J W Marriott hotel, Washington D.C.

June 16, 2017June 28, 2017Leave a comment

Last week, I was in Washington D.C. and stayed at the 4* J W Marriott Hotel.

Location:

J W Marriott Hotel is perfectly situated just a couple of minutes walk from the White House in the heart of downtown Washington D.C. . It has a perfect location as it is close to all the major sights and museums of Washington, steps from the U.S. Capitol and a short 5-minutes walk from the National Mall.

Service:

The reception desk is open 24 hours. The service was friendly, attentive and always happy to suggest the places to visit or restaurants to dine in.

Rooms:

I stayed on the 2th floor in room 225 which features some breath-taking views of downtown. The room was chic, comfortable and it was furnished with a spacious desk, modern armchair to rest on and a comfortable king-size bed.

The room was also equipped with Air Conditioning, flat-screen TV with satellite channels and a minibar.

There is Wi-Fi connection to Internet available throughout the Hotel at an extra charge of $12.95 per night.

Bathroom:

Our marble bathroom had a beautiful modern décor, a bathtub and a shower.

There was a selection of natural bath toiletries provided.

Facilities:

Breakfast is offered for a surcharge and provides a selection of cold and warm dishes to choose from and costs $26 per person per night.

All hotel guests have a complimentary access to the heated swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna and fitness area. There are 2 restaurants available to dine in-Avenue Grill and 1331 Lounge. In addition, all guests can grab a coffee at Sturbucks located on a ground floor past reception to recharge their energy levels.

Overall experience:

J W Marriott Hotel offers everything you need for a wonderful visit to Washington- a great location, friendly staff and comfortable rooms.

Website:

For more information and to book visit:

https://www.marriott.co.uk/hotels/travel/wasjw-jw-marriott-washington-dc/

Address:

1331 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington District Of Columbia

20004 USA

I hope you enjoyed reading this review!

Pauline

Esplanade Zagreb Hotel, Croatia

June 11, 2017June 28, 2017Leave a comment

A few weeks ago, I visited Zagreb in Croatia with my husband. We decided to stay at the 5* Esplanade Zagreb Hotel.

Location:

Esplanade Zagreb Hotel is situated just few minutes away from the heart of historic Old Town center of Zagreb. It has a good location for anyone wishing to do a bit of sightseeing as it is close to all its major sights.

Service:

The reception desk is open 24 hours. When we arrived we went straight to the receptionist to check in. We were welcomed by quite a grumpy receptionist… Throughout our stay, we were disappointed with the friendliness of the staff and none of them smiled. I was surprised as most of the exclusive hotels I stay in have extremely friendly staff which wasn’t a case in Esplanade.

Rooms:

Esplanade Hotel dates back to 1925 and is one of the most famous buildings in Zagreb.

It is famous for welcoming many distinguished gusts such as presidents, politicians, film stars and musicians. Esplanade Zagreb Hotel has 208 rooms and suites. We stayed on the 4th floor in room 404.

Our room was elegant, spacious and offered traditional art deco suroundings. It was furnished with soft carpets, spacious desk, modern armchairs and a comfortable king-size bed. The walls were decorated with some basic paintings.

Our room was also equipped with Air Conditioning, flat-screen TV with satellite channels and a minibar. There was a free Wi-Fi connection to Internet available.

Bathroom:

Our marble bathroom had a classic décor, a bathtub and a shower.

There was a selection of natural bath toiletries from L’Occitaine collection.

Facilities:

Breakfast is offered for a surcharge and provides a selection of cold and warm dishes to choose from. As my husband doesn’t normally eat breakfasts, we decided to skip it as it was around £20 per person per night.

All guests have access o the health club and the use of sauna and fitness area is free to all guests staying at the hotel. The Hotel doesn’t have a swimming pool.

Overall experience:

Esplanade Zagreb Hotel has a great location, comfortable rooms and nice small relaxation area. There is also a couple of restaurants on site if you are too lazy to walk to the city centre. The only negative aspect of our stay was the service we received and I hope that it will improve as other than that the hotel has the facilities to enable anyone to have an enjoyable stay.

