Tag Archives: hotel restaurants

Uncategorized

Our Heidelberger Birthday Holiday! Part three

After our walk, I decided to take a cold shower. I noticed the generously sized tub had jacuzzi jets. Alas, the stopper didn’t work properly, so taking a bath was impossible. I know we should have called for maintenance, but I decided it was just as easy to take a shower. Afterwards, Bill took his turn washing off the sweat and dirt from our walk and we put on nice clothes. It was my first time in something other than shorts and a t-shirt or a nightgown in ages. I probably should have taken a selfie, since I even wore makeup and curled my hair… which is due for another homemade whacking.

While we were relaxing before dinner, Bill found these books in the desk. We had the New Testament in German and English, and The Teaching of Buddha!

When we got the dining room, we ran into the barman, a friendly young man we got to know better after dinner. We were told when we booked that the outside area was fully booked, so we were expecting to sit inside. After some confusion– they apparently couldn’t find our reservation– we took a seat in the dining room. The menu was pretty fancy. If I’m honest, it was probably a little too fancy for me, since I am kind of a picky eater about certain things. Like, for instance, I don’t like fungus– no mushrooms or truffles or morels for me. Unfortunately, nice restaurants often use fungus a lot. They also had lamb and veal, which I also don’t eat. Bill, on the other hand, loves both. They did have the ever popular asparagus with Hollandaise and optional add ons. I thought about ordering that, but realized that I don’t love asparagus as much as many Germans do. And I like green asparagus more than white… either way, it makes my pee stink!

Fortunately, I did manage to find a couple of delicious items as we enjoyed aperitifs– champagne for me and a Campari with soda for Bill. Service was impeccable. The staff was friendly and professional, rather than stuffy. And the highlight of the evening was the sommelier, who talked Bill into ordering the Rhein equivalent of a Grand Cru Riesling. Our waitress noticed we ordered the Rings Riesling and also commented that it was a favorite of hers, too.

  • I got a kick out of the video flame. It reminded me of the Natural Bridge Hotel in Virginia, which my uncle managed for many years. The flames there were always real, though.
  • A shot of the bar. It was very inviting for old codgers like us.
  • Bill chooses dinner…
  • Then tastes the 120 euro Riesling…
  • Good thing he liked it.
  • I have to admit, this was a very interesting wine. It started off flinty and mineral, then opened into something extraordinary…
  • Delicious bread, butter, and homemade cream cheese.
  • Bill had the Vichyssoise. It was presented elegantly, with the setup in the bowl and the cold, green soup poured over it.
  • I had cheese risotto with a king prawn, asparagus, romaine lettuce, and carrots. I really enjoyed this dish.
  • My main dish was the roasted cod, with gnocchi, and seasonal vegetables. Again, beautifully presented and prepared, and not too much.
  • Bill had veal two ways, with truffles, broccoli, and potatoes.
  • For dessert, I had creme brulee, which came with a side of chocolate ice cream with cherries and crumbles.
  • Bill had mascarpone cheese with raspberries and raspberry sorbet.
  • Another view of the bar area.
  • The piano… no doubt played when COVID-19 isn’t a thing.
  • After dinner libations. I had a strawberry mojito, made with Bacardi rum.
  • Bill enjoyed a Japanese whiskey. Looks like maybe the alcohol was catching up with me, judging by how blurry this is!

Total damage for dinner was about 312 euros, which is not the most we’ve ever paid for a meal, but comes pretty close. About a third of that was because of the Rings Riesling from the Pfalz. Naturally, you pay a premium for wine in a restaurant, and that bottle would not have been so expensive at the winery, even though it was a special, limited edition bottle. I was glad we ordered it, though. It was not the usual… I enjoyed how the flavor changed as the wine was exposed to oxygen and the ambient temperature. And it was a special occasion– our first gourmet meal in a sit down restaurant in many months. Boy, how we’ve missed dining out! I think we made the sommelier’s night, too. But as nice as Friday’s dinner was, Saturday’s was even better… and it cost significantly less.

