Hi there,
I am just back from an amazing short trip to the east of the Netherlands. My Mr and me spend a night in the "van Vlijt" Hotel in Coevorden. The hotel is open for about a year now and it is very, very stylish. Now, this is a good and a bad thing. We absolutely loved our room, it hit our taste very well. Minimalistic yet chic and a bit oldfashioned. Jep, crazy mix but that is us. The only thing was that the room - and the rest of the hotel including the restaurant - were furnished with items that are really "in" right now. Grey washed rustique nightstands and cupboards, these fluffy armchairs... it all looked like someone rebuild something from an interiour design magazine. A bit too ploished and matching for our taste. Also, a hotel that has been open and running for a year should by now have finished up all the little details... a decent entrance, nice gardening outside instead oof a mountain of dirt and sand and please people, if you are a four star hotel, you should have fixed the little painting errors, holes in the walls and silicon-oopses. It is such a shame to see that someone put great thought into rebuiliding and old warehouse and making it look both preserved but also contemporary and then the job is stopped being 90% finished. Well, that's for the complains. BUT: the rest of our stay was great. The room had a very relaxed feel to it, we slept like babies and the three-course dinner at the hotel restaurant was delicious. Oh, and our room had a tub with whirlpool. What's not to like? Maybe the cold eggs and bacon at breakfast the next morning... another episode of being almost - but not just - there. The staff was super-friendly, helpful and caring at all times, we were absolutely pampered. But things like checking if the warmers were still on for the scrambled eggs and bacon, or making sure to collect the covers for the patio chairs at night so that they do not soak up all the mist and moist the next morning... tiny things, but that is to me what makes a really excepiontal hotel. That being said, I still liked the hotel a lot and would go there again without hesitation. I also recommend to visit it if you are ever in this part of the Netherlands. Check out their website here.
After a good night's sleep, we headed out for some good oldfashioned hiking in a nearby forest where one can admire ancient gravehills ("hunebedden" in Dutch). The tour we took was 3 km long and took us around a very interesting landscape with deep dark forests followed by open sandy streaks full of heather. We saw maybe ten other people so all in all it was a peaceful and relaxing hike. We both feel recharged and ready to face another workweek.
Hope you had a good weekend too.
I am just back from an amazing short trip to the east of the Netherlands. My Mr and me spend a night in the "van Vlijt" Hotel in Coevorden. The hotel is open for about a year now and it is very, very stylish. Now, this is a good and a bad thing. We absolutely loved our room, it hit our taste very well. Minimalistic yet chic and a bit oldfashioned. Jep, crazy mix but that is us. The only thing was that the room - and the rest of the hotel including the restaurant - were furnished with items that are really "in" right now. Grey washed rustique nightstands and cupboards, these fluffy armchairs... it all looked like someone rebuild something from an interiour design magazine. A bit too ploished and matching for our taste. Also, a hotel that has been open and running for a year should by now have finished up all the little details... a decent entrance, nice gardening outside instead oof a mountain of dirt and sand and please people, if you are a four star hotel, you should have fixed the little painting errors, holes in the walls and silicon-oopses. It is such a shame to see that someone put great thought into rebuiliding and old warehouse and making it look both preserved but also contemporary and then the job is stopped being 90% finished. Well, that's for the complains. BUT: the rest of our stay was great. The room had a very relaxed feel to it, we slept like babies and the three-course dinner at the hotel restaurant was delicious. Oh, and our room had a tub with whirlpool. What's not to like? Maybe the cold eggs and bacon at breakfast the next morning... another episode of being almost - but not just - there. The staff was super-friendly, helpful and caring at all times, we were absolutely pampered. But things like checking if the warmers were still on for the scrambled eggs and bacon, or making sure to collect the covers for the patio chairs at night so that they do not soak up all the mist and moist the next morning... tiny things, but that is to me what makes a really excepiontal hotel. That being said, I still liked the hotel a lot and would go there again without hesitation. I also recommend to visit it if you are ever in this part of the Netherlands. Check out their website here.
After a good night's sleep, we headed out for some good oldfashioned hiking in a nearby forest where one can admire ancient gravehills ("hunebedden" in Dutch). The tour we took was 3 km long and took us around a very interesting landscape with deep dark forests followed by open sandy streaks full of heather. We saw maybe ten other people so all in all it was a peaceful and relaxing hike. We both feel recharged and ready to face another workweek.
Hope you had a good weekend too.
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