Month: September 2012

Ibis, a wind of change

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Ibis, I’m sure most of you know this hotel chain and maybe have even stayed at one of these hotels. In the past Ibis were in my eyes hotels that you didn’t stay at for the luxury, the rooms were rather small  and getting a bit outdated(not even mentioning the bathroom). You didn’t really feel like staying more than 1 night at these. (Besides their breakfast, I’ve always liked their breakfasts. From the whole Accor group, they were my least favorite.  (My favorites are the Sofitel hotels, but I guess for everybody)

I did indeed speak in the past tense, as I now had to review my opinion on the Ibis hotels. There has blown a fresh wind through the company. Ibis has done many investments to make all of their hotels more modern, colorful and more suitable for today’s travelers.

Ibis has now got 3 different kinds of Ibis hotels. Besides the regular Ibis hotels, but next to that they now have Ibis Budget (previously Étap hotels) and Ibis Styles (previously all seasons). I can say for a fact that it was not only the name that got changed. They really did a good job renovating their hotels and lifting them up a level, without also upgrading the prices!

It was actually during my stay in the Ibis Barcelona Plaza Glories and the ibis Styles Beaune Centre (Beaune is the capital of the Bourgogne wines) that I had to change my opinion. The rooms were more spacious, more modern with some heavenly beds (really like on the pictures) and breakfasts as good always.  This in combination with great and friendly staff makes these hotels even better. My experience was so good that I just booked a room at the Ibis Styles hotel in London.

I can really recommend you to stay in one of the new or renovated Ibis hotels as to me they have great price-quality value that is in everybody’s reach. You can find more information on the Accor hotels website or the website from Ibis hotels.

Young chefs cook for young people 2012 edition

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Vlaanderen lekkerland has outdone itself again to find 39 top chefs to participate in the 2012 edition of ‘Jong Keukengeweld’ (I leave it in Dutch as in English it just sounds cruel: ‘Young Kitchen violence’).

For you that are not familiar with the concept of ‘Jong Keukengeweld’, I’ll explain it briefly. Jong Keuken geweld is basically Young talented Chefs who cook for Young people both under 30 for a modest price of 45EUR. For this price you get 3 course dinner (fix menu) including beverages (wine, water, beer). The participating restaurants are located all over the Flanders, you can find the list of chefs on the following link

It is all about making choices, difficult choices! That is if you don’t want to do all of them :-). There are already 2 restaurants in Antwerp that I can say for a fact that are must do’s if you have the chance, restaurant épicerie du cirque in the center of Antwerp and restaurant Veranda in Berchem (just outside of Antwerp). But of course all of the restaurants on the list are good, up to you to try them!?

The 2012 edition runs from October 1st until November 15th, per chef/restaurant it is indicated you can book a table and the days the menu is available.

FYI, there is also a daily Facebook contest where you can win a dinner at one of the restaurants… (so check their fb-page)

Enjoy.

Me versus tapas in Barcelona

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Who says Spain has to say tapas, they go together like a horse and carriage 🙂 Finding a place where they sell good tapas and for a good price (because at some places they can get expensive) isn’t easy, especially not in a city like Barcelona, where you also have the classic tourist traps.

The word “tapas” comes from the Spanish verb tapar which means “to cover”.  Initially people just took tapas as an appetizer, until one day they wanted to cover more then only a small hunger and decided to put lots of appetizers on a table 🙂

To make it easier to choose where to go, I decided to call in some help… Who better to ask then somebody who lives, has lived or has been there looooots of times?! One of these people was Beatriz a Spanish friend of mine who now lives in Antwerp and knows Barcelona really really well. One of many great tips she gave was to try Tapas restaurant Piscolabis.

Piscolabis has 2 locations in Barcelona, one on the Av. Diagonal (on image above) and one on the Rambla Catalunya. FYI they are both in great shopping areas. The fact that we tried both of them, might already tell you how much we liked it! This restaurant has it all, great tapas, good location, nice interior and last but not least friendly staff!

I personally like eating tapas as this way you get to taste lots of different dishes and at the end have eaten whole meal (sometimes more). Another good thing is that you order a few and if you still feel hungry, you can always order some extra tapas… And the best drink to accompany it is Cava, as Catalunya is THE cava region from Spain. The biggest problem (like always) was actually to choose what to eat, but lucky for us the menu also has images of the dishes (the only disadvantage in my case, I wanted to eat it all when seeing the pics)

A few tapas we ordered: Pan con tomate, patatas bravas, tortilla de patatas (classics),vegetable tempura, asparagus with melted brie, little meatballs, croquettes with Iberian ham filling and we also tried some salady dishes… and there are many more, but all of them were great!!!