After dinner, we stopped by the bar. It was empty, although the friendly young barman was there. He made me a strawberry mojito and poured a Japanese whiskey for Bill. We got to talking and found out that he was born in Germany, but spent the first thirteen years of his life in New Zealand. Then, he came back to Germany and hailed from– Freudenstadt! Bill and I lived near Freudenstadt when we lived in Jettingen, so we know that town pretty well! It was nice to talk to bartender again… yet another reason why we were so prepared to spend money. Anyway… there are pictures of Freudenstadt in this blog, because we visited there more than a few times when we lived near Stuttgart the second time (2014-2018). I liked going there, and just hanging out in the Black Forest in general. I miss it.

After our nightcap, we came back to our room to find the turn down fairy had visited and left us chocolates. That was a nice cap off to our first day outside of Hesse on a leisure trip since last summer. Onward to part four.

Standard
Uncategorized

Fancy in Annecy… Our first look at Hotel Les Grillons, a hotel where food is the star attraction! part three

A staffer at Hotel Les Grillons met us at the door as we approached with some of our luggage.  An adorably pregnant young woman sat behind the reception desk and greeted us in perfect British English.  Actually, at first, I thought she sounded more like an Aussie than a Brit.  However, I soon realized that her French was just as perfect as her English was.  I don’t know if she was a product of parents from two countries or just had unusually good language training.  In any case, I got the sense that this was her hotel.  She handed us the key to room 25, which was on the third floor and had a nice view of the mountains and the lake.

By the front door…

 

The lovely young woman, whom I am going to assume was Aurelie Blanchin, advised us that the pool was unheated but available, as was the heated outdoor jacuzzi.  We booked the “half-board” option, which meant dinner was included in our rate.  The chef, Sébastien, makes a four course meal each night.  If there’s something on it you don’t like or can’t eat, you can let them know before 5:00pm and they will make substitutions.  I was delighted with the three dinners we had at the hotel.  We opted to go a more casual route last night.  More on that in a future post.

This was our humongous bed.  I was glad I brought an extra pillow, as I usually do here in Europe.  Bill wished he’d brought his, too.  This bed had a light duvet, one regular sized pillow, and one throw pillow.  Naturally, there is no air conditioning, but the window can be opened for a nice lake breeze.  There are also bugs, but they didn’t bother us too much.  The mattress was a little firm for me, but I’m used to sleeping on a feather bed.  I got used to it the firmer mattress after the first night.

These were our first views from our window.  They got better the next day, when the sun came out.

The bathroom, with nice herbal scented, wall-mounted toiletries.  I’m not a fan of those divider thingies, because they never keep the water off the floor.  Such was the case here, too, although the shower got great pressure.

Separate WC.

Large wardrobe with a safe.

 

Hotel Les Grillons has rooms that face the back of the hotel, as well as a few rooms on the second floor that have small balconies.  I happened to get the last room available for Saturday night– I think a large British tour group came through– otherwise, the other nights, the hotel was reasonably full, but not packed.

Every morning, the menu is placed in a framed easel in the lobby.  The above was what we were offered on our first night.  Drinks are not included in the half board rate, but they will give you a pitcher of tap water.  Not that we stuck with tap water, mind you.

Actually, we had a couple of big, French beers…

Bill soaks in the atmosphere as I watched the fish in the big aquarium next to where I was sitting.  My husband has come to love France.  Dinner service begins at 7:30pm and guests are invited to sit where they’d like between 7:30 and 8:30.

Bill chose a nice local red to go with dinner.  The wines were very reasonably priced.  In fact, I think they were a better deal than the beers.

First course… A carrot mousse, with fresh salad greens.  Every dinner also included a basket of fresh bread.

I made sure to get this wine on film so I can look for it locally.  It was a very pleasant, dry red that tasted of currants.

Next came perfectly cooked duck breast with cabbage, pears, and polenta…

Bill had a cheese course, which included a couple of local cheeses.  One was from a fromagerie just down the road from the hotel.  We passed it on our unplanned alternate route to the lake.