Website:

For more information and to book visit:

http://www.esplanade.hr/

Address:

Mihanovićeva ul. 1,

10000, Zagreb,

Croatia

I hope you enjoyed reading this review!

Pauline

Dinner at Vinodol restaurant in Zagreb, Croatia

June 9, 2017June 15, 2017Leave a comment

A couple of weeks ago, I was with my husband in Zagreb in Croatia. On our last evening, we booked a table at the popular local restaurant – Vinodol.

Location:

Vinodol Restaurant is located in the city’s center on Nikole Tesle’s street.

Atmosphere:

Vinodol Restaurant serves meals that are prepared according to traditional recipes, with a modern approach. The restaurant has a large inside area that can hold up to 180 guest in addition to a green and spacious outdoor terrace that sits 100.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is warm and inviting. We were welcomed by Lucy who was attending our table through the night. She was really friendly and professional.

The menu:

All guests can choose from A La Carte as well as great daily menus made from selected fresh seasonal foods. They both looked great. We decided to have a glass of Prosecco to start with while considering what we should have.

Starters:

While sipping our Prosecco, we decided to order some asparagus, shrimp and wild mushroom risotto from a daily menu. It was delectable and I wish I could recreate it at home.

Mains:

There was a great choice of mains on the menu. We asked our friendly waitress for a recommendation as we couldn’t decide and agreed to share some lamb prepared on spit from Cres island.

It was really tasty and tender. It also came with a couple of sides and some potatoes.

Desserts:

We were full after having our starters and mains but we still decided to try some desserts: some hazelnut fantasy cake and a creme carmel. They were both delicious but the hazelnut cake was simply amazing! It was definitely the best cake I’ve tried so far this year and you should definitely try it if you visit Vinodol.

Overall experience:

We both had a lovely time Vinodol as the restaurant serves delicious food based on fresh, seasonal ingredients. I loved my hazelnut cake and will definitely reccommend it to anyone with a sweet tooth. The service was really friendly, restaurant is located in a city center and it serves great quality, traditional and Mediterranean food with a modern influence so I would definitely visit it again.

Website:

For more information and to book visit:

http://www.vinodol-zg.hr/en/

Address:

Ul. Nikole Tesle 10,

10000 Zagreb, Croatia

I hope you enjoyed reading this review!

Pauline

Holiday destinations: Brussels, Belgium

June 2, 2017September 16, 20214 Comments

I’ve visited Brussels on the multiple occasions and I always like returning to this city made famous by its French fries, waffles, seafood and beer.

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Brussels is the largest city and a capital of Belgium. It has a population of 1.2 million and it has been increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages.

Historically it was a Dutch-speaking city, it has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards.

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Today the majority language is French however all road signs, street names and many services are shown in both languages. If you fancy a short break then Brussels is a great destination as it is only 2 hours away on the Eurostar.

There’s lots to see in the city from the famous chocolate shops to enjoying its cafe culture in the Grand-Place area.

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Here is a short list of my suggestions:

Grote Markt (Dutch) / Grand-Place (French).
City Museum – Maison du Roi (French) – Broodhuis (Flemish).
Hôtel de Ville – Town Hall.
Heysel Park and the Atomium.
Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Koekelberg Basilica).

I hope you enjoyed reading this review.

Pauline

Lunch at Sofra Green restaurant in Zagreb, Croatia

May 31, 2017June 1, 20172 Comments

During the last full day of our trip to Zagreb in Croatia, we decided to head to Sofra Green Gold- a traditional Bosnian food restaurant. I have never previously had any opportunity to try Bosnian cuisine. It is known to be often prepared with good quality meat that is one of the key ingredients of some of the most popular Bosnian dishes such as bosanski lonac, ćevapi, begova čorba, burek, and grah so it took no time to convince my husband to accompany me to a lunch at this restaurant.

Location:

Sofra Green Gold restaurant is located in a business district of Zagreb, around 20 minutes’ walk or 5 minutes taxi ride from in the city’s centre.

Atmosphere:

The atmosphere at this traditional Bosnian restaurant is homely and it features lots of traditional features. I really enjoyed its décor and, for a minute, it felt like I was taken to a different country.

