Sunday August 27 After our marathon at sea we were very happy to get onto land for a day. The weather is quite chilly for August. This morning when we got up it was 54 degrees! And raining 😢. It is supposed to get up to about 70. And it looks like showers intermittently.
We caught the shuttle bus from the Star Legend to the center of the old town. Rouen has a long history going back to the Gauls. The Romans also occupied it and it is where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. It was claimed by both England and France during the Hundred Years’ War and was badly damaged by bombs in the Second World War. It’s most famous sight is Rouen Cathedral with its Tour de Beurre (butter tower) financed by the sale of indulgences for the consumption of butter during Lent. 😁 The cathedral’s gothic façade (completed in the 16th century) was the subject of a series of paintings by Claude Monet, some of which are exhibited in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
The weather was changeable. We had rain and sun intermittently all day. Windstar provided a shuttle bus. It was only a 15 minute ride. We walked down to the famous cathedral.
The old part of town is full of half timbered buildings. The Gros Horloge – or Great Clock, whose face was golden, shone in the intermittent sunshine.
Cool bookstore. It was Sunday so no stores were openVery crooked house. Look at the beams just above the front door.Our restaurant
Lunch was the only meal that I have reserved on this cruise. It was at La Couronne, pictured above. The restaurant has been there since 1345. It is known as the restaurant where Julia Child had her first French meal. I read her book describing the meal as a revelation to her. And as we all know, she was known as the French Chef and wrote books on French cuisine.
The building is full of pictures of famous people who have eaten there. It is dark and quaint and so very French. The meal lasted three hours. Most of us went for the Dover Sole Meunière, one of two signature dishes. It is what Julia ate. It was good but the meal was so rich we were worthless the rest of the day.
Sole meunière The cheese chariot. Love French cheeses!Heating the glass for Luther’s Armagnac.See the blue flames? Quite a show!
We returned to the boat and crashed. We skipped dinner. Sail away wasn’t until 1am. Then we would sail back down the Seine to Le Havre. We have a tour of Honfleur booked. We were there once, long ago and loved it. Another place where the Impressionists painted.
Thursday August 24 – embarkation day on the Star Legend
We had plenty of time until the 1Pm boarding so we went to a little cafe for croissants and coffee. Excellent croissant. Hot and flakey with butter and jam. Perfetto! We did some wandering about and later went out for a quick lunch because who knew when we could eat on the ship. The weather has turned rainy as was predicted. We went back to our hotel and retrieved our luggage. They called a cab and we were off to the ship.
The Star Legend is one of three identical yachts in the fleet. They hold 300 passengers. We boarded uneventfully and found our cabins. Then headed to the top deck for a welcome champagne. It had stopped raining but remained gray. We were required to muster at 4:15 to be briefed on emergency evacuation procedures. But at this time we were informed we would not be sailing that evening as planned. There was a problem with the ship which needed to be investigated by a certified scuba diver!
This is a disappointment. It means we will have to alter our cruise destinations. IF we sail out we will still miss seeing Bruges Belgium which was to be our first stop.
In the meantime we eat! Dinner in the main dining room named Amphora, was ok. We had a great wine steward. He kept the wine flowing freely. I enjoyed my entree of spicy shrimp on polenta. We watched a little of the news together. Todays big story, Trump turns himself into the Fulton County Jail in Georgia.
Next morning we listened to the Captains announcement. He said the divers were beginning work. We found out there was a repair needed on the inside of the ship but to get to it there was a pipe that needed to be welded outside the ship, underwater. He said we should get underway by mid-day.
I had maple French toast for breakfast. A rare treat for me. ~~~~~~~ At 12:30 we did manage to get underway. We sailed out of the estuary in the rain and sailed all day and all night and most of the next day because we had to skip our intended first stop. It was pretty cold and pretty wet. This ship was our next door neighbor.
These were along the estuary and while we were at sea.
