Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category
Travel Lust List: The Yellow Treehouse Restaurant, New Zealand
Thursday, April 12th, 2012
Image: The Redwoods Treehouse
Our travel lust list just keeps on getting bigger, every time we trawl the internet we spot another addition! Our breath was taken away when we saw these incredible photos of a restaurant wrapping itself around a Redwood tree in Auckland, New Zealand. The mighty tree is over 40m high and has a 1.7m diameter at its base. The pictures are magical to look at, the architect wanted the tree house to resemble imaginative childhood dreams, playtime and fairy tales. The tree house is inspired by various forms in nature – the chrysalis protecting the emerging butterfly.
Image: The Redwood Treehouse
Incredibly, the Treehouse was originally commissioned and built as a marketing promotion for New Zealand Yellow Pages. Yellow Pages wanted to create an advertising campaign to demonstrate to people that no matter what the project it is, yellow pages can help in completing it. They set themselves a big goal, creating a giant wooden structure in the sky. Yellow Pages commissioned Pacific Environment Architects to embark on the designs, and the build was set to a four month deadline.
Image: The Redwood Treehouse
The concept of building a tree house on a redwood tree was pretty challenging and required a range of consultants to get resources, the building consent accepted and to get construction underway in the limited time of four months.
As you can see from the pictures the design is an organic oval form wrapped around the trunk and structurally tied up top and bottom. Access to the tree house is through a 60m treetop walkway, which must be a real adventure for the customer arriving. Acrylic sheeting makes the tree house water resistant. It is around 10m wide and over 12m high with seating 10m off the ground, the kitchen and toilets are on the ground. At any one point the restaurant has the capacity to occupy up to 30 people with incredible views across the valley.
We are not going Antipodean climes anytime soon but this could defiantly be our persuasion!
Image: The Redwood Treehouse
Travel Lust List: Restaurant in a Green House, Amsterdam
Saturday, April 7th, 2012
Restaurant De Kas, Image: http://www.restaurantdekas.nl
A few weeks ago we started putting together our travel lust list, and we’ve just discovered a Dutch restaurant that we have added firmly to the top of the list. The restaurant is Das Kas, (translating as Dutch for greenhouse) and is located on the outskirts of Amsterdam, in the heart of Frankendael Park, which at one time housed the city’s municipal nurseries. Chef Gert Jan Hageman, who had earned a Michelin star in Dutch haute cuisine, spotted the dis-used greenhouse. He approached the city with the proposal and ended up buying it for just 1 Euro, which he renovated it completely into the restaurant it is today.
De Kas Restaurant Interior, http://www.restaurantdekas.nl/
The restaurant menu features produce grown in the nearby fields, ten years ago the idea of sourcing local food was still a new restaurant concept. After lunch, diners can tour the on-site nurseries and gardens, and during the summer, tables are set up in the herb garden.
De Kas Restaurant Interior, http://www.restaurantdekas.nl/
The 8 metre high greenhouse restaurant stands out as a majestic building in the park. The dining room is spacious and beautifully lit mature trees intersperse the tables. Every seat has a clear view of the garden, the sky and the semi-open kitchen, thanks to the glass ceilings and walls.
De Kas Restaurant Menu, http://www.restaurantdekas.nl/
The restaurant has no “regular” menu. It changes constantly depending on what is fresh that day, they don’t even print the menus. Once you get seated at DeKas, the only question that is asked is whether anyone has dietary restrictions.
De Kas Restaurant Exterior, http://www.restaurantdekas.nl/
Chef Gert Jan Hageman sums up the nature of his restaurant as, “A kitchen surrounded by fertile soil where vegetables and herbs thrive. Where daylight shines in from all sides and where the chefs are free to express their creativity daily using the best the season has to offer. It seems an obvious concept, but I spent twenty years surrounded by white tiles under fluorescent lighting before I came up with it.”
Our Travel Lust List!
Monday, March 19th, 2012
We’ve been recently scouring the internet looking for some travel inspiration and have discovered some real gems. There are some incredible places that have been photographed for their geographic and natural spectacle, we really do want to visit them all! But, before we start packing our bags we thought we would put together our travel lust list. Perhaps one day we can start ticking them off…
1.) The Dark Hedges, Armoy, Northern Ireland
Quite close to home, so we thought a good place to start! The Dark Hedges is a unique stretch of the Bregagh Road near Armoy. Over the past 300 years or so, the Beech trees guarding either side of the lane have reached up and across to each other, becoming heavily intertwined to create a natural arched tunnel where shadow and light plays through entwined branches.