I would also recommend you to try their desserts (you do the desserts tapas style, by taking a few different ones). The moelleux they serve is one of THE best I ever had! (Really and I tried a few of those in my life)

Basically I really recommend this restaurant!

P.S.: Thank you for this tip Beatriz!

Addresses:

Rambla Catalunya, 27

08002 Barcelona, Spain

Phone n°: +34 (0)93 306 96 69

Av Diagonal, 593

08006 Barcelona, Spain

Telephone: +34 (0) 93 410 54 95

The Big Apple: final part

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It is clear that New York has more to offer than only food (even to me). It has everything, from the ugliest to the prettiest, from the smallest to the largest. Trying to see it all is just wishfull thinking as NYC is one very large city! (I think not even in a whole lifetime you get to see it all). Like I already mentioned in my first post about the big apple, the best way to explore NYC on the first day you are there is by actually using the ‘hop on hop off ‘tour busses, this way you get a general overview of the city and know what you would want to see again (or better what you don’t want to see back).  So basically sit back and enjoy the ride and all the sights New York has to offer. After that I would suggest just taking the subway or walk, (like tried to do as much as possible) but again this city is so spread out that you would already need one day to just finish one avenue.

Time square, for example, is one of those places you just have to see when you are in New York. Even if you wouldn’t want to see it, you’ll see it anyways as the subway station is the central point of all the subway lines so from Time Square you get everywhere in town. For me Time Square is nice, but I just too crowded.

One my preferred places in NYC is the New York Highline. The New York highline is an old freight/train rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side that has been changed into a urban garden. It is owned by the City of New York, but maintained and operated by Friends of the High Line (you can still become a member/Friend and donate, the donations start from 75 USD I think). The Highline runs from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to West 34th Street.  It has been subdivided in different areas. One of those would come in handy on hot days (like the day we were there)at  the Diller-Von Furstenberg sundeck & Water feature you can cool down in the ‘water feature’ this would be a small layer of cold clean water streaming on top of the path you are walking on (don’t worry there is also a non-watery  part). Besides that there are lots of nice areas in this urban garden where you can escape the busy streets of New York. The NYC Highline is a good alternative for Central Park if you are at the other side of town…

Something you just have to do while in NYC is see a Broadway show! I know that lots of people are now already saying they don’t really like musicals, but don’t forget that the shows you see on Broadway are of a whole other level than your local theatre shows. Personally I just love seeing musicals and shows on Broadway and London (no so much here in Belgium). One tip, don’t buy your tickets upfront, just buy the day itself in a TKTS booth as they sell the tickets with a discount up to 70% (FYI, this is an official Broadway ticket booth, so don’t worry it are real tickets). You can find one TKTS on Time Square and one TKTS at South Street Seaport (at Fulton). The one near Fulton is always less crowded. We went to see Mamma Mia, it wasn’t without a struggle as my fiancée is one of those people who are not really into musicals. Funny enough it is a fact that after the show even she had to admit that it was a good show!(even if she didn’t like it, I know I did 🙂 ) You could just sing along with all the Abba songs…. I also liked our seats as I could see the band play 🙂

During our trip I found it strange that my fiancée tried the whole time to get me to the Brooklyn Bridge, but when we finally got there I found out why 🙂

The reason for this is that as surprise my fiancée had a bought a lock that we hang on the Brooklyn Bridge. This seems to be a tradition, as a sign for eternal love. What was so special about this lock is that it was with our names and the date we met engraved in it 🙂 Isn’t she a romantic woman?  So now NYC will always have a special place in our hearts!

For all readers with young kids, you should definitely shoud visit the Build a bear workshop. You basically get to make, dress and stuff your own bear and even make it speak. I’m sure not only your kids will like it 🙂 (We made one for my little nephew)

You first start with choosing a Furry Friend. After that you get him stuffed, but before closing him up you have to give the bear a heart. (you also make a wish)

You than dress the furry friend. FYI, there is toooo much choice in clothes to give him

If you want you can also give him a sound (we took the non-speaking one, my nephew already has too much noise making toys and I think my sister in law would kill me if I bring more noise in the house ;-))

You also get to create a birth certificate for the bear 🙂 + the shop also has something called ‘Find the bear’ program. This is to help your furry friend to find its way home to you if it is ever lost. Every Build-A-Bear Workshop® furry friend you make is stuffed with a barcode. When you make a birth certificate at the Name Me station you can enter your new friend in our Find-A-Bear ID program by entering your contact information. If your furry friend is ever lost then returned to one of the stores they can hopefully use this information to send it home to you. Isn’t this great? I know we liked it and seeing the smile on my nephew’s face made it all worth it!

I could really keep going on and on about what you guys should see in NYC, but I have to stop somewhere…. but I think I gave you some tips of things you can do or eat during your stay in this is the city that never sleeps. Enjoy and hope you guys have lots of fun!! Cheers