Saturday - Windmills in the Green Heart

Starting today and for the next 3 Saturdays it's the month of the Green Heart.

The green area between the main Ranstad cities, covered by polders, cows, windmills and several other Dutch stereotypes, is celebrating the arrival of Spring.

For instance today the Mallenmolen of Gouda are open to the public, offering guided tour, demonstrations of wool spinning and a lunch with bread made with flour grinded in the windmill...among many other things.

http://www.gouda.nl/

www.groenehart.no/maand

Friday - The European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht

I first read about this event a couple of years ago, on my boss' discarded Antique Gazette.

It starts today and ends on the 24 March and apparently is one of the most important art fairs in the world: it hosts 260 galleries from 20 countries, covering Old Masters, Modern and Contemporary art.

The main "special event" of this year is a parallel exhibition of Van Gogh's drawings, on loan from the eponymous Amsterdam's museum and there are several other cultural activities connected to the Fair.

On display: paintings, photography, jewellery, 20th Century design and works on paper, most of it on sale, and with entry tickets starting at 55 Euro, it better be good.

Beware: from the interviews I saw yesterday on TV, plenty of poshos on the premises!

http://www.tefaf.com

http://www.vvv-maastricht.eu/during_tefaf.html?lang=2

Thursday - Nijmegen and its Labyrinth

Thanks to Pinterest for coming up with brilliant suggestions when I am looking for inspiration. I have never been to Nijmegen, the oldest town in The Netherlands it seems, although it had been on the to do list for quite a while.

There, in 1982, along the river Waal (where the old harbour used to be) local artist Klaus van de Locht built a decorative, ground level, labyrinth of brick and mortar for the delight of passersby, kiddies, ducks and local photographers.

Apparently there was a plan to demolish it but it was eventually revoked at the end of last year, which is good news indeed because... who doesn't like a nice labyrinth?

http://www.klausvandelocht.nl/labyrinth

Wednesday - A groovy hotel nearby Amsterdam

I saw this new hotel on our way to the Ziggo Dome on Monday, so I looked it up and found out it's part of a chain called Fletcher. Which I immediately liked, since it reminded me of "Murder, she wrote".

Judging from the pictures on the website the rooms have round windows and pretty cool curvy furniture too, including a shower in the middle that looks like a Star Trek transporter.

For those not planning to sleep here but who would still like to give a look, there's are a Skylounge and Sky Restaurant Pi on the top, serving organic fare.

Cocktails can be sipped while listening to live music being played on the very Spage Age-looking Whaletone piano.

A sort of 1960's exercise on "what the future would look like", but then built in 2012.

http://www.fletcherhotelamsterdam.nl/

Tuesday - Triumph of the trompe l'oeil in Den Haag

Awful pun indeed, and I do realise that I posted a lot about stuff happening in Den Haag lately, but this one is a must see and it ends next Sunday.

I took a visiting friend to the Panorama Mesdag and while there, we were lucky enough to chance upon an exhibition of stunning paintings by the British artist Paul Critchley.

Cut out windows that open on hilly panoramas, imaginary doors that reflect the visitors image and put him in the scene, a whole apartment purpose build for the occasion inside the Panorama, where bits of reality (a telephone cord, a radiator, a lamp) mix with the painted version of it.

It's truly entertaining and somehow interactive art and great fun to discover what it's real and when the artist is trying to trick you.

Look out for the fly on the turkey, the (painted) cctv and the photo booth with your image in.

http://www.paulcritchley.com/

Monday - Board Noah's Ark in Dordrecht

A friend from Dordrecht came over for dinner yesterday and told us about a new attraction in his home town.

The story goes like this: after a series of prophetic dreams and visions, a carpenter from North Holland felt the need to build a 1:1 version of Noah's Ark. To figure out what the "original" version's sizes were, he "researched the Bible, various books on the Ark and DVD's".

Whatever one's opinion about the slight wackiness and maybe hidden agenda of the whole story, it looks like a fun day out especially for people with kids, since it hosts two theatres, a self service restaurant called "Vrouwe Noach", an "historical display" and "life sized polyester" animals (plus real ones too).

Besides, it seems to be a very beautifully built boat.

http://www.arcofnoah.org/

Sunday - The day after the night before, or the follow up of the Rotterdam Museum Night

We went to the Rotterdam Museum Night yesterday and my own personal top prize for this year's most entertaining venue goes to the Rotterdam Museum.

We witnessed a match of "blow-dry-your-hankie-across-a-ping-pong-table", courtesy of the creative duo behind Air Match, sipped delicious cocktails with a Surinamese twist, sang karaoke in Dutch and performed  "The Bottle of Tears" symphony for half full (or half empty) glasses and coloured bottles, directed by the talented bohemian guys and galls from The Jumping Flea Market.

Oh yeah, and there was a knitting club as well.

Among all these wonders, I have also discovered the Mesh Print Club: a collective of designers, artists and printers who organise monthly workshops in screen printing and stencilling and offer specially tailor made classes to students and company groups.

The Rotterdam Museum, by the way, is closed at the moment, awaiting relocation scheduled in 2016 to the Rotterdam Forum, designed by Dutch star architect Rem Koolhas.