bthere: Inflight Magazine Brussels Airlines

Our round-up of what’s happening in the business world across Europe

Table hopping

Business breakfast

Berlin: Justifiably, Berlin has a reputation for being a late-night town – many restaurants only open around 10am (or later in Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichshain). However, if you find yourself up for an early bite, head for Schwarzes Café on Kantstraße in Charlottenburg, (Kantstr. 148, tel.+49 (0) 313 80 38) which is open 24-hours and always serves a vast choice of breakfasts. If you must bring the laptop, there is free Wi-Fi.

Business lunch

Cannes: With conventions back-to-back in Cannes these days, more people are arriving at Nice airport with laptops than beach towels. Jostle for space at Gaston-Gastounette (7, Quai Saint Pierre, tel. +33 (0)493 394 944), one of Cannes’ premiere seafood restaurants, consistently named by regulars as the best place to get fruits de la mer, although the bouillabaisses are good too. The place is elegant, the service exceptional, and the view of the old port and marina is spectacular so make sure you book in advance.

Business dinner

Casablanca: With the Hyatt Regency Casablanca (Place des Nations Unies, tel. +212 2243 1234) completing the refurbishment of its lobby and public areas, and its still-untitled bar poised to open, it is time to check out Café M, the hotel’s acclaimed restaurant, a contemporary haven of wood, leather and chrome. The food is international, featuring the obligatory ‘fusion’ cuisine of seasonal products. In a city not renowned for business restaurants, it is a standout choice. Next to the restaurant is Club M, the perfect place for cigars from the private humidor or after-dinner drinks without the loud music of so many bars in the hip city.

Business drinks

Madrid: Madrid’s new Urban Hotel (Carrera San Jeronimo, tel. +34 914 291 266) is making headlines for its cool designs, but you don’t actually have to stay to reap the benefits. The rooftop open-air bar is already the hottest in the city with cocktail tables perched six stories above the street. It is the perfect place for a nightcap on expenses.

Geneva’s just grand

What was formerly the Noga Hilton in central Geneva is re-emerging as the 230-room Grand Hotel Kempinski Geneva in time for the Geneva Motor Show (8 – 18 March). The hotel’s exterior architecture is being designed with a light and futuristic feel, to dissolve the boundaries between the Geneva lakeside and the hotel’s lobby and boutique area. The refurbishment programme also covers the grill restaurant, brasserie, lounge and bar along with meeting and conference facilities. kempinski.com

Between meetings in… Brussels

An inspiring way to kill an hour in Brussels is to visit the Magritte Collection at the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts (3 Rue de la Regence; bozar.be. Open Tues-Sun, 10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm). The museum spans centuries of art so if you are really short on time, head straight for the Magritte rooms six floors down. Brussels has the world’s largest collection of works – 30 in total – spanning the career of its most famous 20th-century painter.

Text Boyd Farrow

CITY LOWDOWN Vienna

AUSTRIA Population: 8,192,880; Currency: Euro; Average temperature (Mar): 5°C

Don’t spring €32 on a cab from Vienna International airport to the city; the S-Bahn trams depart every 15 minutes (between 4.27am and 10.08pm), take the same time but cost only €3. Walking to most places in central Vienna is doable, but jaywalking is illegal (and frowned upon by the locals). The U-Bahn (underground) is cheap and easy to navigate but the best way to see the city, is by the S-Bahn trams.

Bed down

A staggering 42 % of all Viennese hotels are 4- or 5-star, nevertheless room is scarce between December and the end of March, when no fewer than 400 society balls are held. Book well in advance for April and June too as that is conference season.

The best hotels are within the Ringstrasse, an innerring road lined with former palaces, many of them now hotels. Hotel Sacher behind the Opera House is a pricey Viennese institution; original oil paintings, antiques and the art collection in the lobby and restaurant rival some of the nearby museums.

The Imperial and sister property Hotel Bristol are reliable choices for less-flush business travellers. Other decent hotels include the Vienna Marriott, which offers a range of business facilities, and the Radisson SAS Palais which hopes to entice executive travellers with free broadband and Nespresso machines in the rooms

One utter gem is Hollmann Beletage, a design-conscious boutique hotel three minutes walk from St. Stephen’s Cathedral. The hotel offers private transfer to/from the airport, has a small library, Wi-Fi, secretarial service, a sauna, spa and living-room suites for business meetings. Moreover, it specialises in business dinners for up to 20 guests.

A taste of the city

Many of Vienna’s top restaurants are located inside international hotels, such as Korso at the Hotel Bristol, which serves traditional Austrian food but also offers a very impressive international menu. Gourmet favourite Steirereck has just relocated to dazzlingly modern new Stadtpark premises and now includes a lunchtime menu lighter on the stomach and the wallet. Vegetarians and those wanting a lighter, meal should head to Wrenkh, a casual restaurant open from 11.30am to midnight. For something more novel and time-saving, Vienna’s Museums of Applied Arts now boasts a restaurant whose food is as much a draw as the art on the walls. Helmut Oesterreicher, a pioneer of new Austrian cuisine, has created a contemporary menu that fits nicely with the museum’s emphasis on innovation. (Open 10am-midnight on Tuesdays; Wed-Sun 10am-6pm).