We were attended by a few different approachable waiters throughout our lunch.

The menu:

Sofra Green Gold restaurant offers traditional Bosnian specialties served in authentic Bosnian environment.

Starters:

To start with, we tried some Begova čorba. It is the most popular soup in Bosnia– Bey’s soup made of chicken meat, vegetables, cream and okra.

Mains:

For our main we decided to share some meat pie (burek) and Cheese pie (sirnica). They are both traditional pies from Bosnia made of meat and cream cheese. I really liked burek and the meaty filling was amazing.

We then had some ‘Dragon of Bosnia’. This massive platter comes with a selection of meat accompanied by some rice and mashed potatoes. Firstly, I tried the beef steak with dry prunes, peppers, cognac and Worchester.

It was really tasty and I liked the gravy sauce accompanying it. Secondly, I digged into minced meat “čevapi” with beef prosciutto, cheese and vegetables in white cream sauce.

Again, I wasn’t disappointed. All flavours worked perfectly with each other. In addition to our platter, we aldo had some traditional Šopska salad- a season salad based on tomatoes and cucumber with cheese and some cucumber in cream.

Desserts:

For our dessert we had some home-made baklava and Tufahija, which is basically a boiled apple in a sauce served with nutty filling and topped up with some whipped cream. They were both yummy!

Overall experience:

We both enjoyed the food and atmosphere in this Bosnian restaurant. The restaurant is very popular-when we arrived at 12:00 there were just a few other tables taken but in around 30 minutes the restaurant was full of locals and expats so I would advise to book a table in advance.

Website:

For more information and to book visit:

https://sofra.hr/

Address:

Radnička cesta 37b

10000 Zagreb, Croatia

I hope you enjoyed reading this review!

Pauline

Dinner at Tekka-Japanese restaurant in Zagreb, Croatia

May 26, 2017May 28, 2017Leave a comment

During my weekend break to Zagreb in Croatia, I decided to have some traditional Japanese cuisine. Some of you might ask why did I decide to have a meal in oriental restaurant while in Croatia. The answer is simple-I love sushi and have it at least once a week so I asked for a few recommendations and booked a table at Tekka restaurant.

Location:

Tekka restaurant is located in a business district, around 20 minutes’ walk or 5 minutes taxi ride from in the city’s centre.

Atmosphere:

We were welcomed by a friendly Croatian waiter-Svetlan who made us feel welcomed and attended our table throughout the evening.

Tekka has a modern and chic décor and it is perfect for a romantic meal with its dimmed lights and soft music playing in the background.

The menu:

Tekka offers traditional Japanese cuisine and hospitality. The restaurant’s head chef-Tomislav aims to deliver a superb quality Japanese cuisine to local diners. There is a vast choice of hot and cold dishes to choose from for any Japanese cuisine lovers.

I decided to start my meal with a glass of refreshing white wine.

Starters:

There was a nice selection of hot and cold appetizers to choose from. We decided to share some Torikarrage-a Japanese style fried chicken. It was cooked to our liking and presented beautifully.

Mains:

For our mains, we both decided to have a sushi set. I went for a Kyoto set and my husband had an Osaka set.

My Kyoto set included: 6 uramaki with Age-Ebi with prawns, 4 hosomaki Tuna rolls and some salmon and tuna sashmi. The Osaka set ordered by my husband consisted of 6 hosomaki salmon rolls and a mixture of 6 nigri including: tuna, salmon, shrimp, octopus and white fish sushi.

They were all an absolute treat in every way, including visually. I am sure that they all took a lot of careful preparation. What’s most important though, they were all freshly made to order not pre-prepared.

Desserts:

My husband skipped the dessert as he was full. I decided to have ‘Goma no Pafe’-a sesame mousse with green tea ice-cream. It was tasty and refreshing.

Overall experience:

We both enjoyed the food and atmosphere in this Japanese restaurant. Tekka offers irresistible succession of tastes and textures, served with extraordinary precision and elegance. We ate, a lot and everything was good, very, very good. All dishes were freshly prepared and if you like watching chefs preparing your food then you have an opportunity to do so as you can admire the work of Tekka’s top-chef through the open kitchen space.