After sailing for two whole days and having no internet we were very happy to finally see land and get some dots back on our phones. We had sailed along the coast and through the Straights of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel. Now we turned into the mouth of the Seine. It took over four hours to sail up to Rouen. At first it was very industrial with many refineries and tanks of oil I presumed. But eventually it started to get very picturesque. Lots of pretty quaint towns and even more interesting old French style houses. Lots of half timbering and even some thatched roofs. There are a lot of these but you can skip if you like. And you can click to get a bigger version of the pictures to see more details.
By the time we docked we were having dinner. It was a long time to be at sea! Tomorrow we tour around Rouen. It has a beautiful old town and Cathedral and we will lunch in La Couronne where Julia Child ate her first French meal.
These next few posts will be about our trip. I will be breaking it up like I did on our German trip last year since people seemed to like that.
Tuesday August 22. Departed Umbertide for Amsterdam, Netherlands
We drove ourselves and our cat sitters down to Foligno station to catch the Frecciabianca – fast train to Rome. We left them with the car so they could take in the sights. They are Sue and Bev, one lives in Canada, the other in Michigan but both were born in Canada. They have known one another since childhood. They came recommended by Liz one of our previous sitters. I am sure they will have fun. This week they will probably lay low because it’s hitting 38 degrees Celsius which is 99 Fahrenheit for a couple days. Hot! But next week cooler.
Negroni with our sitters at Bar MaryBev in front of the Collegiata
All went well on the trip. Train to Rome, caught the DaVinci express to Fiumicino airport. ITA Flight (formerly AlItalia) was 25 minutes late getting off. Miraculously we landed on time in Amsterdam. It is refreshingly cool in Amsterdam, just 22C or about 74F. We had arranged a driver who took us to L’Ambassade hotel. It is on Herengracht canal. Beautiful area. Nice hotel. We spent a night here in 1984 on our first trip to Europe. It has changed a lot! View from our window.
After refreshing ourselves, we met my sister Cindy and her husband Bill for dinner. This is our annual trip so we get to see each other once a year. So great to see her! Off to dinner at ‘t Zwaantje. Dutch food. It was busy and popular, but the food was not so much.
We walked back to the hotel bar for night caps. Cindy & Bill had arrived from the US that day and did the usual, stay awake all day then crash. Next day you are mostly over the jet lag. They made it almost to 10pm.
Wednesday August 23
Big day! We met up at 9am for our ticketed visit to the Van Gogh Museum. It was about a 25 minute walk. It is hard to walk here. Narrow brick sidewalks slope toward the street. There are millions of bikes traveling at speed. It seems like they couldn’t possibly stop if someone walked in front of them but my sister accidentally tested that, and damned if he didn’t stop in time. The motto here is, don’t be a squirrel. Like make up your mind in what direction you’re going and stay the course. And always look before stepping to a street. They say 63% of Amsterdamers travel by bike. Some pictures.
Entry to the Museum district
The Van Gogh museum was very good. Many floors. A permanent and a temporary exhibit. I took a lot of pictures of the art. It was interesting with many short write-ups about the art and about Van Gogh. Such a troubled man. Only 37 when he took his life. The last room was dedicated to suicide prevention which I thought was interesting. Just a few of the paintings I saw. I took a lot more than this! This first one was one of my favorites. Almond blossoms to celebrate new birth. It was on the occasion of the birth of his brothers baby, Vincent. Treasured by the family, especially after his suicide.
All of the next ones were painted just before he died. Most of them in the two months before his death and in that two months he painted 75 paintings. More than one a day.
We went to find lunch which we did in Restaurant Red. There turns out to be better choices but we don’t know the city or where to look and by this time we had been standing for many hours. I was anxious to sit down and for some icy cold water.
Luther’s lunch
This evening we had reservations at an Indonesian restaurant named Tujuh Maret. Funny thing about Amsterdam that I noticed. When you reserve a table they have a beginning and end time. You get the table for 90 minutes. Having lived in Italy where the table is yours for the whole night it was a flashback to the US dining where they rushed the meal and brought the check, getting you out as fast as possible so they could turn the table. In Italy meals are relaxed affairs and you pay and leave when you are ready.
