This might have been the best dinner I have ever had. I was very lucky to be invited to this lovely evening, dine on the 10th floor of the Water Tower in Utrecht and explore the city at night. We had a 4 course menu with the wine pairing along with some freshly toasted bread and home made cream cheese. The meals incorporated new flavor combinations, as well as being very flavorful 🙂 and of course they looked very good. Really great experience!
It’s now October, the days are getting shorter and it is getting a lot colder outside. I really am starting to feel fall and winter arriving. On the one hand I’m excited because the seasons can be quite pretty, but then again I am not looking forward to the daily grey skies and the sun setting at 16.30. September was a good month and although I was busy working the daily
9-5, the weekends were very enjoyable. It included a day trip to Ghent to move my old roomate into her new apartment, day trips to Amsterdam to visit museums and eat Italian sandwiches, evening trips to the beach, work lunches and enjoying the last bits of sun outside.
It’s October and I’ve been out of summer for a few weeks now, but I finally am getting around to posting these pics ahah. After my crazy traveling all summer, I very much enjoyed being the last two weeks of August in the Netherlands and keeping busy with all the activities there are to do here. This of course includes evening bike rides past windmills, day trips to Amsterdam to eat Italian sandwiches and visit museums, and of course going out for drinks. Two friends of mine, Katharina and Helen, came over from Cologne for the weekend to visit. It was a super fun (but a bit expensive) weekend, yet I enjoyed being the tour guide for the days and taking them around the area to explore lovely little Zuid-Holland. Unfortunately, now we are back to the daily rainy and grey weather, which just makes me want to sit inside all day. It is quite cozy which I do like, but going outside is not as fun…
Once again, I am a month late with uploading this blog post…But somehow it is one of those things you never really get round to until eventually you do. In August I took a 3 day trip to Dublin, but also traveled around Ireland (to Galway and Howth). I must be honest that Ireland has not been my favorite destination. The weather is quite grey and rainy, the city’s have their pretty spots, but also the ugly ones….Regardless, the food and pubs are truly amazing. They have a great vibe and pretty much every meal we ate was delicious. The landscape as well is very worth seeing, with its rocky shores and military green grass. I guess you can say the dark and rainy sky fits this landscape very well haha. What could be fun is to do a road trip around the island and get to see a bit more of the country besides the bigger cities. Potentially this might be an idea for the future.
Our board holidays basically always have to do with food, wine and doing nothing. We take our nourishment very seriously and tend to plan our days around when/what to eat. Right next door to our airbnb we had a lovely little classic Spanish restaurant which we headed to for dinner twice. The view and food were really nice. One afternoon we visited the main city on Mallorca, Palma and spent half of the visit restaurant hopping and eating (too many) tapas. Two wine tastings were essential to the program where first we visited Maciā Battle (highly recommend), a Bodega that not only makes wine but also spray salt. The second was Bodega Riberas, the oldest winery on the island. My favorite wine here was their rose. With a day of a lot of tasting and a bit of learning, I am successfully continuing my journey to become a sommelier haha.
Mallorca might be known for its partying, however our week there became quite the opposite. Instead of being amongst large groups of people where we might get infected with a virus we don’t want, we explored the island. You have the classic overfilled beaches, but also the quiet hidden ones. Unfortunately we only found those on the last day. The color of the water is by far my favorite part. It is such a perfect blue, something we don’t really get to see here in holland haha.
French girl is finally in France. Two years later, we happily reunited in my favorite country to spend a week together with the Schmitt family in the French countryside. Our Airbnb was two hours north of Toulouse and close to the famous city built into the rocks, Rocamadour. We were a bit active during the day, but of course had to make use of the pool with the super pretty view. Since Léa was doing an internship half of the day, I turned the swan into my best mate and we spent many afternoons together at the pool haha. My visit was short, but sweet and although it was France, it was quite enjoyable 🙂
The one (technically two) good things you can find in France is its food and wine and I for sure took enough pictures of that. We stuffed ourselves with daily with a lunch made up of cheese, salad and sometimes meat from the grill. We didn’t often get around to dinner because of having an aperitif before, that took all of our appetite. But that was no issue, since olives, salami, melon and bread and spread count as a really good dinner as well haha. We did manage to have one proper dinner/night out in a small town called Martel. I must admit I am not sure what my dinner was, since the menu was in french. However supposedly I ate cheek…?
One afternoon I went for a winery trip with the two dads, as I am attempting to become a sommelier. We tasted one of my favorite red wines yet “Cahors le lac aux cochons 2017” and I also bought myself a rather expensive bottle to bring home. The second winery we visited was Lagrezette, and I must say I was very much impressed by this one. In their wine making process they truly look at all details and ensure to uphold traditions and engage the town in their wine. Supposedly they also make the best Malbec in the world, which of course I got to try 🙂
A weekend at the lake is something I cannot say no to. If it gets too hot you can go for a swim or simply go drink an Aperol. We spent a short weekend in Italy, but pretty much also Switzerland because the borders are so close, and were invited for a boat ride across the lake and to dinner. One evening we took drive to Lake Como to see George Clooney’s house and have a fish cooked in salt dough. Life at the lake really as striking as you would expect it to be.
When you think of a trip to Italy, you usually do not picture mountains and kaiserschmarren. Südtirol is basically Germany and most people here actually speak German as well. I was very lucky to be invited by Philipe’s family on this trip and we enjoyed some wine, the fresh mountain air and delicious food. I for sure did a lot of eating, which of course is one of my favorite hobbies. Every morning we started our day with a classic breakfast of cheese, ham, scrambled egg and homemade granola with yogurt. To walk of the calories we took the gondola up different mountains and in the process made friends with the cows. Overall, it was a refreshing four day stay in Bressanone.