Website:

For more information and to book visit:

http://tekka.hr/en/

Address:

Radnička cesta 37b 10000 Zagreb, Croatia

I hope you enjoyed reading this review!

Pauline

Lunch at Lanterna na Dolcu restaurant in Zagreb, Croatia

May 24, 2017May 28, 2017Leave a comment

Last week, I was with my husband on a short weekend break in Zagreb in Croatia. During our stay in the Croatian capital, we dined in a range of traditional and oriental restaurants.

During the second day of our sightseeing, we booked a table at the popular local restaurant – Lanterna na Dolku.

Location:

Lanterna na Dolku is located in the city’s centre, on one of the oldest streets at the Dolac Market.

Owners pride themselves of sourcing most ingredients from the local market traders called ‘kumice’ to make sure that their all dishes prepared at the restaurant are fresh and use locally sourced ingredients.

Atmosphere:

Lanterna na Dolku has a lot of heritage to it and up to 40 people can be seated inside in an over 300 years old basement. In addition, up to 25 guests can sit on a terrace which overlooks the cathedral. When we arrived, the weather was lovely so we decided to sit outside, enjoy the weather and admire the surroundings.

We were welcomed by one of its founders-Tom. He was extremely professional and made us feel like we known him for ages. His customer service skills were excellent and the smile was constantly present on his face. He made us feel relaxed and joyful even before we started our meal.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is cosy and it has a homely décor. There were nice small flower arrangements on all the tables.

The menu:

The goal of restaurant’s founders was to combine the modern and the traditional in both the interior design and on the plate. The menu at Lanterna na Dolku offers a great selection of authentic Croatian dishes that were inspired by an old cookbook from 1854 that owners found in the Zagreb City Museum.

Starters:

Before we ordered our starters we decided to have a glass of white wine from a traditional Croatian winery.

While sipping our refreshing wine, we decided to share some cheese strudel wrapped in prosciutto which was really tasty.

Mains:

There was a nice choice of mains on Lanterna na Dolku’s menu. For these of you that read my blog regularly, you will probably know that I often choose fish as I love all seafood. I decided to have a sea bass fillet in truffle sauce with fresh truffles accompanied by some homemade croquettes. What can I say? Wow! Wow! Wow! It was simply amazing! I could have that meal every day. The flavours all worked perfectly with each other and it was simply delicious.

My husband decided to have Pil-grill- a chicken fillet with tomatoes, cheese and peas. It was flavoursome and he finished it all in no time.

Desserts:

We asked Tom to recommend 2 desserts to us and he told us that we need to try: Lanterna štrukli and Lanterna mousse which are both restaurant’s signature sweet courses. We listened to his endorsement and decided to share both of these desserts.

Lanterna štrukli in blueberry sauce recently won a prize at the Austrian baking competition and it was mouth-watering.

Lanterna mousse on the other hand was a perfect blend of mousse with cookies and chocolate. They were both delicious.

Overall experience:

We both had a great time in this family run restaurant. Lanterna na Dolku serves delicious traditional food with a modern twist using only the highest quality, locally sourced, fresh ingredients. I absolutely loved my sea bass so if you like sea food then you should look no further and give it a go. The service was excellent, location is superb and the restaurant serves real ‘homely’ dishes so I would recommend it to anyone visiting Zagreb in a heartbeat. Lanterna na Dolku is where you come to if you want to feel at home to have a beautifully presented and flavoursome traditional meal.

Website:

For more information and to book visit:

http://www.lanterna-zagreb.com/en/

Address:

Opatovina 31,

10000 Zagreb, Croatia

I hope you enjoyed reading this review!

Pauline

Dinner at Purger restoran in Zagreb, Croatia

May 21, 2017May 25, 2017Leave a comment

As some of you know, I am currently on a weekend break in Zagreb in Croatia. We arrived here on Friday afternoon and decided to have our dinner at the Gostionica Restoran Purger Purger restaurant which is around 15 min walk from the hotel we are staying in.

Location:

Gostionica Restoran Purger is located in the city centre on in Petrinjska Street and just around a corner from the tourist information office and the old town.

