Snowleopard's 2019 Road Trip: Netherlands, Belgium, France & Germany

I LOVE (caps intended) visiting Europe. Photographing the historic architecture is my favorite type of photography and all six of my trips have been a delight. (My zoo visits lessen with each trip though). However there are two things I don't like.

1) As @snowleopard points out, everyone smokes! I am the biggest anti-smoker there is and IMO it should be universally banned across the planet. When I had dinner in Zurich with @zoomaniac a few months ago he said it is actually getting better (as in less Swiss smoke now than years ago). But I don't see it. The good thing is smoking is now banned indoors (in all big cities, though they did allow it when I was in rural Spain in 2010).

2) No place has iced tea. This is the real travesty and proof that the so-called first world countries of Europe are in fact medieval backwater villages. Seriously, you can get ten varieties of hot tea at any snack shop, cafe, or restaurant. How hard is it to make a pitcher of tea and throw it in the refrigerator?
 
Arizona Docent said:
2) No place has iced tea. This is the real travesty and proof that the so-called first world countries of Europe are in fact medieval backwater villages. Seriously, you can get ten varieties of hot tea at any snack shop, cafe, or restaurant. How hard is it to make a pitcher of tea and throw it in the refrigerator?
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Funny, being a Dutch person (and I'm sure any other Dutch person, or people that have been can agree with me here) I have never had a problem getting ice tea here. Iced tea isn't around sure, but Lipton and Fuzetea are very popular brands in NL....in fact, when I visited on a zoo tour in April (@Nisha and @MagpieGoose are my witnesses) we were with a friend who doesn't do well with fizzy drinks and ONLY drank ice tea for almost the duration of the trip!
 
Arizona Docent said:
I LOVE (caps intended) visiting Europe. Photographing the historic architecture is my favorite type of photography and all six of my trips have been a delight. (My zoo visits lessen with each trip though). However there are two things I don't like.

1) As @snowleopard points out, everyone smokes! I am the biggest anti-smoker there is and IMO it should be universally banned across the planet. When I had dinner in Zurich with @zoomaniac a few months ago he said it is actually getting better (as in less Swiss smoke now than years ago). But I don't see it. The good thing is smoking is now banned indoors (in all big cities, though they did allow it when I was in rural Spain in 2010).

2) No place has iced tea. This is the real travesty and proof that the so-called first world countries of Europe are in fact medieval backwater villages. Seriously, you can get ten varieties of hot tea at any snack shop, cafe, or restaurant. How hard is it to make a pitcher of tea and throw it in the refrigerator?
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No iced tea? Lipton and Nestea are everywhere in Belgium, every pub and every shop has them. Sparkling and non-sparkling, in 10 or so what flavors. They even have zero ice tea which clearly should be forbidden. As should be pub holders who sell their ice tea above 6°
 
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Arizona Docent said:
2) No place has iced tea. This is the real travesty and proof that the so-called first world countries of Europe are in fact medieval backwater villages. Seriously, you can get ten varieties of hot tea at any snack shop, cafe, or restaurant. How hard is it to make a pitcher of tea and throw it in the refrigerator?
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At least you've toned down your inaccurate and outrageous claims a little from last year when you claimed "you can walk into any scale of restaurant, from sidewalk cafe to zoo shop to upscale establishment and get twenty kinds of hot tea." :P

As I can attest from a LOT of experience drinking tea, outside the UK you'd be hard pushed to get more than one or two kinds of tea in a European restaurant or cafe - and even then one usually gets a cup of rapidly-cooling boiled water with a teabag next to it. Within the UK you get an actual cup of tea.... but still only perhaps three or four varieties outside of specialist tearooms.

Also, I think this is a case of "people in glass houses" given the fact I am replying to someone from a nation known to prefer their tea a) served with large quantities of seawater or b) served with so much sugar that it would kill a hummingbird, and which needs a hammer to get the spoon into the glass.
 
I don't understand @TeaLovingDave comment about seawater. Can he or someone else please explain? As for the sugar, I assume you are referring to sweet tea which is a southern commodity. When we refer to South or Southern here in the States, we actually mean southeast. And I agree, it has a one-to-one ratio of sugar to liquid and is disgusting and will induce a cardiac arrest. At restaurants in the southeast you have to specify if you want sweet tea or unsweetened. However I am from the southwest and restaurants in the western half of the country serve unsweetened iced tea (as a general rule, though sweet tea is slowly migrating this way). People who like it sweetened a little bit (like me) add their own sugar -an amount of their choosing. It is normally served with a lemon wedge as well, which most of us squeeze in. My local Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum serves prickly pear iced tea that is absolutely delicious.

