My father and I are early adopters. If there's something new we want to try it out immediately. That's why I biked to the Herengracht straight after work. Okay, I've got to admit, I went home to change my All Stars for leopard loafers because I wasn't going to just any place.It was the first day on which the Waldorf Astoria Hotel was open in Amsterdam. I really only knew the name because of the series Gossip Girls. Blair Waldorf who lived there, or had a room there, drank cocktails and did, I don't know what, things. What I do know is that it's a damned fancy and sexy hotel in New York. And now we've also got one in Amsterdam. I wanted to see what it looked like as soon as possible, I wanted to smell it, to see what the employees were wearing, and - was it even possible at the opening - eat and drink something. We decided to have a cup of tea. Well, let me tell you this, we wobbled out of the building at half past 12 at night.

It had been a quiet evening, there wasn't a big opening party or anything, but we had such an exciting evening. Upon crossing the threshold, I already felt like being abroad. Hallelujah, such a magnificent, high, marble hall. We were welcomed congenially by a sharply tailored double breasted suit. A young fellow who gave a small history lecture about the building. About the ornaments and the enormous stairs which was still authentic. For a moment I feared that we'd ended up in an hour-long guided tour, but we got to explore it on ourselves. The kind staff said hello everywhere we went, and we congratulated everyone with the opening of this amazing company. The ladies behind the reception wore beautiful wrap dresses with a map of Amsterdam imprinted on them. Everyone who works at the Waldorf, from chamber maids to barkeepers, are dressed in designs from Jan Taminiau.

We started with a whisky sour at the Vault bar. A cocktail bar that'll be packed in a few weeks, I'm sure. They were a bit hesitant with admitting guests on the first day. ‘We want to start slowly, it's really our first day today. Tonight we've only set-up the bar, can you believe it.’ the bartender told us. He had drops of sweat of his forehead just like all the other staff. Their first fucking day, no wonder. It was so stupid of me to ask whether the bill could be put through to the lounge upstairs because we wanted to grab a small bit to eat. They'd never done this so we just paid at the bar.

Upstairs in the lounge, we crashed on navy blue, lovely soft chairs. There was an elaborate wine menu, but they only had two available tonight. Something with suppliers, first day and everyone wants wine. ‘Apologies for the late arrival of the wine, we don't exactly know where we keep it.’ Sounds odd at a five star hotel, but we really didn't mind. We had fun, looked at the other guests entering the hotel, at the brand new furniture, the fresh flowers, the blue walls, and at the understandably stressed staff. We got a cheeseboard but the young man didn't tell us which cheeses we got. I understood only too well because I hated doing that too, but you're supposed to anyway. Wrapping things up festively, we ordered dessert at the restaurant. I had something with lots of strawberries and my father had asparagus. Asparagus yes, but in a sweet variation. Quite remarkable really, but incredibly tasty.

We left the place at half past twelve. We'd seen the bar, the lounge, and the restaurant. Wow, such a lovely hotel and truly something Amsterdam can be proud of.