Buoyancy » Around the World

On Breakfast in Hotels

In Germany, instead of rye bread, fluffy bread rolls are served; in France - croissants with/without fillings; in Spain - pastries, whipped cream, little cakes, and other treats. So I allow myself more, since I haven't prepared this new portion of calories with my own hands.

(a true story with invented character names)

Rabbit: One of the charms of travelling is breakfast at a hotel

Penguin: Because there's a lot of food and nobody will count it and divide it up?

Rabbit: Well... yes. The ability to choose is, without doubt, important. The ability to choose various little trifles, and moreover without putting in absolutely any effort in procuring and preparing it all.

Penguin: Perhaps also the fact that there are many diners and that creates the illusion that something is about to begin. The buzz of the day. At home eating breakfast alone or as a pair there's no such illusion...

Rabbit: Another illusion, that these are just light snacks at a transit hotel and it won't affect my weight at all :). Although, in Germany instead of rye bread, fluffy bread rolls are served at breakfast; in France - croissants with/without fillings; in Spain - pastries, whipped cream, little cakes, and other treats. So I allow myself more, since I haven't prepared this new portion of calories with my own hands.

Penguin: Well, but in Spain it was a resort hotel, whereas in all the other countries - transit. Which might give the impression that breakfast is more lavish in Spain.

Rabbit: Yes, but even in Spain at the next table the principled German woman was nibbling at a lettuce leaf and nothing more. While her esteemed husband - having ordered a bottle of wine, tasted half a glass of it and left the rest...

Penguin: That's a resort!

Rabbit: Or perhaps I lack willpower, or the post-Soviet person syndrome kicks in - if you've happened to be in a place where everything is plentiful and free, then take, take, take...

Penguin: Still it's about the mental aspect :). Still, those were veeeery early mornings. At home we don't eat that early, in my opinion?

Rabbit: All the more so, at home we think more carefully about many things, but on travels and at resorts we "release the brakes."

Penguin: Bullshit! It's a TRIP! What brakes are needed there. Ah, I know - you like the fact that nobody there knows you?

Rabbit: That too. You can allow yourself to overeat, drink too much, be lazy, go out without makeup.. Hmm, that's probably why, in recent years, I need at least two weeks to be outside the "reception zone."

Penguin: Somehow we've wandered off topic. Let's talk about what breakfast is actually like and where! For example, in France (Villages Hotel - a hotel chain) - what stays in mind are white bread rolls (croissants?) that could be warmed up. And raw eggs with instructions in French only on what to do with them. Thanks to the group leader who timely restrained us from the temptation of "causing an accident" with a raw egg!

Rabbit: What fascinated me was the lavishness of the breakfast and dinner tables in Spain (Costa Brava, Hotel Savoy). Starting with the elaborate starters - cheeses, cold cuts, cured meats, stuffed small peppers, then a wide range of salads - not only the cheese and potato salad customary at home. "Stew-like" but not unpleasant soups, followed by hot dishes - meat and fish dishes, which included a roast cow's udder, sausages stuffed with beef offal. And of course - the dessert table!!! There at least three kinds of pudding, yogurt, ice cream, cakes, fruits of unknown names.

Penguin: The contrast is Germany (in the city of Zusmarshausen, at the Schloss GastHof guesthouse). Especially places closer to the east. Everything precisely counted - bread rolls, eggs and even coffee cups. Since we were among the last, we got only half a cup of coffee each, and in food we got close to what was left over. Meanwhile those who came after us were left without coffee...
Munich was better. But... everything traditionally - bread rolls with jams, a sliver of cheese, and coffee.

Rabbit: Do you remember our breakfast in the Czech Republic, in Pardubice?

Penguin: mmm... those were knees, what kind of breakfast was that?

Rabbit: Well then we were young and modest :) But for breakfast we ate yogurt with "rohlíky," drank that poison - the juice "Pomeranec" and coffee that, regardless of how much was put in, still shone through in the cup.

Penguin: I remember Nice. There breakfast was already allocated by the year and consisted of two small bread rolls. In the corner of the room there was a coffee machine and an attendant who used three international words - kaffee, lait, milk. In exactly that order :)

Rabbit: There would also be much to tell about dinner during travels...

Penguin: Indeed :)