Alef Arendsen

I was having a drink with Arjen and Costin, both colleagues of mine at SpringSource tonight at the 21st floor of the Radisson SAS hotel in Oslo. The bar there is quite nice, not just for the cocktails they serve, but mostly for the view. You can look over entire Oslo and although the skyline is not that exciting, it’s still a very nice view.

Going down in the elevator reminded me of an article I read in The New Yorker a while ago about elevator consultants. Being an elevator consultant really changes the way you experience going from the 21st floor of the Radisson to the ground floor I suspect. I think it must be quite a bit the same at IT guys like me are experiencing interacting with systems they know are built with stuff like Spring, Java or anything else they’re familiar with.

An elevator consultant basically helps designing an efficient elevator system in a building. Now for a small building that’s probably not such a big deal, but for bigger buildings, apparently there a whole bunch of things to think about, such as amount of passengers the elevator system can transport per minute, the average amount of time the people have to wait for an elevator to come (there’s probably a trehshold after which it gets annoying to wait longer I would say), the amount of elevators (more elevators leaves less space to be used for real stuff, such as appartments or office space) and the types of elevators (express elevators or ‘local’ elevators).

Until I had read the article, I had never though about all of this. It’s a line of business that you don’t often think about…

Anyway, the Radisson SAS in Oslo has 5 or 6 elevators I believe and having stayed there, I can say they either had a good elevator consultant or just put in enough elevators, because I never had to wait for a long time to get up or down, even in the morning when everybody wants to get down to the breakfast room or back up to brush their teeth.

More on elevator consultants on Wikipedia.

After having stayed at the Divani Apollon hotel for a couple of days, during my stay in Athens I moved to the President Hotel more closer to the center of town and to the office of the client I had to visit.

The President Hotel in fact (as opposed to the Divani Apollon hotel) was quite enjoyable. It wasn’t really the rooms, or the breakfast (both not the best I’ve ever seen–seriously, if you’re going for spacious rooms or for a good continental breakfast, this hotel is not for you), but the people that operated the hotel and the very enjoyable pool bar on the roof of the hotel.

If I’m going to be in town again and if it’s for business or just a very short stay in the city, it’s definitely on my list of hotels that I’ll consider again.

I was in Antwerp for three days last October. Normally I leave the day before to get a relaxing start, but this time I decided to drive to Antwerp the day the gig began. I couldn’t have made a bigger mistake. I was stuck in traffic for two-and-a-half hours, while normally, this trip only take me 75 minutes.

So after this really tiring first day, I finally managed to find my way to the hotel. I had taken a little bit effort this time to look for a nice hotel, as it’s right in between many of the travels I’m doing, so I like to feel at home in my hotel. I ended up in this small family-occupied hotel in Antwerp South, called Firean. It’s built entirely in art deco style with very nice glass-in-lead windows. I like family- or owner-occupied hotels a lot. I usually feel much more welcome than in a hotel of a particular chain. Of course in such a hotel you’re not sure what you’re getting up front. But then again, I’d rather take a little bit more of a risk and end up with the occasional miss hit rather than staying in hotel chains all the time.

So this hotel is definitely a hit for me and one I would easily return to if I’d ever went on a city trip to Antwerp. It’s very cozy, small and the staff makes you feel at home immediately!

The pictures do not do the hotel any justice. There’s no view to speak of. Of course this series is called views from hotel rooms, so I do need one pictures of the view. But I really do also need to post some of the pictures of the other parts of the hotel. Just this once… I don’t have pictures other than from my room. The other parts are soooo nice!!

Highly recommended!

By the way, I also made two other very good decisions that same week. On Tuesday, I ate at Sir Anthony van Dijck, a very classy and stylish restaurant in the centre of Antwerp (near the Groote Markt). Wednesday I felt like eating out again, and I made a reservation at the restaurant that’s owned by the hotel called Minerva. Both are excellent, upscale restaurant. Not quite cheap I would say, but definitely recommended!

Last September I was in Aarhus for the JAOO 2007 Conference. I hadn’t been there before and it was simply the best conference I had ever visited.

While at a conference, the hotel you’re sleeping in doesn’t really matter that much, you’re not spending a lot of time there anyway. The beds do matter of… they always matter…

The beds in the Scandic were good. The view wasn’t that good, as you can see. The hotel is in the centre of Aarhus, near the station and also quite conveniently located near the conference centre. Not much else to say about the hotel really.