I had dessert, which Bill skipped.  It was a very light vanilla mousse with pineapple, whipped cream, and a fresh strawberry.

Once dinner was over, we were more than ready to call it a day.  And both of us were raving about how good the food and the service were.  It seemed odd not to tip anyone, but there’s really no way we could have.

Incidentally, during our first two nights, there was a family with two young children sitting near us.  The kids were well accommodated.  They even had a menu for them.

Standard
Uncategorized

Blind booking #4: Berlin! Part 2

On Friday, December 8, 2017, Bill, Parker, and I ventured to the Stuttgart airport.  We lucked into a mid afternoon flight, which was a great thing.  Sometimes, when you do a blind booking, you can end up with flights at inconvenient times.  Not surprisingly, Berlin flights are a dime a dozen from Stuttgart.  We were scheduled to leave at 1:45pm, so we arrived at the airport at lunchtime and enjoyed a relatively painless trip through security.

We sat at an airport bar and had some beer.  Bill was talking about how he doesn’t like sitting in the middle seat, although he was willing to do it for our flights to and from Berlin.  I helped by reminding him that he was sitting between his wife and his mother, adding “You once came out of her and now you come into me.”  Yes, I know that’s a disgusting joke.  It was still pretty funny, though.  I was rewarded with the reaction pictured below.

My husband has an infinite amount of patience.

 

We really should have had a snack while we were waiting.  Although Eurowings provides snacks if you reserve a seat (up to 19 euros per person each way), it’s a pretty paltry offering.  You get half a sandwich, water, and a tiny packet of gummi bears.  They also give you another small drink in a little plastic cup.  By the time we arrived in Berlin at about 3:00pm, I was famished.  I have a tendency to get “hangry” when I’m hungry.  The bright side is the flight from Stuttgart to Berlin is only about an hour and it’s relatively painless.

I also paid to check our bags, so we stopped by the luggage carousel on the way into the city.  Our bags were among the first to be offloaded, so it was quick and easy to get through Berlin’s “old style” airport.  Before I knew it, we were in a taxi headed for Adina Apartment Hotel Berlin Mitte.

I had originally looked for a self catering apartment on Booking.com, but the ones I found didn’t suit our purposes as well as the Adina Apartment Hotel did.  I had not heard of the Adina brand before our trip to Berlin, but I learned that it’s owned by TFE hotels in Australia.  The Adina brand is all over Australia, New Zealand, and certain European countries.  There are three Adina Apartment Hotels in Berlin; besides the Mitte location, there are also hotels at Checkpoint Charlie and the Hackescher Markt.

I did not have especially high hopes for the Adina Apartment Hotel Berlin Mitte, but I must admit I was very pleasantly surprised.  When we entered the lobby and greeted the receptionist, he asked if my name was Angela.  There was an Angela Crossan registered at the hotel.  My name isn’t Angela, although that is my husband’s sister’s name.  We spell our last name with an “e”, too.  Once they found our reservation, we were assigned room 308, a two bedroom apartment.  Below are some photos.

Bedroom #1.  I think this was the spare bedroom, since it didn’t have its own bathroom.  The bathroom was located across the hall.  Both bedrooms had king sized beds and wall mounted flatscreen televisions.

Bathroom #1 had a tub/shower combo.

Sitting room.  There was a TV in this room, as well as a small kitchenette that had a mini bar, a fridge, a small stove, and a microwave.

This was the master bedroom.  Parker stayed in this room.

Her room had its own bathroom with a stand up shower.

There was a desk with free Internet, though you could pay extra for “premium”.  I did pay extra for premium Internet and can say that it wasn’t worth the money.  The free Internet worked as well as the pay version did… and that’s to say that both were pretty slow.

Little kitchenette.

I was very surprised to find a washer and dryer in Bathroom #1.  They even provided detergent!