Anyway, we ordered the big Rijsttafel. Indonesia was a colony of Holland and food migrated with the people who came to Amsterdam. Now it is a specialty. I had had one of these many years ago and I told my sister I don’t care what else we do, I just want one Rijsttafel dinner. This one was 18 individual dishes served in the center of the table. With rice on the side. They were served in sets of six — mild, medium and spicy. Some of the spicy ones were pretty spicy but not too much for me. It was yummy. Ranging from tofu, beef, chicken, veggie, salad, sweet, sour, hot. So many different flavors. We all had fun except maybe Bill. He is a trooper and goes along but he isn’t a foodie and is not an adventurous eater. I hand it to him, he tried most of them. But he said the meal was only ok.
Sunday we finally managed to go to the Infiorata in Spello, a small hill town not far from Assisi. A religious ceremony – Corpus Domini – which is celebrated the ninth Sunday after Easter each year by many towns with flower carpets on the streets. But Spello goes all out for this religious holiday. It draws thousands of visitors each year, to see the flower carpets. All up and down the streets are amazing, religious themed, creations made out of mostly flower petals, but also other organic and plant material.
About one quarter of the population of 8,000 volunteers in some way to help make this event happen. It is a huge undertaking because there are busload after busload of people coming. And parking lots in fields for the thousands of cars. All of this must be managed and coordinated. Then there is the art itself. The people in the town spend weeks plucking petals from flowers and gathering wild flowers for the creations. It works essentially like the old paint by number paintings. The designers create the designs. I am sure this is another whole layer of work unseen by most which must take months to finalize for each creation. They use chalk to draw the designs on the pavement under tents erected to protect the workers and the flower petals from the elements. The workers work all night making the creations. All the bars and restaurants stay open all night. They are supposed to be finished by 8am but some were still working when we got there at 8:30.
This is an example of the tents that cover these while they are created. As you can see the framework is just being dismantled and the workers are still hard at it after an all-nighter.
I tried to get a picture of the design which was posted next to each creation so you can see what it would look like had I gotten overhead. Luther says next year we should have a drone! This is the design of the one above.
Some of the raw materials used in the creations. I wonder how many flowers they go through!
This board had the petals and the corresponding numbers. And they even included the name of the flower they came from. As I said, paint by the numbers!
I think there are 60-70 of these carpets and I did take a lot of pictures. I hope you enjoy them. There will be less to read…but more to see! I will caption them where needed.
The under 14 year olds had a few entries. I should mention that these are all judged and prizes (plaques) are awarded in different categories.
I like the freeform spray of flowers in the yellow circle.
Close up of whole flowers being used in the above.Design poster. Titled Vincent’s Love. The woman had striking eyes. Note the tic tac toe game with hearts – love wins out!Entire creationDetail of Vincent’s love.Elephants, goats, birds.Peace on earth. Goodwill towards men.
This next design, followed by the creation was my favorite. Entitled The Choice. I liked it for the design and especially the creative use of artichokes in the dragon detail.
Artichoke leaves as dragon scales.Loved this one as well. The colors!
Some were simple
Ladybug.Liked the perspective on this one.Chess board.
Another of my favorites. The materials, the monotone greens.
Follow the yellow brick road
Labyrinth- life of Jesus. Design.
The next four are another example of the use of different plant materials in the designs.
Elephant out of seed husks and sage leaves.More husks and this time bay leaves. It smelled lovely.Rosemary and capers. Capers grow wild all over Umbria.Wild garlic flowers. Also grows everywhere.
We finally made it to the top!
The beautify that saves the world. Interesting perspective on the crucifix.
And now for a few pictures from around town. They not only do awards for the carpets they also judge the flowers that residents grow and decorate their windows, doors, balconies.
Loved her poppy dress.
The crowd. The streets of Spello are narrow. Add the carpets that you can’t walk on, and the 100,000 or so visitors and you’ve got…well…a mob scene. 😳 And it was very warm, nearly hot.
There was a holy Mass at 10am and then the procession began. This is where I wanted to cry. They walk right on and over the creations. Then the faithful who are following the holy procession do too. The beautiful carpets of flowers that took thousands and thousands of hours of work only live for a few hours. Then they are gone. But I remembered, it is not about the flowers or the art. It is about Corpus Domeni.
