Travelsmartplanet

An international idea celebrated in 50 countries, Restaurant Day is a food carnival created by food-loving people setting up one-day restaurants. The idea of the day is to have fun, share new food experiences and meet others in our community. People offer their family cuisine, favorite recipes, desserts or whatever in their backyard or a park.  Prices are very inexpensive.

Check the maps to see if there is one in your city.

Date: Sunday, August 17
http://www.restaurantday.org/

Tags: carnival, city, countries, cuisine, dessert, family, food, map, people, recipe, Restaurant

On Saturday Sept 10th, My husband and I will be on Radio Centre-Ville’s Centre-Ville Consumer show with Beta Wayne.

Tune to 102.3  between 12:30 p.m.  and 1 p.m. and you’ll hear about our experiences in Holland and Flanders, Belgium in May. It will be the full half hour of conversation between us.

www.radiocentreville.com

Tags: Belgium, Beta Wayne, Centre Ville Consumer, Flanders, Holland

Antwerps’s diamond cutters are world famous. Marcel Tolkowsky (an engineer by profession but from a family of diamond cutters) is celebrated as the father of the round brilliant diamond cut (called the American Standard, American Ideal Cut, Tolkowsky cut or Tolkowsky Brilliant), using an optimal number of facets to achieve maximum brilliance.

He set the diamond cutting benchmark in North America and his technique is still used today. In 1919 he derived it from mathematical calculations that considered both brilliance and fire of the stone. Learn this and more sparkling info at the Diamond Museum ( www.awdc.be/diamond-museum-province-antwerp ) in Antwerp, Belgium

Eight out of ten of the “rough” diamonds sold worldwide pass through Antwerp, Belgium, the most important world diamond trade center. More than 50% of the world’s cut, precious stone quality diamonds and industrial diamonds are handled there.

We were surprised to find out, at the Diamond Museum in Antwerp, that when cutting a diamond to expose its brilliance, you lose 50% of the diamond. Don’t worry – they don’t toss the scraps out. Leftovers are saved for industrial use – it is, after all, the hardest substance in the world. You can only cut a diamond with a diamond.

Famous diamond quotes are on the wall of the Diamond Museum in Antwerp, Belgium: Zsa Zsa Gabor, “I never hated a man enough to give him his diamonds back”.

Image Courtesy : ekati.bhpbilliton.com

Check out the 181.02 carat diamond in the Diamond Museum in Antwerp, Belgium. It’s from the Ekati Diamond mine located in Canada, 200 km. south of the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories. This was Canada’s first diamond mine.

In the the 17 ^th century, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, the son of an Antwerp, Belgium engraver, traveled to Persia and India. He was lucky enough to get to see the large gemstones in the treasure houses of the Indian rulers and was smart enough (or rich enough) to bring some of the world’s most famous diamonds home as souvenirs – including the Koh-I-Noor and the Blue Hope. He sold them to kings – like Louis the XIV of France. We learned all about him at the Diamond Museum (www.antwerp-tourist-guide.com/antwerp-diamond.html)

Who would expect to find a hidden elegant café in the Antwerp train station? Behind the magnificent facade of the old station (built by Leopold II in 1895), facing the tracks go to your extreme left hand corner. Inside the doors of the fancy looking café you will find sandwiches and 5 kinds of croque monsieur (variations on grilled cheese) without fancy prices.

You can buy real diamond jewelry right in the central train station in Antwerp, Belgium. The most important world diamond trade center is just right outside its doors.