Much more about the conference though. It really was great! But then again, this series is about hotels, not about conferences I reckon…

Last June I visited a client of ours in Helsinki, Finland. I stayed in Helsinki for a week and had quite a good time. Earlier that year, I also visited Helsinki for a while with several sort of colleagues of mine but this time was definitely a different experience with temperatures 25 to 30 degrees hotter than in February .

I stayed in the Radission Sas Seaside hotel next to the harbor. There are two Radisson Sas hotels in Helsinki as far I know and this one is a little further out of town than the other. But that’s not a big deal, as even from this one to the Kampii shopping mall (right in the heart of the city) is only a 5-minute walk.

The hotel is okay. The italian restaurant next to it is quite good too. As far as I can remember, Internet in the hotel is free of charge, which is a rather rare experience (and I think that’s stupid, but well, that’s just me I guess).

Update: hey, I just saw this one doesn’t have pictures yet. I guess I’ll have to do that a little later… can’t find them right now.

Last July, I visited a client in Athens and decided to stay a few days near the sea in advance of my visit. I looked for a hotel but couldn’t really find anything that I liked. I wasn’t able to book a room at Aegeon Beach Hotel, but unfortunately that was fully booked already. Finally I got a good deal at the Divani Apollon hotel in Voliagmeni, a good neighborhood, just a little South-East of Athens (technically still part of Athens I believe).

The overall experience wasn’t that good I must say. I booked a room with an view over the sea. Although I got, I thought it wasn’t really satisfactory. The overall quality of the facilities offered by the hotel were definitely good, but that’s not what I’m visiting a hotel for usually. I’d like to feel at home and that’s something this hotel definitely did not do. I can’t really put my finger on what it is that didn’t make me feel at home, but it’s definitely not a hotel I’m going back to anymore.

Later on me and a friend of mine were discussing some of the criteria that a good hotel should have but that are not so obvious from reviews oftentimes. Those included:

• Owner occupied. It’s best if the hotel is still occupied and ran by the owner. The owner usually started the hotel with a specific idea of hospitality in mind and he (or she) is probably the best to enforce that idea
• Not part of a chain. I recognize that hotel chains are an important experience for some in the sense that they offer consistent quality where ever you are, but usually it takes away all the authenticity a hotel has

Okay, it’s not much of a view, but I was lucky to at least have a room back in August, when visiting Arles on my trip through Europe.

After having driven across France for eight hours (from Bordeaux to the Marseille region), we couldn’t find any hotel in the area where we wanted to stay (near the Mediterranean Sea, to be able to kite surf). Finally we drove up to Arles, a beautiful city with plenty of ancient Roman sites to see. There we drove around for twenty minutes and found this boutique hotel in one of the really small allies of Arles.

They were completely booked, but still had two rooms left that wouldn’t normally be rented out to people. For us (and because it was so very busy in town), they made an exception. We got the room at a discounted rate, which was nice. The only drawback was: no view… Even worse, there was no window, other than one really high up.

Nevertheless, the hotel was awesome!!! Right underneath the hotel there was an excavation, covered by a glass pane that showed some ancient Roman artifacts (I think it was a bath house or so). The garden of the hotel was great and the breakfast was also very good. I said to Lars (the guy I was traveling with): this is definitely a place I would take a girlfriend to.

If I’m going to be in the neighborhood again, I’ll definitely book at this hotel again. No better place in Arles than Hotel d’Arlatan.

For more info on the trip by the way, check out my story on the road trip I did last August.

Last April I visited Cairo to conduct a training session at a client of ours. I had a great time there with several people I trained and concluded the week with a two-day stay at the Sheraton hotel along the borders of the Nile. I stayed on the 25th and close to top floor, which had a breath-taking view over the Nile and the city itself.

Other than that the service at the hotel was excellent. I would rather have stayed at the Marriott in Cairo, which has an excellent reputation, but that was full already. The Sheraton however was a very good experience too, with arguably the best bed I’ve ever slept in.

I had one meal in one of the restaurants itself. The Japanese food they served was great. The other evening I had dinner in the garden of Marriott hotel. If you’re looking for a quiet afternoon in the heart of the city, the garden of the Marriott hotel really does the trick.

I would probably not go to the same hotel again anymore. Not because it hasn’t been a good experience for me, but because it wasn’t anything special. Next time, I’ll probably try to book the palatial Marriott.

Ah, and if you’re there, don’t forget to visit the Al-Azhar park and have a drink at Alain le Notre. Great atmosphere and one of those quiet getaways from the (very) busy parts of town.

Links:

• Sheraton Cairo Towers
• Marriott Cairo