Posts tagged: Brussels

Nutmeg says hands down Vienna is the best Coffee Capital.  You will find decent coffee in all three locations, Paris has already been mentioned (02/23 Don’t tell the French Italian coffee is better), Brussels is decent with many options for Italian expresso or café au lait.   However, the Viennese have created an entire culture around the “coffee-house” which generally involves a smoky bar or quieter lounge. Legend has it that soldiers of the Polish-Habsburg army, while liberating Vienna from the second Turkish siege in 1683, found a number of sacks with strange beans that they initially thought were camel feed and wanted to burn. The Polish king Jan III Sobieski granted the sacks to one of his officers named Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki, who started the first coffee house. After some experimentation, he added some sugar and milk, and the Viennese coffee tradition was born.
In Vienna, there are plenty of sweet choices to go along with your coffee.  The two…

Recipes & Travel:
Austria, Brussels, Coffee, Europe, Vienna Travel Tips

If there is one thing that Nutmeg and Ginger love to try it is food.  The truth is you are not going to starve in any of these great cities; the array of options can be overwhelming.  In all three cities Paris, Vienna and Brussels there is no end of options for international cuisine.  Each city offers fresh farmers markets, local produce retailers and many ethnic specialty areas.  In turn, each city has a large inventory of what Nutmeg likes to call the dreaded “overpriced and underwhelming tourist traps”.
With the internet, it is easy enough to search for good to great restaurant options in any city. Zagat is a reliable resource and a bit more established in Europe than Open Table.
The other strategy is “roll of the dice”; this means taking some time to look at the menu (price and limited variety), the décor (lighting levels and table settings) and the number of diners (never try an empty restaurant). …

Recipes & Travel:
Austria, Brussels, European Travel Tips, Restaurant Reviews, Travel to Paris

Nutmeg was last in Brussels a couple decades ago (more or less).  At that time she and her friends stayed in an unrated hotel – sometimes called a “youth hostel”.  It was a rainy depressing few days, the city was uninviting, the food marginal (keep in mind a student budget) and the place was filled with beggars.
So fast forward… the accommodations are not grand this time, although certainly a big step up from the hostel.  The sun has shone for 2 out of 3 days and the beggars are gone.  That is not to say you should not watch your pockets, just do so with the same level of caution you would apply everywhere.
Brussels  fast facts:

population of over 1 million
55,000 of which are European officials
over 200 different nationalities can be found (1 in 2 people have foreign roots)
the city covers 170 sqkm (10 times the sprawl of Paris)
home to NATO and the EU

Apart from being the centre of European…

Recipes & Travel:
Brussels, European Travel Tips, Travel Belgium

On our way back to Brussels we encountered a tree!
This was no small tree it cut off  four lanes of a highway and both directions of traffic, including our bus for over two hours.  The good news?  No one was hurt.  That tree would have flattened any of the small gas friendly cars on the road and done serious damage to any moving vehicle.  On top of stopping both directions of traffic, the other complicating factor was that the tree had pulled down, although did not snap a power line.  Traffic ground to a slow crawl as the vehicles inched forward into a “sardine can” formation (if you have ever spent any time in a French or Quebec ski line?  If so, you might have an idea what this started to look like).
Finally, a single fire truck arrived to the rescue.  This event occurred in the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday in crappy weather…so it took awhile…

Recipes & Travel:
Brussels, Fun Facts about Waterloo, Travel Belgium

Nutmeg is off to join Ginger on a school trip. She really hopes that a school trip in your mid-40’s looks a lot different then it might of in high school. Anyway, watch for updates from the coffee and chocolate capitals: Paris, Vienna and Brussels.

Recipes & Travel:
Brussels, Chocolate Guide to Europe, Coffee in Europe, European coffee and chocolate capitals, European Travel Tips, Paris Coffee Shops, Paris Food, Vienna Coffee House, Vienna Travel Tips