Eating Inexpensively in Europe

 

If you expect to eat three square meals a day in European restaurants, you will undoubtedly come home broke.  Here are some tips on eating well without breaking the bank.

 

Breakfast

 

   Don’t expect ham, eggs and hash browns at a European bed and breakfast.  Cheese, meat, granola, soft-boiled eggs, yogurt, bread rolls, coffee, tea, and juice are the mainstays of many European B&B. 

   If you have an apartment with a kitchen, the local grocery store should be your first stop in Europe. And when it comes to your shopping list, you are better off sticking with the B&B formula.  It is fast, convenient and nutritious.  Here are the ingredients for our breakfast in our Black Forest apartment.

 

Lunch

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    While sightseeing, we usually have lunch on the go, but never fast food at McDonald's or Burger King both of which are increasingly popular in Europe. Instead, we hit the local grocery store deli to buy bread rolls, cheese, and ham for a sandwich and pastry for dessert. We then find a park bench for a perfect picnic.

    If you prefer something hot, you can often find food trucks that serve sausages, chicken or my favorite while in Bavaria, Schwein haxen (roasted pig knuckle).  Many have stand-up tables for your dining pleasure. 

    Still, other alternatives for an inexpensive lunch are butcher shops (Metzgerei) and bakeries (Bäckerei). Often these stores will sell hot and cold sandwiches, side dishes and soup.  My mouth still waters when I think of the goulash soup that I had at the Metzgerei in Fischen, Germany.  

 

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Dinner

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    Dinner can be a challenge with all of those expensive restaurants tempting you to break your budget.  Go on splurge; you deserve it after a hard day of sightseeing. Well, that is what I tell myself after a full-day roaming around castles and churches and shopping in

village shops.  But somehow that little voice in the back of my head screams, watch your budget! Then I head to the nearest cafeteria, Gasthaus or pizzeria.

    This schnitzel, potatoes, and salad cost $16.45 at a grocery store cafeteria, but the half-price happy hour price (after 4 pm) was $8.22, add a soda for $3.28 more.

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