Back to Grunn - October 2016

Weekend Saturday, 22 - Sunday 23 October 2016

A weekend in Groningen: a bit of shopping, food/drinks and art; always fun to be in Groningen.

Zwanestraat: arghhh hit me like a ton of bricks ... : my all time fav shop in Groningen is closing, damn.

After shopping: relaxing with a glasss of nice wine at Schimmelpenninckhuys with a view of their terrace.

Dinner @ Eetcafe Schuitendiep, which we visited about a year ago, the quality level is still high and the price relatively low. We had their six courses menu with pairing wines. Very kind and friendly waitress. We loved it.. and hey hey we were sitting near the '(artificial) open fire place :-)'

Description of the menu:

we started with a potatoe/salmon salad with a yolk which was cooked at 65 degrees, surrounded by various vegetables

2nd course was smoked eel moussse on a bed of fresh tuna with a crispy biscuit of roasted peppers 

3rd course was pork belly with hoisin sauce and a lovely bonbon of cauliflower, sooo yummie

4th course was veal cheek (sort of pulled meat) with pumpkin and red onion

le desserts: 
5th course was a mousse of beetroot, a cake with fennel and anise, licorice jelly and ice cream made of buttermilk and beetroot

Oh well the last course (6) was complicated and the waitress was so kind to hand us a note with the ingredients, so read when you can :-)

Walking home and crossing the city we ended up at Cafe de Keyzer, which is near our hotel (the University hotel: very very basic and noisy, we won't return there) where P. had a cognac and I had a Drambui; one for the road 

***

Sunday, 23 October 2016

A visit to the Groninger Museum, the 'Nieuwe Wilden' exhibition

Some snapshots of the art that impressed me in a way 

couture by Victor & Rolf

***

Also on display at another floor was: Joost van den Toorn - Something to believe in:

 Walking back to the parking place: autumn is there for sure

Home: we bought this cool arty see through side table at the Groninger museum shop. It fits P.'s beer just fine :-)

Tom's graduation & Marieke visiting us

First weekend of October: our nephew Tom got his master @ Leiden University. Proud family.

writing his initials among the many others 

drinks afterwards

****

Marieke, stayed the weekend with us and we enjoyed a lot: great meaningful conversation, shopping at Delft, having a posh dinner there and relaxing.

Some snapshots:

drinks at de Grote Markt in Delft

picture I made to be forwarded to Spanish Mr. D.

  

mausoleum of King William the Silent at the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft 

 

a great dinner at restaurant Artusi in Delft: we all had the menu, which was superb.

scallop with cauliflower,  foam of cheese and bacon  

ravioli with peas and truffle 

black angus beef with lentils

almond cookie with tangerine and mousse of tangerine

Maastricht Peter's Bday dinner @ Beluga

great dinner @ Beluga 

Friday 23 - Sunday 25 September 2016

Because the restaurant Beluga was fully booked in the weekend of P's Bday, I had to postpone his Bday dinner @ Beluga restaurant in Maastricht with 2 weeks. 

After a horrible traffic jam on Friday afternoon, we parked our car in a garage and checked in at the Hampshire Design hotel. 

the dogs of the hotel 

Our room had many windows and a really super bed, however, when opening the door of the room we immediately bumped into the sink. So, not very spacious. 

After a drink at the river side we went to Beluga, where we had an excellent dinner. We took the menu accompanied by the wines they suggested. See pictures.

amuses

their all time fav amuse: tomato soup with foam of parmezan cheese

the menu

first course: coquilles

the 'friandise tree'  

***

Saturday 24 September

After a nice breakfast at 't Wycker Cabinet we went shopping. The sun was shining and we enjoyed muchly. 

huge breakfast @ 't Wycker Cabinet

very 'southern lady' 

at Wyck side of the river

'Theo shoes' 

Beluga restaurant by day light (ground floor)

the new bridge to the other side of the river

Lighting a candle at the Basilicum of our Lady  

Ending the afternoon with drinks at 't Vrijthof

view on Wyck from the old bridge

In the evening we had a nice dinner at Umami by Han, which was near our hotel and afterwards visited 3 'winebars'. 

Umami dinner consisted of several small dishes, which we shared among the two of us.

The waiter of Umami advised us to visit the bar of the Kruisherenhotel and have a drink there. This design hotel is situated in a renovated 15th century monastry. A really wonderful place.

Kruisheren hotel bar

@ the Kruisheren hotel, definitely an arty place worth visiting

But by far our favourite winebar in Maastricht was Insieme, what a great place. They serve really nice wines. After we explained which sort of wines we like, the owner suggested 2 wines, which we both have at home in stock. Sooo, great suggestions, however, less exciting so we drank another great wine. 

We had the Ori di Verdicchio, an old white wine, which tasted great.

***

Sunday, 25 September

We crossed the Belgian border and visited the 'Voerstreek', which has been in the news in the 80's because there was a fierce battle going on between the french and flemish speaking people of the villages in that district. It's now peaceful, a lot of Dutch crossed the border to live there, and there's tourism now (cycling, walking). 

what can one drink in Belgium besides beer ....

We drove back to The Netherlands and made a lovely walk near Eckelrade. The weather was great, lots of sunshine and high temperatures (25C). 

Motor guy that followed the instructions on the cross: 'Rust hier uit in de schaduw van het kruis' (= rest here in the shadow of the cross)

Eckelrade