was no help at all, charging €130 to send a car for us.

We had originally booked three nights there but decided to check out the very next day to move to another hotel, the Dolder Grand who had graciously sent a hotel limo to move us from Park Hyatt in great style.

Now, about the Dolder:

Toni Hinterstoisser, GM of Hyatt Regency where we stayed very happily for a week in Amsterdam, mentioned the Dolder in connection with his recommendations for nice places to have dinner in Zürich, our next stop. We'd never heard of it before and we promised to check it out.

Staying at the Dolder is like living inside an art gallery. The public areas are filled with art. The entire building is art, both the original 1899 Gothic part where we chose to stay, and the two new contemporary-styled wings by Norman Foster.

Light pours in from everywhere. A fabulous metal grill, laser cut to a design like a pixilated forest, wraps around the property.

Lift lobbies leading from the garage and the back entrance near the Dolderbahn stop are littered with sculptures and art installations.

I see an Anish Kapoor disc on a lift lobby wall.

A giant Jean Dubuffet sculpture can be glimpsed standing outside in an open carpark.

A huge Andy Warhol Retrospective runs the length of the wall above the Reception Desk.

Rene Magritte's Curtains stands beside the back door to the main lobby.

There's Fernando Botero, Joan Miró, Salvador Dali, Henry Moore, Zaha Hadid, Takashi Murakami, Sylvester Stallone...wait, did I say Sylvester Stallone? Moving right along...

At lunch on the terrace overlooking Lake Geneva and the distant Alps, I realize for the first time that this hotel is both famous and infamous. Maximillian in Reception has just brought me an iPad with a complete list of pieces in the art collection.

At some point, I lose my place in the hotel website and, trying to find my way back in, I chance on several internet articles about the hotel's owner, billionaire Swiss financier Urs Schwarzenbach whom I'd never heard of before.

Immensely wealthy. Plays polo with Prince Charles, owns polo team with 600 horses, some kept in Australia, some in his 650-acre Culham Court base in Henley-on-Thames in England. He also owns an entire village in Buckinghamshire, a shooting estate in Scotland, a 19th century palace in Marrakech, holiday homes in St Moritz and the south of France...

In early April, Swiss tax authorities raided the Dolder, seizing several paintings from the Reception area in the presence of hotel guests. The resulting vacant wall spaces are now hung with framed funny rubbish pieces presumably made by friends of the hotel.

Big tax dispute with Swiss authorities ongoing...this has been widely reported in media...and I was totally unaware I'd be staying in such an intriguing property...how very exciting!

Labels: Dolder Grand, Park Hyatt, Zürich

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # August 29, 2017

August 26, 2017

My Amsterdam Memories

In addition to the obligatory canal tour and several must see landmarks of this intriguing city, my own personal tour of Amsterdam would have to include the following:

1. Secret Gardens

Originally built for widows who preferred the security of communal living, "hofjes" were groups of small houses organized around shared garden squares.

2. Anonymous Sculptures

Sculptures have mysteriously cropped up in several spots in the city. No one knows when they came or how they came to be where they are. At least no one has claimed any such knowledge officially. The artist or artists are willfully anonymous.

Fiddler at the Town Hall

Accordionist

There have been rumors that the artist may be Queen Beatrix herself because of the logistics involved in surreptitiously installing those pieces in public places. Furthermore, the face of the "fiddler" is said to resemble the queen's husband, Claus.

3. The Royal Concertgebouw

At the box office, I couldn't decide whether to take the left side seating or the right. The ticket clerk, trying not to sound dismissive, said "It really doesn't matter."

Considered one of the world's best concert halls, Royal Concertgebouw's Main Hall has phenomenal acoustics.

read about famous acoustics

Stuart and me at cocktails during intermission when complimentary drinks were served. Note the shameful state of inappropriate dressing at our otherwise elegant evening.

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra's First Violin Tjeerd Top delivered an intense, vigorous Vivaldi, the evening's much anticipated Four Seasons, a performance that brought the audience to their feet. He then came back to rock a mean Led Zeppelin turn, Stairway to Heaven, which generated another standing ovation. And as I quietly intoned "Hmmm...makes me wonder," our inappropriate attire felt a little less inappropriate.

4. Lairesse Apotheek

A drugstore? On a list of places to see?This drugstore is not like any drugstore I've ever seen or even heard of. It's as courageous in its embrace of both alternative and traditional medicines as it is in its approach to shop design.

Lots of cabinets and shelves being the main requirement, this store is fitted out like a giant chest of drawers. A stout tree trunk stands in the middle, surrounded by a curved wall of little cabinets with doors of green-tinted plexiglass. What could be more intriguing than that?

Oh yes, an entire wall at the entrance is a floor to ceiling Periodic Table of Elements just like the one we remember from chemistry class in the school lab. Outside walls at curbside also feature similar tables.

5. MOOOI Showroom & Brand Store

Dreamy space in the colorful "De Jordaan" district known for pretty boutiques, stylish stores, florists, trendy restaurants, and art galleries.

Genius designs. Lamps, chairs, upholstery fabrics, rugs, lifestyle. All beautifully displayed.

Labels: Amsterdam, anonymous sculptures, Concertgebouw, hidden gardens, Moooi

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # August 26, 2017

August 23, 2017

Amsterdam: The City as Art Gallery

The surprising thing is that not everyone here has become an artist.

Here, street art is exactly that: art in the street, everywhere. I don't mean graffiti or the kind that's illicit, illegal, or done on the fly, furtively, stealthily, although there must be a fair amount of that too. I refer to art that is placed in the centre of every citizen's life, regardless of social background.

Even in bad weather, it is photogenic, painterly. And not even the ugliest opera house I've ever seen can ruin the city for me.

The Dutch National Opera & Ballet. It may be functional, sharing space with the town hall, and accessible, standing right on the tram line, so maybe it fulfills the town elders' main requirements for a public-use building. It is however meant to house great art, opera and ballet. Yet it is butt-ugly.

If anyone were to come up with a plan for a new city and the planned city were to be like Amsterdam, look like it, work like it, it's doubtful the project would ever see the light of day.

Amsterdam is an anomaly. It's not supposed to exist even, or to survive as long as it has, much less to succeed as well as it has. It's an impossibility. Not viable. Yet, here it is. Glorious and eminently livable.

Labels: Dutch National Opera and Ballet

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # August 23, 2017