Maasmechelen travel guide and discussion

#GetDiscountsWithoutLuck Two Oh Five is a cafe located near both the Maasmechelen Village fashion outlet and the Terhills Hotel. It's a popular stop for both hotel guests and shoppers. Located on the second floor of the building, the cafe is pet-friendly and offers free parking in front of the building, making it incredibly convenient. ➡️ Soup of the Day The day I visited was the Paprika soup. The soup was incredibly flavorful, fragrant, and rich, and it was perfect with the accompanying bread. ➡️ Quiche Lorraine They have both bacon and vegetable fillings to choose from. I chose the bacon Quiche Lorraine, which was served piping hot. The thin pastry was filled with fragrant cheese and generous amounts of bacon, and was accompanied by a crispy salad topped with generous slices of Parmesan cheese and crunchy walnuts. Absolutely delicious! The coffee here is specialty coffee, with a wide selection of options. You can also choose from soy or almond milk. We ordered a flat white with soy milk and medium-dark roast coffee. The coffee beans were high-quality and the milk foam was smooth and fine. It was quite good. 📌 Address: Terhillslaan 4, 3630 Maasmechelen, Belgium #TravelBelgium #TravelEurope

#GetDiscountsWithoutLuck Cho Gao is the only Asian restaurant in Maasmechelen Village, a luxury outlet in Maasmechelen, eastern Belgium. The restaurant is spacious and comfortable, decorated in a contemporary, slightly pub-like style, with outdoor seating outside. The menu seems to focus heavily on Japanese cuisine, with a few Chinese and Thai dishes, including poke bowls. For this meal, I ordered the following: ➡️ Chicken Katsu Curry Fried breaded chicken served with jasmine rice and curry. It's clear that the dish is intended to be Japanese-style curry, but they use jasmine rice instead of Japanese rice. The curry doesn't taste like authentic Japanese curry, but it's slightly sweet and has a distinct lemongrass flavor. The fried chicken was excellent, with tender meat and a crispy batter that wasn't greasy. A small salad was served as a side dish. Overall, it was quite good. ➡️ Crispy Chili Beef This dish is similar to stir-fried beef with oyster sauce. It's a bit confusing as to where the crispiness lies. The beef is thickly sliced and tender, stir-fried with ginger, green onion, and chili oil. The spiciness is subtle, with the saltiness more prominent. The highlight is the smoky aroma of the stir-fry. The skill of the wok-cooker must be quite skilled. This dish is served with jasmine rice. ➡️ Homemade Asian Iced Tea This drink is made with kaffir lime leaves, green tea, lemongrass, and cane sugar. It's fragrant and refreshing, but surprisingly, it's not sweet at all. I don't know if this is the recipe or if they forgot to add the cane sugar. Overall, the taste is good. The ingredients are good, the atmosphere is comfortable, and it's a convenient place to stop for shopping and dining. #TravelBelgium #TravelEurope

#GetDiscountsWithoutLuck Le Pain Quotidien is a cafe and bakery that originated in Brussels, Belgium, and has expanded to over 20 countries worldwide. This time, we visited the branch in Maasmechelen Village, a multi-brand outlet. This branch of Le Pain Quotidien has a lovely and charming interior design that matches the outlet's theme. The store is spacious and spacious, with both indoor and outdoor seating areas. What I like is the outdoor seating area, which has a transparent wall and roof to protect from the rain, while still allowing natural sunlight and a view. It's incredibly comfortable. The menu here is all-day breakfast style, featuring freshly baked breads, cakes, and various pastries. For this meal, we ordered the following: ➡️ Hot Flat White This is the smallest flat white I've ever had, with a medium flavor. ➡️ Belgische Frambozencroute It has a crispy, fragrant crust base. The crust feels like a crumble, but dense, thick, and crunchy, yet fun to chew. The flavor is amazing! We absolutely love it! The tart filling is creamy and smooth, topped with fresh, sweet, and sour raspberries, packed tightly together. Absolutely delicious! #TravelBelgium #TravelEurope