 

Had Bill and I been traveling alone (without the dogs, that is), we probably would have opted for a hotel room.  However, this apartment hotel really suited our needs beautifully.  It’s perfect if you’re bringing kids or in laws and want to stay together, yet have privacy and the ability to cook your own meals.  Of course, if you’d rather not cook, you can also use the hotel’s restaurant, Alto.  Breakfast costs 19 euros a person.  They also have dinner at the restaurant and a full bar.

The weather on Friday night was pretty nasty, but we ventured out looking for food, anyway.  We weren’t successful, mainly because the one place we stopped into was hosting a Christmas party.  There are actually a number of restaurants close to the Adina Berlin Mitte, but it was cold and rainy and I was really hungry and cranky.  It was also pretty dark outside, even though it was only about 4:30pm.  It gets darker earlier up in Berlin than it does in Stuttgart at this time of year.  There is an Italian restaurant right across the way from the hotel, but we didn’t go in there because it got really horrible reviews for bad service.   There’s also a kebab shop and a bakery in the same building complex as the hotel.

After a short walk around the neighborhood, we headed back to the hotel, stopping at a Lidl on the way.  We picked up snacks, bottled water, and wine.  I got a slight kick out of the heavily tattooed and pierced clerk who rang us up.  The person was very friendly and nice, although I couldn’t tell if s/he was male or female.  I suppose it doesn’t really matter, but it did make me wonder a bit.

After we put away our snacks, we decided to try Alto.  The bartender was a man named Awsam, which I thought was awesome.  I wrote about Awsam on my main blog.  We had a rather special interaction with him that I won’t go into on this blog.  In this post, I will simply focus on the food.

We had a couple of cocktails, which did a lot of soothe my crankiness.  Then we ordered dinner while we sat at the bar.  I had duck, which came with red cabbage and what Bill knows as collard greens (although it said kale in the menu).  He was happy to eat lots of kale, along with a steak sandwich.  Parker stuck with pumpkin soup, which came with plenty of bread.  I did get a picture of Parker’s soup, but it turned out blurry.  Bill had it a couple of nights later.

Gin smash… we first learned of this drink when we visited Hamburg in 2015.

I had a Long Island Iced Tea, which Awsam the awesome bartender said was not a lady’s drink.  Good thing I’m no lady.

 

 

Bill’s impressive steak sandwich.

 

Duck with collard greens/kale and dumplings.

 

Awsam, the bartender, took great care of us.  Bill tipped him generously and he beamed.  So we came back each night.  More on that in the following posts.

Standard
Baden-Württemberg

Staycationing in Stuttgart #2… the Wald Hotel and Finch Restaurant

Tuesday, March 28, 2017 was a day Bill and I had looked forward to for months.  On the 29th, we would both see Sting perform in concert at the Porsche Arena.  On the 28th, we’d have a lovely meal at a hotel restaurant called Finch.

Early that morning, Bill took our dogs, Zane and Arran, to Max at Dog Holiday.  In the afternoon, Bill came home early from work.  We packed our bags and headed toward Stuttgart.  As it turned out, we had appointments to get our teeth cleaned that day.  We made the appointments last fall, before we even knew Sting was coming to town.  When Bill found the appointment card in his coat pocket, he gave some thought to rescheduling.  But then I reminded him that we’d be in Stuttgart anyway and might as well kill two birds with one stone.  So our staycation began with getting our teeth cleaned.

After we visited Dr. Blair downtown, we headed to the Wald Hotel, which is located in a sports complex very close to the TV tower (Fernsehturm).  We were quickly and professionally checked in and given room 309.  The room was familiar, since it was much like the one we had last summer.

Comfortable bed with duvets rather than sheets and blankets.

A small sofa with a table and complementary beverages in the mini bar (beer, water, and apple schorle).

The view from our balcony.

And the balcony itself.

Fabulous rainfall shower.  Unfortunately, there is a window that faces into the room, so if someone showers early in the morning, the whole room ends up illuminated.

