Leuven and food

We had some free time on the final day of our visit to Leuven to explore the town itself. The picture opposite is of the town hall, one of the beautiful gothic style buildings in the town square.

One of the big things that struck us from a tourism perspective was the fact that pubs and restaurants stayed open well into the night. On the evening we arrived most people walked into town to get something to eat. The restaurant/pub we choose was not a bit fazed by 20 people arriving at 10.30 pm looking for a meal. The staff took it in their stride and the food arrived fairly quickly. Even when we were leaving there were locals going in to get food. The picture on the left shows some of the traditional Flemish food we sampled during our visit to the micro-brewery.

Brewery tour

One of the highlights of the recent Failte Ireland workshop in Leuven was a study trip to the Drie Fonteinen SME Brewery and Vistor Centre in Beersel.

The owners Lydie and Armand DeBelder took our group on a tour of the Brewery and gave a very interesting talk that focused on the history of their enterprise and the cooperative approach that they took with other local businesses.

We were struck by the passion that they both had for what they were doing. The brewery is one of a number of micro-breweries in the region that have managed to preserve the traditional way they make their beer in spite of fierce competition from large brewers. During the talk they were joined by the chairman of the local artisan food producers group who told us about the steps that his group had taken to get Flemish produce used widely again in their region and further afield.

We got a chance to sample some of these local deliquesces including cheese, pate, bread, black and white puddings and of course some of Armand's beers including an unusual cherry flavoured one.

I was struck by how much they had in common with what we are doing here in Ireland to give visitors an authentic local experience and wish them well in the future.

Leuven Tourism Workshop

I was delighted to be one of the people representing Louth at an international tourism workshop in Belgium hosted by Failte Ireland at the Leuven Institute for Ireland in Europe last week. The workshop was open to members of Failte Ireland's Tourism Learning Network which has been in operation for the past three years. It's objective is to help small enterprises in the tourism sector to improve their business performance through a combination of traning and networking activities.

The participants at the workshop were drawn from as far afield as Monaghan, Donegal, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Kerry and Tipperary. They represented all aspects of the tourism industry from crafts, music and heritage, to accommodation, restaurants and outdoor activities.

The centrepiece of the event was a full day workshop by Klaus Kobjoll, from the renowned Schindlerhof hotel near Nuremburg. The hotel grew from humble beginnings starting out as a 400 year old barn in 1988 to a modern 4 star establisnment today. It has been a winner of the European Quality Award and is consistently listed as one of the best places to work in Germany. Mr. Kobjoll is renowned for his unconventional approach to business which focuses on maximising quality, intense customer care and employee empowerment.

The theme of his workshop was "Managing in turbulent times" . The tone of the day was upbeat as he pointed out to us ways in which we could manage and develop our tourism businesses in order to ride out the present difficult trading environment.

The overall feeling from everyone present was that although times may be tough in 2009 there is every reason to be optimistic if we run our enterprises effectively, maximise the experience for our customers and continue to be innovative.

The pictures above show me with Klaus while the other has me with Martin Donohoe from the Nyah Traditional Music Festival in Cavan and Betty Quinn from Millmount Museum in Drogheda.

Open for 2009

On Wednesday last we had our first guests of 2009 check in. This is the earliest start that we have had for a few years but it was great to see a mixture of new and regular guests arriving. The castle is now fully operational after the Christmas and New year break.

We have been busy over the past few weeks making some changes. Regular visitors will have noticed the new front page on our website. John in lookaroundireland has transformed it with a fabulous sideshow giving a real sense of the Smarmore Castle experience.

Another new attraction for the spring is the fantastic midweek special menu that Lucio and Rossano have introduced in La Cucina restaurant. They are offering a four course meal for two people with a bottle of wine for 50 Euros in total.

We are running a special midweek break of two nights accommodation, full Irish breakfast and dinner for two for 135 per person. There are full details on our special offers page.

Irish Open Golf returing to Louth this summer

The Irish open golf championship will be returning to the county Louth golf club at Baltray in May. The links course which is located around 30 minutes drive from here, hosted the event in 2004. The event has an earlier slot on the European PGA Tour calendar than usual and will take place from May 14th to 17th. All the top Irish golfers including Padric Harrington and Paul McGinley are expected to take part and it should attract in excess of 70,000 spectators over the course of the four days.

Red Sky at Night

There was an eerie red tint to the skyline behind the castle as the sun set this evening.Perhaps the sub-zero temperatures that we are experiencing at the moment contributed to this striking phenomenon.

New Year's Resolutions

You know that January has arrived when all the adverts for celebrity fitness DVDs appear on the telly and the papers are full of articles about making this the year the one that you keep those New Year resolutions.

Our team over in the leisure club are busy making our member's fitness resolutions a reality at the moment but it's a quiet time for reflection and planning in the castle.

Here at Smarmore Life our main resolution is to keep you up to date on all the information you may need if you are planning a trip to this part of Ireland in the coming year.

Welcome to 2009

I would like to extend a warm New Year greeting to all of our past guests and everyone who reads the blog. It's great to have started 2009. After all the economic doom and gloom of the past twelve months it feels as though we have a clean slate.

This year should be a great one to visit Ireland or holiday at home if you are living on the island. There will be some terrific value for visitors and maybe a greater appreciation of customers by some businesses.

Here at Smarmore Castle we are planning a series of exciting new packages for our guests this year including romantic special occasion breaks, tours of the historic Boyne Valley and Cuchulainn Country, dining out breaks in conjunction with some of the excellent restaurants in our locality and some activity and chill out breaks. We will also be making the castle available for family gatherings of 10 to 14 people.

2009 is shaping up to be an exciting year for Smarmore Castle and we will bring you all the latest news here first.