March 31 (Bloomberg) -- The Harbour Crane can lay claim to being one of the world’s most unusual hotels.

It stands in the pretty seaport of Harlingen in the northern Netherlands and until 12 years ago was used to unload timber from Russia and Scandinavia. The crane went out of use when a larger industrial harbor was built nearby, and now its machine room has been converted into a bedroom for two that hangs 17 meters high between the sky full of seagulls and the roar of the Wadden Sea. Among many pleasures, the room’s occupants can step up to the control room and swing the 65,000- kilogram cabin around in a 360-degree circle.

“It made me realize how much big boys love their toys,” says Antwerp-based television presenter Gerty Christoffels, who booked the room as a birthday present for her boyfriend Graham. “Graham was like a kid in a fairground, sitting up in the cabin with his joystick turning the crane around to face the sea or the center of town, to face the sun or turn his back to it.”

The hotel’s charm, Christoffels says, is that you’re completely on your own and that it’s an amusing combination of hi-tech and industrial architecture. A Dutch breakfast comes up in a lift and, weather permitting, you can dine on the patio.

Cabin Moves

The crane was Dutch businessman Gosse Beerda’s third acquisition after Harlingen’s lighthouse which he converted into a one-room hotel with a top-floor view post, and an old English lifeboat that now offers single or double occupancy. These aren’t places that you can reserve on impulse: The lighthouse is booked a year in advance, and the crane eight months, although it’s available all year around.

“Bad weather is not a problem,” says manager Willem Koornstra. “We’ve had people stay during gale warnings, and with force-11 winds, and they enjoyed themselves. The cabin doesn’t swing, but it does move about.”

Guests reach the cabin via two elevators, the first stopping at a platform between the crane’s legs and the second shooting them up to what was once the machine room and is now a luxuriously furnished bedroom with lots of windows. There is a huge double bed, two Charles Eames chairs, a table and a shower that has colored lights you can adapt to your mood. A large LCD touch screen allows you to watch videos, some of which are provided. A small staircase leads up to the steering cabin.

Bubbly View

In fine weather, you can sip champagne while admiring the harbor and the Wadden Sea Islands from the patio benches. A night in the Crane Hotel costs 319 euros ($421); it’s the same price for the Lighthouse and 229 euros for the lifeboat, which doesn’t require so much advance booking.

Christoffels says Harlingen is like a little Amsterdam, yet what she recalls with wonder is the sound of the wind and the seagulls, and the rain hitting the skylight at night. She hastens to add that the first day was radiantly sunny.

You can book a room at one of the three venues by calling 31-0517-41-4410 between 8:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. For more information, go to http://www.vuurtoren-harlingen.nl.

(Brigid Grauman writes for Bloomberg News. Any opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the writer on the story: Brigid Grauman in Brussels at brigid@skynet.be.

Last Updated: March 30, 2009 19:00 EDT