I should have clarified earlier that I am talking about real brewed iced tea. Yes I have seen those pre-bottled Nestea versions in Europe which are not the same. Iced tea served at restaurants here (not fast food places) is fresh brewed and there is a world of difference.
 
For the record, I do enjoy hot tea as well (Stash English Breakfast Tea to be exact). I never used to, it's a habit I picked up in Europe.
 
Arizona Docent said:
I don't understand @TeaLovingDave comment about seawater. Can he or someone else please explain?
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As @DavidBrown notes, it's a joke about the Boston Tea Party :p

Arizona Docent said:
Yes I have seen those pre-bottled Nestea versions in Europe which are not the same. Iced tea served at restaurants here (not fast food places) is fresh brewed and there is a world of difference.
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You say that, but the vats of iced tea shown in your photos of the restaurant at ASDM are a brand which comes ready-made in bottles ;) which stretches the definition of "fresh brewed" a little bit.

All joking aside, my remarks about how hard it is to actually get hot tea in Europe stand; one reason why continental visits are more or less the only time I drink alcohol (beer to be precise, as it provides the same astringency I like with tea, and which goes well with Central European food).

Arizona Docent said:
For the record, I do enjoy hot tea as well (Stash English Breakfast Tea to be exact). I never used to, it's a habit I picked up in Europe.
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Not a brand we get over here - although at a pinch there are a few brands I like, for preference I stick with Yorkshire Tea.
 
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Arizona Docent said:
However I am from the southwest and restaurants in the western half of the country serve unsweetened iced tea
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Isn't it comforting that in a more and more globalized, uniform world, there are still regional culinary customs and products that you can only get easily in particular parts of the world, but not in the rest? There's, for example, a certain refreshing Slovakian soft drink called "Vinea" that I really like (just like the local string cheese). Vinea can only be bought in stores in Slovakia or the Czech Republic. (Yeah, nowadays you can also buy it online and have it shipped to you, but that costs extra). The chances to find it in a supermarket in Antwerp, Buenos Aires, Canberra or Dubai are very, very slim. But this also makes me appreciate it even more and adds to the joy of travelling to SK and CZ. And if I happen to find a different, yet also refreshing local alternative beverage in Antwerp, Buenos Aires, Canberra or Dubai - even better. So there might be no SW American-styled iced teas in European countries - but that doesn't mean that they are "medieval backwater villages". Instead, consider it a great opportunity to broaden your culinary horizon and try out alternatives. Maybe even Vinea? ;)
And when you return to AZ, your iced tea might taste even better.

(This post was in no way sponsored by Vinea; but if a Vinea / Kofola associate happens to read this - any free delivery of your products would be greatly appreciated ^^)
 
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I was under the impression that absolutely everyone in the U.S drank coffee. This opinion was reinforced during a visit to the Living Desert Museum when my wife asked a lady in the cafe for a tea, the lady looked a little embarrassed and then admitted that she didn't know how to make tea.
We had to talk her through the process.
 
Ned said:
This opinion was reinforced during a visit to the Living Desert Museum when my wife asked a lady in the cafe for a tea, the lady looked a little embarrassed and then admitted that she didn't know how to make tea.
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Funnily enough, this exact same scenario happened to me when I was in Pittsburgh a couple of days ago. And every American I know drinks a lot of Coffee.
 
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Ned said:
I was under the impression that absolutely everyone in the U.S drank coffee.
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I know many people here who drink tea and not coffee, and many people who get caffeine from soda or don't drink caffeine at all. That being said, coffee is pretty ubiquitous and is definitely more popular than tea in most places (except maybe sweet tea in the South).
 
Ned said:
I was under the impression that absolutely everyone in the U.S drank coffee. This opinion was reinforced during a visit to the Living Desert Museum when my wife asked a lady in the cafe for a tea, the lady looked a little embarrassed and then admitted that she didn't know how to make tea..
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While it is true that there is coffee everywhere in America the difficulty is finding any worth drinking.
 
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