Atmosphere:

Now this is what really makes this restaurant, the staff are friendly and the whole place has a family run feel about it. We were surrounded the entire evening by groups of older locals all having a great time a true sign that a restaurant is doing something right.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is cozy and it has a homely décor. There were nice summer flowers and paintings brightening its traditional setting.

The menu:

The menu at The Gostionica Restoran Purger offers a nice selection of traditional dishes that are all built around the family recipes since 1932. Restaurant offers a number of stews, grilled dishes, and traditional desserts.

Starters:

To start, we decided to share some deep-fried cheese. It was served with a bit of homemade tartare and was tasty.

Mains:

There was a nice choice of mains. I decided to have some mixed grill.

The portion was enormous and flavoursome. My husband had a Pork Cutlet Sambour style and also enjoyed it. We ordered some sopska salad to share.

After having 2 massive mains, we decided to skip a dessert.

Overall experience:

We both had a nice time at The Gostionica Restoran Purger. It serves nice, simple food so it would be great to visit if you like to try some real ‘homely’ dishes. This isn’t the place to come to if you want tea spoon sized portions, this is where you come to if you want to feel at home, like a local and have a proper hearty traditional meal.

Website:

For more information and to book visit:

http://www.purger.hr/

Address:

Petrinjska ul. 33, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

I hope you enjoyed reading this review!

Pauline

Hilton Hotel in Reading, UK

May 19, 2017May 12, 2017Leave a comment

Last week I was on a business trip in Reading and I stayed at Hilton Hotel.

Location:

Hilton Reading hotel is located 2.5 miles away or 15 minutes drive from the Reading train station in a quiet residential area.

Facilities:

Hilton Reading hotel has a 24-hours reception and Business Centre, guest laundry, a restaurant and a room service. Wi-Fi is also available throughout the property at no extra charge. If you like to stay fit during your travels then the hotel offers complimentary 24-hour fitness center with a heated swimming pool. You can also relax in the sauna or steam room to rejuvenate after a day at work.

During your stay you can dine in The Larder restaurant that serves a range of International and British dishes. I had some beef brisket for my dinner and it was better than expected.

Room:

I stayed in a Queen Guest Room which was spacious and had a contemporary decor.

My room had floor-to-ceiling windows, WiFi, mini-fridge, work desk and ergonomic chair. I addition, there was a large 32-inch LCD TV.

The room had one queen Hilton Serenity bed which was comfortable and easy to fell asleep in.

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The bathroom had a white décor and some basic toiletries were provided.

Overall:

Hilton Reading hotel provides a place to unwind or to catch up on work after a long day at work so if you travel to Reading on business I would definitely recommend it. Its amenities will to help you relax and rejuvenate during your stay.

Address:

Drake Way,

Reading,

RG2 0GQ

I hope you enjoyed reading this review!

Pauline

Pinetum Gardens, St. Austell Bay, Cornwall

May 12, 2017May 12, 2017Leave a comment

Some of you might already know that I was recently in Cornwall for a Bank Holiday break with my husband. I love nature that’s probably a reason why James proposed to me last year in gardens. We decided to visit a few during our stay. Today I would like to tell you about our afternoon at the Pinetum Gardens.

The Pinetum Gardens are based at Pinetum Park just a short drive away from St. Austell town. They are spread over 30 acres and feature ten different gardens:
1.       Woodland Walk
2.       Old Garden
3.       Cottage Garden
4.       Arboretum
5.       Pinetum
6.       Winter Garden
7.       Lake
8.       Japanese Garden

9. Courtyard Garden
10. Water Garden

I really enjoyed walking around and admiring the largest collection of plants in the county featuring over 6,000 different plants.

Pinetum gardens aren’t too busy so you can enjoy a romantic walk or sit down and admire the surroundings on one of many benches while experiencing the tranquillity of the gardens.

I loved the picturesque Japanese Garden and there were also a series of cabinets located within the park which invite visitors to open drawers and discover poetic and inspiring phrases taken from the books.

After a relaxing scroll around the gardens we went to the café to enjoy some Cornish Cream tea which was delicious. I really enjoyed having fresh, warm scones that were complimented by some Cornish cream and jams.