Advantages: transport, language ease Disadvantages: the rain
Utrecht was the first city I visited as a lone traveller from England. I was worried about many things; getting the transfers from the airport, finding the hotel and above all I spoke not a scrap of Dutch.
Stepping off the plane at Schipol - the airport in Amsterdam- I was greeted by easy to follow signs pointing me where I needed to be, to collect my luggage, then booths to buy train tickets, which I'd managed in under 2 minutes, and was quickly off on my way to get the train to Utrecht. Located right in the airport, the train station has ever so friendly staff that appear delighted to help you and will enter into a bit of friendly and polite banter with you too; so (after figuring out very quickly I was English) they helped me find the right train platform and off I went with a smile on my face.
The train came in the next 5 minutes ...
Advantages: Some good food Disadvantages: Quailty inconsistent, poor presentation, poor service
the menu until the drinks arrived and when we did, we found we had been given the standard menu so we told the staff member that we had booked for the promotional menu. He told us we had come to the wrong restaurant. He said we should be at the sister restaurant, the Brasserie, and that the company had informed the Times that they should change the information in the newspaper but they hadn't. When we pointed out that we had spoken directly to the restaurant when we made our reservation and that we had not, during the course of two telephone calls with staff, been advised that we should go to the Brasserie, he simply shrugged and offered to arrange a taxi to the Brasserie at the restaurants expense. Anxious not to spoil the evening any further we agreed.
When we arrived at the Brasserie the manager was expecting us, gave us glasses of fizz ...
Advantages: Gunwharf Quays' best restaurant Disadvantages: Beef not as tender as expected
We had wanted to sample the delights of Brasserie Blanc in Gunwharf Quays one evening in October, but without a reservation we would have had to wait about an hour for a table. Late one Saturday afternoon in December, I rang to see if I could book a table for three for 3pm the following day, and luckily this was possible. As soon as we arrived on the Sunday, we were greeted by a receptionist who checked our reservation and led us past a beautiful Christmas tree to a table not far from a window from which there was a view of the canalside and the Spinnaker Tower.
Menus were distributed before we had even sat down. I was glad to find that plenty of coat hooks were provided.
Linen tablecloths are used but they are covered with white paper cloths set diagonally. Napkins are large linen ones. As well as the usual cruet, there is a bottle ...