After we dropped off our bags and got cleaned up, we headed to the hotel’s bar. Wald Hotel has a very nice bar area manned by an Italian gentleman.  Bill recognized him from our last visit, after he made us excellent martinis.  This time, we asked for gin and tonics, which he made with Hendrick’s gin and garnished with cucumbers.  Refreshed by the cocktails, we decided to enjoy some dry red Italian wine while we waited for our reservation.

A very nice gin and tonic.

Bill enjoys a rare cocktail.  He usually drives, so he doesn’t often get cocktails in bars.

Yes, we killed this bottle of wine.

At 7:30, we went to Finch and were seated in a beautiful window booth that offered a lot of privacy.  The booth was big enough to seat six people, so we had plenty of room.  Our server was very professional.  When Bill spoke German, she responded in German.  And then she graciously asked if we’d like menus in English.  We took her up on the offer.

Really nice booth at Finch.

And this gorgeous window in our booth… it was all ours.

The amuse.  I think this was chicken with basil pesto.  It was very good.  We also had very fresh bread with salted butter and harissa spread that was supposedly a little spicy… by German standards, anyway.

I ordered the shrimp tempura as a starter.  This was a delightful beginning to the meal.  The shrimp were lightly coated in crispy tempura batter, served with a tiny salad with berries, mangos, and a delicious dressing.  However, I was especially excited with the male waiter who brought my dish used an old fashioned atomizer to spray port on the shrimp.  He beamed at me when I blurted out, “Oh, I love that!”  This dish was pricy at 19,50, but it was still very good.  I actually liked it more than my main course.

Bill had the game consomme, which consisted of oxtail cannelloni and sherry.  I didn’t taste it, but Bill said he liked it.  At just 10.50, it wasn’t as costly as my starter.

I had the beef tenderloin as my main course.  It came with Savoyarde potatoes, green asparagus, and Madeira.  I think they also sneaked in some mushrooms.  Fortunately, the wine we had before dinner dulled my senses enough that I wasn’t totally creeped out.  Bill tasted what I thought were mushrooms and said they tasted like bok choy.  I’ll take his word for it.  The beef was extremely tender and the asparagus and potatoes were excellent.  I just wish that other ingredient had been mentioned.

Bill had butter glazed venison loin, which came with hazelnut spaetzle and braised chicory.  I don’t usually eat venison, but I tried Bill’s dish and I think I think I preferred it to mine.  If we had eaten at Finch a second time, I might have gone for the venison.  It was very good.

We usually order a bottle of wine to go with our fancier meals…  ah hell, who am I kidding?  We order it whether our meals are fancy or not.  This time, we decided to have wines by the glass.  I had a glass of locally produced sekt.  Then Bill and I both had malbec to go with our main courses.

As you can see, Bill *hated* the venison…. NOT!  I always enjoy seeing him eat game.  He’s got Arkansan roots and likes things like deer, rabbit, and the wild boar.  My choices are usually more pedestrian.

 

For dessert, I had the white chocolate and mascarpone cheesecake, which came with cherry Jello and a cherry sorbet.  I’m not really sure what the “juice” was next to the sorbet.  It was good.

Bill loved his dessert, the Wald Hotel Classic baked French brioche, which came with apple compote and vanilla sauce.

Finch offers a fairly good selection of choices on its menu.  If I had wanted to, I could have had fish or a German styled delicacy like schnitzel.  There were also options for vegans and vegetarians, although I did not see a children’s menu.  But, to be honest, I don’t really think the Wald Hotel is really that suitable for kids, anyway.  It’s a very elegant hotel that seems more geared to business people and those who like peace and quiet.

I did think the prices at Finch were somewhat high, but that could be because I’ve gotten used to eating out here in the hinterlands.  Also, though the prices were high, portions were generous.  My filet was especially big for what it was.

If we stay at the Wald Hotel again, we wouldn’t mind another dinner at Finch.  On the other hand, the hotel is close to a few other places I’m still dying to try.  So we’ll see…  For now, I’ll offer my recommendation of Finch, especially if you’re staying in the hotel.  It doesn’t disappoint.

Standard