Time off

Vienna is famous for its coffee houses. Some of the best include Café Mozart, Sacher Café, home of the legendary torte – basically, an upmarket Jaffa Cake – and the Café Imperial at the Hotel Imperial Vienna, which has a thriving classical music scene. For live music, Café Central is a popular bar/café where classical and jazz music is played daily (except Sundays) under the beautiful vaulted ceiling. See an operatic show at the beautiful Staatsoper; Mozart Orchestra performances are given in traditional costume.

The Museum Quarter, – the 10th largest cultural centre in the world – was formerly the stables for the royal horses. The Leopold Museum displays Austrian modernist art. The Völkerkundemuseum displays ancient cultural artefacts from outside of Europe, including Japanese Samurai and African exhibits. If time is really limited, visit the Upper Belvedere Palace where the more modern art is housed. The Third Man in Vienna tours take you through the famous film’s locations, and is a great way to learn about the city’s history if you have two-and-a-half hours (€16). Or try out the huge ferris wheel, Riesenrad, at the fairground in Prater park, offering fabulous views of the city.

When the sun shines

Museumsquartier is a great place to walk around, even if you don’t have time to visit the museums, as it’s full of gardens, squares and some wonderful architecture, like the gothic St Stephen’s Cathedral, built on a previous Romanesque church. Vienna’s biggest park, Schonbrunn, is open until dusk.

Honey, you shouldn’t have…

The main shopping streets in the town centre are the pedestrianised roads of Kärntner Strasse, Graben and Kohlmark. For beautifully produced, reasonably priced prints of line drawings and watercolours of local landmarks have a browse in Studio Wienblick. Naschmarkt is the city’s old market place where all the locals buy delicacies including cheese, sausages, bread and cakes.

Currently the trendiest store in Vienna is gadget shop A1. The multi-level space, though, is more a geek’s playground than a regular retail store. An interactive light display traces visitor’s movements and projects them into abstract light designs. It makes the Apple Stores look quaintly old-fashioned.

The business person’s little black book

Carlton Baglioni Hotel Sacher Philharmonikerstrasse 4, tel. (0)1 51456
The Imperial Kärtner Ring 16, tel. (0)1 501100
Hotel Bristol Kãrntner Ring 1, tel. (0)1 515160
Vienna Marriott Parkring 12a, tel.(0)1 515180
Radisson SAS Palais Herrengasse 12, tel. (0)1 22780
Hollmann Beletage Köllnerhofgasse 6, tel. (0)1 9611960
Korso at the Hotel Bristol Mahlerstrasse 2, tel. (0)1 515160
Steirereck tel. (0)1 7133168
Wrenkh Bauernmarkt 1, tel. (0)1 5331526
Museums of Applied Arts Stubenring 5
Café Mozart Albertinaplatz 2, tel. (0)1 5130881
Sacher Café Hotel Sacher, tel.(0)1 51456 661
Café Central Herrengasse14
Staatsoper Opernring 2, tel. (0)1 514440
The Leopold Museum Museumsplatz 1
Völkerkundemuseum Burgring
The Third Man in Vienna tours tel. (0)1 7748901
Studio Wienblick Augustinerstrasse 12

b.there!

Fly to Vienna from just €49,99* one-way, all-in. To book or for more information, visit www.brusselsairlines.com

A good night’s sleep in… Moscow

The Swissotel Krasnye Holmy (Kosmodamianskaya Nab 52, Building 6, tel. (+7) 095 787 9800; www.moscowswissotel.com) set out its stall as a business hotel when it opened a year ago. The choice of rooms ranges from business advantage to panorama, corner suites, executive suites and the presidential suite. New leisure facilities now include the Amrita Spa and Health Club with a magnificent swimming pool, four private treatment rooms, a spa bath, solarium, sauna and relaxation room, as well as a workout area. Treatments include an hour-long ‘Gentleman’s facial’ plus massages.

One to watch

Yotel

Yotel (www.yotel.com), the capsule hotel concept from Simon Woodroffe, the man behind the YO! Sushi restaurant chain, launches in April inside the UK’s Gatwick airport. A second will open weeks later at the UK’s Heathrow airport. The idea is to offer passengers smartly-designed hotel rooms within airport terminals, paid for hourly. The rooms offer Wi-Fi, mood lighting, bespoke toiletries and flatscreen TV. The windows, which are internal rather than external, are designed to give a sense of spaciousness. Cabins range from €60-€105 overnight, or €37.50 for a four-hour booking. Look for more in Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, Madrid, Paris and Rome.

Mouse-to-mouse resuscitation

As annoying as it is scrolling and clicking with a laptop’s built-in trackpad, no-one wants to add a mouse to their already pared-down hand luggage. Now MoGo has come up with an ingenious solution with its flat laptop mouse, which folds up to be stored inside a PC card slot. The mouse works wirelessly, the set-up is simple and it recharges automatically while stowed when the laptop is on. It costs around €50 while a touch-scroll bar version is on the way soon for around €60. The company also began selling what it called the world’s smallest Bluetooth adapter for laptops that don’t have that capability.