All posts filed under: tourism

#26 – Restaurant Water en Vuur, Diksmuide ****

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Restaurant review #26 – Water & Vuur is a restaurant at the foot of the IJzertoren (Flemish peace monument) in Diksmuide (48km from Bruges). The restaurant is situated in a renovated cargo boat, on the banks of the IJzer (Yser). During World War I, the front was mainly situated along the banks of the Yser. 2km from the restaurant, you can visit the ‘Dodengang‘ (Trenches of Death), with galleries and trenches in which soldiers fought during WWI (see photos below). Water & Vuur is 23km from Ypres. The restaurant is well know among vegans in the area, because it is one of the few restaurants (or actually maybe the only restaurant) in the area that standardly has vegan options available. The menu also explicitly states that fries are baked in vegetable oil (beware, in Belgian restaurants and fast food stalls, fries are often baked in animal fat, see our page with general tips). It’s nice Water & Vuur offers a variety of fresh juices. On this visit, we ordered a Water & Vuur juice (6,5€), which is with apple, pear, red berrie, orange, elderberry syrup and …

No more ponies on Bruges annual funfair in May

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On Friday May 9th, 2014, Bruges’ annual funfair ‘De Meifoor’ starts its 814th edition. About a hundred attractions occupy Bruges’ inner city markets for a couple of weeks (till June 1st). For the first time, there will be no attraction with live ponies on the Bruges Meifoor, according to reports in Het Nieuwsblad and Het Laatste Nieuws. Hurray! Finally! The Nieuwsblad captions “children will not be able to ‘enjoy’ a ride on real horses”. However, for the ponies, there is no enjoyment in it. In this funfair attraction, ponies walk little circles in a small arena for hours and hours on end. For a couple of euros, children can ride along on the ponies’ back for a couple of circles. The ponies have to endure the deafening music and bright scattering lights from surrounding fair attractions. Animal rights organisations have often protested against these pony attractions in several Belgian cities, and luckily, more and more cities are banning this attraction on their annual city funfairs. But the abscence of the pony attraction on the 2014 Meifoor in Bruges is not due to the city …

Bruges one of the 7 most romantic places in the world

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Business Insider published an overview of seven of the most romantic places in the world. It includes exotic destinations like Bali in Indonesia, Fez in Morocco and the Greek Isles in the Mediterranean. Bruges in Belgium is listed second. Among other things, the article mentions the boatrides on the swan filled canals, the cobblestone streets** and the quaint houses as some of its romantic features. Business Insider also mentions the horse drawn carriages as one of the top attractions, which is something we would like to see ended in Bruges. Enough of other medieval things to see and admire in Bruges! As for gastronomical experiences, Business Insider points you to 3star Michelin restaurant De Karmeliet in the city center. Not your average restaurant, but I guess the readers of Business Insider must not be your average business(wo)men! Menu prices in De Karmeliet range from 85€ to 210€. You can get a vegan menu if you ask it well in advance. Maybe one day we will splash out and treat ourselves! But let us assure you that …

13 Foods that’ll make you want to visit Belgium, but not if you’re vegan!

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This overview of 13 typical Belgian foods appeared in The Huffington Post recently. They are listed as thé tourist attraction and appealing feature to come and visit Belgium: the food! Although the Huffington Post has spent a good deal of attention to the rise of veganism in the US (see this overview with keyword vegan), it’s obvious the author of this article clearly wasn’t thinking about the growing popularity of plant based foods or veganism in general. Let’s take a closer look at these 13 typical Belgian foods, and see whether there’s something for vegans in there. 1. Endives in slices of ham, covered in cheese sauce. You could try and veganise the dish, but it’ll take quite some years to come before any traditional restaurant will standardly have a vegan version of this dish on their menu! 2. Mussles with fries. Nope. Mussles are animals. I don’t now if ‘faux vegan mussles’ even exist, but I wouldn’t fancy them anyway! 3. Belgian waffles. Dairy and eggs. Of course you make these vegan yourselves, but …