Hernán Cattáneo b2b Nick Warren,
chauffeured.
A six-hour back-to-back in a Westpoort warehouse. Six hours, two booths shared by two people, one long build. This is the kind of set the week exists for, and the kind that ends at an hour when the city has stopped pretending to run public transport.
Wednesday 21 October, at the Westweelde.
Opening night. The conference has barely finished its first day when the first rooms fill, and the city moves from panels to parties in the space of an hour.
Six hours, two booths shared by two people, one long build. This is the kind of set the week exists for, and the kind that ends at an hour when the city has stopped pretending to run public transport.
Westweelde is in the port area west of the centre — close by road, and a long way from anything you could walk to. It is the classic ADE geography problem: fifteen minutes by car, effectively unreachable otherwise.
From the canal belt it is the Haarlemmerweg and the Basisweg, fifteen minutes on a quiet evening. From Schiphol it is quicker still: the A4 to the A10-West, without touching the centre.
When a six-hour set ends there is no passing traffic on the Basisweg, no rank and nothing to hail. The car that brought you is the car that takes you back, at the price fixed when you booked — surge pricing at five in the morning is somebody else’s problem.
Westpoort.
Westweelde is one of the warehouse rooms in the port area west of the city, off the A10-West and the Basisweg. From the canal belt it is a fifteen-minute run; from Schiphol it is quicker still by the A4 and the A10.
The car stops at the gate to the site. Like everything in Westpoort it is a stretch of road with no taxi rank, no night bus worth the name and nothing to hail — which is the whole argument for a booked return.
Westweelde is one of the warehouse rooms in the port area west of the city, off the A10-West and the Basisweg. From the canal belt it is a fifteen-minute run; from Schiphol it is quicker still by the A4 and the A10. Your chauffeur checks the roads before setting off rather than when he arrives, and the price is fixed when you book, whatever the traffic does.
The car stops at the gate to the site. Like everything in Westpoort it is a stretch of road with no taxi rank, no night bus worth the name and nothing to hail — which is the whole argument for a booked return.
Yes, and on this night it is the sensible way to do it. When a six-hour set ends there is no passing traffic on the Basisweg, no rank and nothing to hail. The car that brought you is the car that takes you back, at the price fixed when you booked — surge pricing at five in the morning is somebody else’s problem. Book the return at the same time as the outward ride, or keep one car and chauffeur for the whole night by the hour, from €65 an hour in Business Class with a two-hour minimum.
Schiphol to any address in Amsterdam is a fixed €90 in Business Class, €125 in the seven-seat Van Class and €140 in First Class — taxes included, per car, with the flight tracked and a chauffeur waiting inside the arrivals hall. Going back to Schiphol the fixed prices are €80, €85 and €90.
The Van Class takes up to seven passengers and seven bags in one car, with captain chairs and walk-in headroom. For a larger party dispatch stages several cars to arrive together at Westweelde, with one contact for the whole group rather than a separate booking per car.
Message dispatch on WhatsApp and the pickup time moves. It is one number, answered around the clock in English, and once a chauffeur is assigned you have his line too. There is no surge pricing at four in the morning — the fare was agreed when you booked.