As you can see we had a birds eye view of the procession. Thanks to our friends Steve and Roselyne who invited us to their apartment to recover. They own this apartment right on the Main Street with a nice balcony so we got a good view.
I hope you enjoyed this photo essay of one of the iconic fests in Umbria.
It has been since last September since we have gone anywhere mostly due to the move. I wanted to concentrate on that for the last months and had no desire to go anywhere.
Now we are moved and things mostly livable we decided we needed to go somewhere for a short get-away. The problem was, we had no cat sitter anymore. Paul, our friend and cat carer was farther away and also leaving Umbertide for their move after selling their house. What to do?
We have a new housekeeper named Linda. She is from Albania, I think. I have known her husband for a while. She picks up jobs doing different things from home health care to cleaning houses. She cared for a friends husband during his last months in his home, and another good friend who is house-bound. So I felt she was reliable. After she had cleaned for me a couple times and I learned she has 3 indoor cats I thought maybe she would want to help us out with ours. She doesn’t live far away so I thought it wouldn’t be too hard for her to sit for them. She seemed happy to do so and earn some money. So this trip was essentially a test to see how it all worked out.
We went for three nights. We decided on Cremona in the Lombardia region, and Parma in the Emilia Romagna region. Cremona is the home of the most famous violins. There has been very bad flooding in the Emilia Romagna region in the past week. 15 people have died and tens of thousands are homeless. It is a horrible disaster. The bad flooding was at the mouths of the rivers in the coastal towns. Rimini, Ravenna, Cesena, Forlì and many more smaller towns are badly damaged. We knew our hotel was just near the big Po river so asked if all was ok before we left. It was, they said, ok.
After a longer drive than necessary due to traffic we arrived at our hotel, Antica Corte Pallavicina. Well, we sort of arrived. We drove down a dead end road and were at a building with many signs. Pointing many directions. After driving on this tiny muddy roads we finally went in the building there and it turned out to be the hotel. It is pretty soggy here after the rains.
Amazing building built in the 1300s just next to the River Po. It is a working farm. They have a lot of white cattle in the fields around the house (Eden😉). They also sell the famous DOC controlled ham called Culatello. They grow the vegetables in the gardens that are served in the restaurants (there are two, a Hosteria del Maiale, and a fancy place, same name as the hotel – a Michelin one star) They grow the wheat with which they make the delicious bread. The bread here is nothing like Umbrian or Tuscan bread, which has no salt and is tasteless. This is yeasty and salty. Yummy.
The room was not what I expected. We were in one of the two towers of the original building. There is a big living room with armoire, table, two chairs and a sofa. And a bathroom with shower. Then, up a very scary set of stairs is the bedroom, situated in the tower. It has itty bitty windows around the room. About the size of a 3×5 index card. I suppose for keeping a lookout? Shooting arrows? (They’re also windows like these on the bottom floor). But the whole idea of having to go up and down those stairs in the middle of the night to the bathroom was not to my liking to say the least. I guess what do you expect from a 14th century castle?
Scary stairs
We had a nice glass of wine on the terrace. There is a peacock here. He is extremely loud and displays often. I haven’t seen any peahens yet. There is also a kind of a pond which is full of frogs all in a high state of sexual arousal calling (or should I say croaking out?) for love. Then there are the cats. Very very pretty cats. Some with long hair. A real menagerie.
Dinner was disappointing. I loved the place. The ancient building. The look of it. And there was a shop selling the famous ham called Culatello. The Hosteria is a stop gap for the night the fancy restaurant is closed. Our starters were good but the secondi were definitely not good. But it was OK. We took our bottle of red wine onto the terrace where Luther could smoke his cigar. There was a group of four motorcyclists also there. Two from Germany and two spoke English, so English was the common language. There was another couple here as well.
The shop
Culatello. This ham is only the thigh meat so has much less fat than prosciutto. Personally, I like prosciutto better. But both are good.
