Articles by Christian Stampfer
Sofitel Washington DC Lafayette Square – Hotel Review
After a drive of 136 miles (218 km) from Philadelphia in The Diesel Driver’s new Mercedes-Benz E350 BlueTec, FBT Editorial Director Jonathan Spira and I arrived at the Sofitel hotel in the center of Washington, D.C. The hotel, situated in a renovated, historic building from 1880, is on Lafayette Square and just a stone’s throw from the White House and other landmarks.
Immediately after I pulled up, a bellman came out …
Ici Urban Bistro, Washington, D.C. – Restaurant Review
A well-kept secret in Washington is the Sofitel hotel’s restaurant, ici Urban Bistro. Ici, which means “here” in French, is open for breakfast, lunch (except weekends), and dinner. Whatever you do, do not assume this is a typical hotel restaurant. It is most decidedly not.
What the diner finds is a restaurant that offers diners a quiet and relaxed oasis in a busy town. The décor is modern and comfortable, with …
Kruisherenhotel Maastricht, Netherlands – Hotel Review
The Dutch are a practical people, and, since numerous churches and monasteries were closed as Napoleon Bonaparte established hegemony over most of continental Europe, they were sooner or later bound to find a good use for these large empty buildings.
One such building is the Kruisherenhotel, which dates back to the 15th century, when the Order of the Holy Cross (Crosier or “Kruisheren” in Dutch) built a monastery in the center …
What’s Doing in Maastricht
Maastricht is situated on the river Meuse (“Maas” in Dutch) and is home to over 120,000 people. Known today for the Maastricht Treaty (the Treaty of the European Union, which was signed there in 1992, created the European Union, and led to the single European currency the euro), the city, which directly borders Belgium and is not far from the German border, gets its name from the Latin “Mosae Trajectum”, …
What’s Doing in Bratislava, Slovakia
Bratislava, known as Preßburg prior to 1919, is the capital of Slovakia and straddles the Danube River at a strategic crossroads between the three main capital cities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Budapest, Prague, and Vienna. With a population of ca. 431,000, it is the country’s largest city and is the only capital city in the world that borders two other nations, namely Austria and Hungary.
Bratislava became the capital of Slovakia …
