Recreation

Spring flowers at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport

Environment, Recreation, ,

For the next two weeks it will definitely be spring at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport – thanks to an indoor flower garden filled with ten of thousands of lilacs and purple and white tulips in full bloom.

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The garden has a flower stall and picnic tables where travelers can sit and rest and take in the fragrances and the colors – and marvel at the fact that there’s a giant garden inside the airport.

All these flowers come from Keukenhof, the world’s largest flower garden, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.

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Kuekenhof, in the town of Lisse, welcomes more than 800,000 visitors every year. This is their first off-site display garden.  You’ll find it in Schiphol Plaza, the public area of the airport with shops and the entrance to the train station.

Photos courtesy Amsterdam Schiphol Airport

Tulip field at Amsterdam Airport

Art, Environment, Recreation,

Heading to or through Amsterdam Schiphol Airport during the first two weeks of April?

You could happily spend your whole vacation at the airport, what with the massage spa, the snooze chairs, the casino, the kids play area, the museum, and all the great shops, restaurants and artwork.  They even have a YOTEL there, where you can book a room for a few hours for a nap and a shower.

For two weeks in April, the airport will also have a sea of flowers.

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The blooms are courtesy of Keukenhof,  the world’s largest flower garden, which is located near Lisse, Netherlands.

Each spring, close to a million people trek out to see the 70-acre showcase of more than 7 million flowers- which include more than 1,000 varieties of tulips.

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This is the first year the park is displaying some of those flower beyond Lisse.  So you can get a real taste of Holland without ever leaving the airport.

Look for the mini-Keukenhof at Holland Schiphol Plaza (before passport control).

Skate-and-fly in NYC at The Pond at Bryant Park

Free Stuff, Recreation, ,

If you’re planning on being in New York City anytime before January 25th, you can go ice-skating for free at The Pond at Bryant Park. (Lockers are free as well, but there is a charge to rent locks and ice-skates, if you don’t have those with you.)

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(Courtesy The Pond at Bryant Park)

Tomorrow morning (Tues, Dec 30th) MetLife has four-walled the rink so that 400 NYC school children can skate with the Peanuts gang, but Snoopy will be hanging around between 1:30 and 3:30 pm to take photos with anyone who shows up for public skating in the afternoon.

Don’t know how to skate? Free lessons are offered Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 9am – 11am, courtesy of Citi.

And – here’s the fly part – from now through January 25th, Delta Air Lines is giving away round-trip airline tickets to any destination their fleet flies.  Ask about details when you show up and lace up.

Giant chess sets at Lubbock International Airport

Entertainment, Recreation, , ,

The World Chess Championship is taking place in Bonn, Germany right now. Defending champion Viswanathan “Vishy” Anand (India) is playing former world champion Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) in a 12-game match for the title – and for 1.5 million Euros ($2.35 million U.S.) in prize funds.

Of course, chess fans are pretty excited about this. And so are the folks in Lubbock, Texas, which is the 2008 Co-Chess City of the Year (with Tulsa).

So it’s an appropriate move that the Lubbock-Preston Smith International Airport has installed giant chess sets and displays about chess in the east and west terminals.

This photo, from the Susan Polgar Chess and Information blog, gives you an idea of what these big chess sets look like.

I’ve seen giant chess sets set up in at least one mall and in a few recreation centers and parks. The oversized pieces create a great attraction or meeting spot and it’s always fun to see folks gathered around watching the ‘action.’  Given how long folks end up hanging around airports these days, it’s not unreasonable to think that they could squeeze in a game of chess.

But why stop there?  Wouldn’t it be great if airports had game corners or well-stocked emergency game closets so travelers could wait out delays playing Monopoly or, better yet, Twister?

(Courtesy: Hasbro)

Learn to dance at the Paris airports

Entertainment, Recreation,

I’ve always thought that a great service for air travelers would be gate-side mini-courses in everything from the ancient history to CPR or packing. Now comes word from Paris that the airports there are offering free dance classes.

Since the end of June, the Ecole des Vacances holiday school has been offering free dance classes at both Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly airports. According to this news report, lessons in salsa, cha cha, and disco are offered in boarding lounges and last 10 to 15 minutes.

Each specially-designed airport dance studio has the requisite mirrors and overhead disco ball and

“[i]n order not to disturb the other travellers, the music and trainer advice are broadcast through a cordless headsets. Passengers can dance and sing on a …silent floor!”

The free, “L’Ecole des Vacances” dance courses take place weekends, through August 17th, from 10 am to 6 pm at both Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports.

Now if they’d just throw in a free packing class, I might be able to find room for my dancing shoes…