Photography: Chris Tait.
2.) Rice Field Terraces, Yunnan, China
A bit further afield this time! The incredible swathe of colour across the rice terraces is similar to an oil painting. The rice fields have been built by generations of rice pickers and have slowly morphed into these incredible bright, abstract patterns.
Photography: National Geographic
3.) Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao Spain
Of course we’d like to visit the Guggenheim to experience the artwork and admire Frank Gehry’s incredible architectural structure, but we’d also like to see this brilliant living structure of a giant Puppy currently sat in front of the museum.
Image: Digital Learning Foundation
4.) Ben Bulben at County Silgo, Ireland
This dramatic rock formation forms part of the Daltry Mountains in County Silgo. Moving glaciers from the Ice Age shaped its distinct present formation. Locals say it’s Ireland’s own Table Mountain, and I think we agree!
Image: The Cool Hunter
5.) Huangalong, Sichuan Provence, China
Another trip back to China is in order! These beautiful natural pools are also called “Fairy Land on Earth” and are listed as a UNESCO world heritage site. Spring is the best time to visit, when the pools are surrounded by blossoming trees, bright flowers and birdsong.
Image: The Cool Hunter
Camp in my Garden
Tuesday, March 6th, 2012
We spotted this fantastic new travel website Camp in my Garden, it’s a very simple idea – the website matches up people with gardens with those looking to camp. The website allows homeowners to advertise their garden as a temporary campsite, and it soon became a surprise hit after 1,100 members signed up in its first month. It has now grown so much that a staggering 2,500 people a day are currently visiting campinmygarden.com to promote their lawn for hire or to find a cheap place to stay. Campers can pay homeowners as little as £2 per person per night to stay in their garden, often getting access to their bathroom, barbecue and wireless internet.
Garden close to T in the Park festival, Scotland. Sourse: www.campinmygarden.com
Many of the campsites are close to venues for music festivals and large events, the idea was actually borne after founder Victoria Webbon was walking to watch the tennis at Wimbledon and saw so many lovely gardens along the way. She thought that camping in one of the gardens was cheaper and more pleasant than getting public transport everyday.
Somerset Garden, Source: www.campinmygarden.com
Victoria explains, “The idea just popped into my head. I really like camping and going to festivals and I was thinking particularly about the London Olympics. It will be difficult to find accommodation and the prices will be so high, so I thought people could rent out their gardens. People who want to rent a garden contact the owner directly and the owners manage each campsite and the bookings.” The costs range from £3/night for bamping (basic camping) to £16/night (camping with a bit more glamour!). The website is expanding so rapidly that there are gardens advertised on the website from across the world, and there are sections devoted to particular events with nearby gardens available for camping. We liked the look of Pawjit’s place close to the South coast of Thailand!
Garden in Burgundy, France. Source: www.campinmygarden.com
Beyond the website, the trend for camping is rapidly expanding. A spokesman for the World Travel Market – a large-scale event and organisation for the travel and tourism industry – stated that “garden camping is a fascinating trend and one that the traditional travel and tourism industry should keep a close eye on as it has the potential to really take off for major sporting events and all holidays.” The WTM praised the homeowners who are turning their gardens into campsites for providing “some of the most ingenious accommodation options available”. Regarding the upcoming Olympics, Euromonitor International Head of Travel and Tourism Research Caroline Bremner stated how ”the rent-a-garden concept not only provides a cheaper alternative to hotels benefiting both cash-strapped homeowners and visitors on a tight budget, but it also allows visitors to experience the “real” London during the 2012 Olympic Games.”
Whilst we don’t think we could offer many campers enough space on our balconies (!), we do think this is a great budget travel idea that has been really well executed by its founder, and we can see it quickly catching on globally.
Tulip Fields
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Image: The Style Files
We discovered these incredible aerial shots of the tulip fields in the Netherlands and were simply blown away by the beautiful blocks and lines of bright colour. At first we almost though the pictures were of a vivid wallpaper!
Image: The Style Files
The lovely tulip has become the much loved symbol of the Netherlands, with many tourists visiting the country simply to see the brightly coloured flowers and incredible view across the bulb fields. The flowering season will soon start in March with crocuses, followed by the daffodil and the yellow narcissi. In April the hyacinths and tulips blossom to some time in mid May, depending on the weather.
Image: The Style File