John Lennon and Yoko Ono's honeymoon for peace

March 23, 12:07 PMCelebrity Travel ExaminerTrina Yannicos

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John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent a year campaigning for
peace in 1969 as documented in the DVD "John & Yoko's
Year of Peace".

How would one of the biggest rock stars in the world and his new bride spend their honeymoon? You'd expect at a luxury hotel, spending a lot of time in bed, and with a lot of privacy, right? Back in 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono had just got married on March 20, 1969 and decided to spend their honeymoon at the luxurious Amsterdam Hilton in the Netherlands spending a week literally in bed, but without privacy -- in fact, inviting the press to hang out with them in their hotel room. Why? To promote peace, of course.

"When we got married," John Lennon recalled in 1980, "we knew our honeymoon was going to be public anyway, so we decided to use it to make a statement. Our life is our art. That's what the bed-in was. We sat in bed and talked to reporters for seven days... In effect, we were doing a commercial for peace..."

The bed-in took place from March 25-31, 1969 in suite 902 of the Amsterdam Hilton. To stay in the "John and Yoko Honeymoon Suite" it would now cost you $1600 a night. To mark the 40th anniversary of the bed-in, the Amsterdam Hilton is allowing the public to be able to visit the famous suite between March 21-29.

After renovation of the hotel, the suite was renumbered as 702, but is decorated in a 60s theme recalling the famous peace slogans that John and Yoko posted in their hotel room during the bed-in. The Amsterdam Hilton is also promoting a photo exhibition called "From Holland with Peace."

At the time, John and Yoko were ridiculed by the media for having a bed-in for peace, but they had the last laugh since the media still reported the event, and as a result, got their message out. A few months later, John and Yoko would hold another bed-in in Montreal where they would record the famous anthem "Give Peace A Chance."

To carry on the message of peace, the Imagine Peace Tower was erected on Viðey Island in Reykjavík, Iceland in 2007. The Imagine Peace Tower is an outdoor work of art conceived by Yoko Ono in memory of John Lennon. The tall tower of light is illuminated straight up into the sky every year from October 9th (Lennon's birthday) to December 8th (the anniversary of his death).