Groet'n uut Grunn

Drinks after an afternoon of shopping  

Saturday, 18 July: 
A weekend trip to Grunn with our friends Femke and Gerard. 
After an afternoon of intense shopping and a few relaxing drinks at one of our favorite places in Groningen, the garden of Het Schimmelpenninck Huys, we headed for our main goal; restaurant In de Molen in Onderdendam. 
I had booked us dinner as well as the 2 apartments in the mill. The apartments are on the 1st and 2nd floor of the mill: so we only had to climb the stairs after dinner.  
It was a super dinner, great food, atmopshere, service. We enjoyed muchly and we will come back for sure. 

Restaurant In de Molen in Onderdendam 

charming Onderdendam 

smoking friends

In the restaurant:

4 amuses (appetizers); a promising start of our dinner

some of the lovely dishes of our 5 course dinner 

(also the friandises bottom right)

the awesome delicious dessert including basil ice cream and tomato coulis.

Sunday, 19 July

It rained cats and dogs. So after breakfast we decided to visit the Groninger Museum. This was a change of plan, coz initially the plan was to take a (hired) boat trip and lunch en route from the picnic basket Femke ordered from the restaurant. Shame the weather didn't cooperate.

breakfast in the morning in the restaurant

the attic of the mill (photo made by Gerard)

In the Groninger Museum:

Chinese artist Song Dong's exhibition 'Life is Art, Art is Life' '- Waste Not

A very interesting exhibition of this Chinese artist Song Dong. Especially the 'Waste Not' part on the attic of the museum was impressive. These items all came from the home of the artist's mother. Amazing what junk she collected: empty bottles, cans, shoes, clothes, you name it and it's there somewhere between the piles. 

Exhibition 'Werkman', overview of the work of this printer/painter, who was a member of De Ploeg

some of my favorite paintings from the permanent collection of the museum

When we left the museum it had stopped raining and we visited the super cheese shop De Kaaskop in the Zwanestraat, which we had spotted the day before. We stayed there for almost an hour shopping and tasting cheese. Great shop, I recommend. 

photo from website Kaaskop

Our last stop in Groningen was restaurant 't Feithhuis, a historical building where we had drinks and something to eat. 

It was a lovely weekend. 

restaurant 't Feith huis

A Thursday evening in Leyden

kir royale to start with and sitting at the waterfront (Bord'O)

Thursday, 16 July we had a lovely dinner at restaurant Bord'O in Leyden. This was my first time there and Peter's second.

The weather was nice when we arrived (on our bikes) and we settled outside on the terrace at the waterfront with an aperitif. Also the appetizers and the first course we had outside, but then it started raining and we had to continue inside the restaurant.

I loved the food, the wine (a lot of wines we recognized as they are from Brand and La Bordelaise, two wineshops in Leyden we frequently visit), the atmosphere, the friendly service and the personal attention of the chef. We will come back for sure, at this moment this is definitely our fav restaurant in Leyden. Some photos:

still outside on the terrace and admiring the first course and the great wine Peter ordered to accompany our meal

 

One of the 'friandises', a salted caramel, that accompanied the espresso coffee, was sooo yummie so I asked for one more  ^-^  

When we cycled home it started to rain and we fled into the new cafe De Waag in Leyden. This monumental building in the middle of town has been renovated and refurbished very nicely. It's worth a visit. Couldn't stop making photo's.

It was a lovely evening we enjoyed muchly! 

Totally refurbished monument 'De Waag' in Leyden

of course I couldn't resist and placed some pics on FB ^-^

photo made by Peter

view from the stairs