#GetDiscountsWithoutLuck Two Oh Five Coffee Bar is a cafe with a nice atmosphere located in Maasmechelen. The shop is located near Maasmechelen Village, which is a branded outlet. After shopping, if the outlet is crowded, you can walk out a little bit and come eat here. Or if you drive, there is convenient parking in front of the shop. This shop is on the 2nd floor of the building. The ground floor is a bakery. You have to walk up the stairs to see the entrance to the shop. The interior decoration is in a cool industrial style, but the tone is well-controlled, not too raw. There are many seats. The atmosphere is comfortable and chill. There are large windows that let in light along the way, making it look airy even though it is in the building. So we stopped by for a light lunch. The food here is light cafe-style food, such as sandwiches with various toppings, soups, salads, and breads and cakes that can be ordered from the display case. ➡️ Soep met Brood This is the soup of the day served with bread. The day we went was a Moroccan-style soup with a well-rounded taste. Lightly fragrant with spices, very delicious ➡️ Nordic Toast This is an open-faced toast sandwich similar to Scandinavian smørrebrød. The bread is rye bread topped with egg salad, cucumber, boiled egg, and pomegranate. Simple but beautifully decorated, very enjoyable to eat. Seeing the name of the shop as Coffee Bar, I can guess that they are serious about coffee to some extent, so I ordered a Flat White to try. The coffee is really good, strong and fragrant, fighting the milk. The milk foam is fine and smooth. I like it. 📌 Address: Terhillslaan 4, 3630 Maasmechelen, Belgium #TravelBelgium #TravelEurope

#GetDiscountsWithoutLuck Vangrootloon is a famous bakery franchise that has opened many branches throughout the northeast of Belgium. Some branches are just small bakeries that you can take home. Some branches are large shops that open as cafes that serve drinks, various sandwiches, soups, and you can also order pastries from the display case to eat. The branch in Maasmechelen that we visited is a large shop like that. So we stopped by to have a light and easy brunch like this: ➡️ Tomato Soup Belgian and Dutch-style tomato soup usually comes with small meatballs. This one comes with a lot. The soup tastes good. Most importantly, the bread served with the soup is delicious, as expected from a bakery that bakes its own bread fresh all the time. ➡️ Iced Latte A refreshing iced latte. The coffee is not very strong and has a lot of syrup, so it tastes a bit sweet. But on a hot day, it's refreshing. What I like is that this place serves cakes to go with the coffee. It's the shop's fresh butter cake that has a good texture and is delicious. I liked it so much that I bought another half pound. 📌 Address: Rijksweg 378, 3630 Maasmechelen, Belgium #TravelBelgium #TravelEurope

#GetDiscountsWithoutLuck Zero Zero Grand Café is an Italian restaurant located on the 1st floor of the M2 Shopping Center in Massmechelen. As is the style of a café, this place excels in both food and drinks, with a large bar in one corner of the shop. The interior of the shop is beautifully decorated and inviting, with transparent glass walls that allow you to see the view outside. There are plants in various corners, and one wall is a tall bookshelf. It's really pretty and stylish. In terms of food, in addition to Italian dishes like pizza, pasta, and steaks, there are also light sandwiches. For this meal, we ordered the following: ➡️ Spaghetti aglio & olio Spaghetti noodles are boiled until chewy and al dente, fun to chew. There is cheese sprinkled on top separately. This menu is made in a classic, simple style, without meat. The chewy noodles and the smell of garlic and tomato make it enjoyable to eat. However, the taste is a bit salty. ➡️ Croque videe A hot sandwich filled with ham and cheese, served with vegetable salad, boiled eggs, and chicken in a rich cream sauce. It's quite delicious. Another thing we like is the bread served with the spaghetti. It's very good and delicious. The butter is also good quality. #TravelBelgium #TravelEurope

#WinterTravel Maasmechelen Village is a branded outlet in Maasmechelen, Belgium, where both locals and tourists like to visit to shop. The theme here is like a large village where each house is a shop from each brand. The design is cute and the pastel colors are similar to a village in a fairy tale. There is also a large statue of the little boy Manneken Pis, a symbol of Belgium. In addition to shopping, you can also find many cool photo spots. During Christmas and New Year, this place is beautifully decorated in the Christmas Village theme, complete with Christmas trees, Santa's sleigh and reindeer, and various decorated arches scattered throughout the village. You will forget the cold while walking around. The shops here have clothes, cosmetics, bags, shoes, home decorations, famous Belgian chocolate brands, kitchenware, and various restaurants. You can find everything here in one place. The promotions of each shop vary, but overall, the prices are better than buying in department stores, as is true to the name of an outlet.

Went on a day trip today from Maastricht (straight bus 63 from Maastricht), highly recommended. Hiked a total 12km from 12pm-5pm at Nationaal Park Hoge Kempen in Maasmechelen, it can be done as a day trip and there are mountain biking and hiking trails (refer to the photo for the hiking trails) of various levels of difficulty and distances. The hike (yellow route) was quite doable, and mostly flat without much elevation and can be completed in around an hour or so. Recommended and a nice hike with many lovely sights and trees to behold, not too cold either in November. As there’s not much food options, highly recommended to bring water and enough snacks to last you for the hike. There are several benches or rocks along the way to sit and rest #travel #hike #daytrip #fallcolors #100waysoftravel