~~~~~~~~ Tuesday May 23
We headed out to breakfast in the same building as the dinner last night, where we were ignored. Place is strange. The breakfast was serve yourself from a buffet. We ordered a bottle of water which never came. There were no plates so I had to ask for them. The good thing was I liked the cheese a lot. Very unusual. During my 3 breakfasts the man never asked if we wanted coffee. Got cereal once. No spoons. The bread was horribly stale. And as a teaser there were fresh loaves being sliced right on the counter opposite. Oh well, we ended up fed.
The cheeses were amazing. This was my breakfast one day.
After breakfast, off we went to Cremona. The day was absolutely glorious. The Giallo Angelo with the top down for the first time this year. It took around 30 minutes of winding around the local highways to get into town. This part of Italy, all up and down the Po river, is extremely industrial. So it is unattractive. But once we got into Cremona we enjoyed it a lot.
The city was a real surprise. It is a city of 71,000 so it is not terribly big, and the traffic was light and polite. We parked and walked into the center. Lots of shopping. Pedestrian streets and cafes and bars everywhere. And extremely quiet. Sometimes we could see nor hear anyone. I don’t know if I have said, but I like less frenetic and crazy-busy cities. Smaller mid-sized towns are for me. Cremona fit that bill just right. Bikes are the preferred way to travel.
Our goal was the Museum of Violins. Cremona is the city of art and music. The great luthiers all lived and worked there. Also many great composers. The Museum was great. It took you through the process of making a fine violin and then there was a room that kind of took your breath away. Full of the finest violins from the 1500s onward. Incredibly beautiful and delicate. Made by the famous Luthiers Stradivarius, Amati and Guarneri. The last room was a small theater where they were showing videos of artists playing the fine old instruments we had just seen in glass cases. We assumed the instruments benefit from playing. And the music was ethereal. Good violin music always makes me cry.
Luthiers workshopThe “treasure room”. All the oldest instruments made by the Maestri.This one was the oldest. Made in 1566 by Maestro Andrea Amati
After this we walked over to the cathedral. Amazing piazza surrounded by old buildings and the 11th century cathedral and the tower 112 meters / 369 feet tall. Hard to take it all in, in photographs. Needless to say the cathedral is nothing like the original having been added to and changed throughout the centuries. The interior was ginormous. Just an immense space. No stained glass, which surprised me. Many highly ornate altars etc.
Now, ready for a light lunch, we went right across the street to a cafe. Nothing makes me happier than to sit on an ancient piazza in the outside air of a gorgeous perfect day with some vino and watch the people. And the lunch of salads was just right.
We walked back to the car and headed back to the hotel. All along the road were signs for cherries for sale. I think cherries are my favorite spring fruit. They are also having a cherry festival nearby.
Back at the hotel the peacock yelled at us as we walked past to kick back for a couple of hours before dinner.
Dinner was a disappointment considering it was a Michelin One Star restaurant. Pretty room. The people were way too serious. They had several big tasting menus. They explained them to to us. Neither of us felt up to a big long dinner so we decided to order a la carte. Two courses each. It was as though they kind of lost interest in us at this point.
After our two courses we left, didn’t even give them time to ask if we wanted dessert. Outside it was lovely. We enjoyed the moon and Venus setting in the sky.
Wednesday May 24 Off we went after another breakfast where we were ignored. It was amusing at this point. Today, it was Parma. About a forty minute drive on smallish roads with lots of trucks.
The city has 175,000 people, so it was quite a bit bigger than Cremona. We found parking and walked into town to visit the Palazzo della Pilota which has the Teatro Farnese within its complex. The Teatro Farnese, in Parma, was the court theater of the Dukes of Parma and Piacenza. It was built starting from 1618 to celebrate the stay in Parma of the grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo II, on his way to Milan. It was finished that year but not inaugurated until 1628 because of an illness that caused Cosimo to cancel his pilgrimage. It was finally inaugurated for the occasion of the wedding of Odoardo, Ranuccio’s son, with Margherita di’ Medici, Cosimo’s daughter. The theater was only used eight more times due to the complexity and cost of it’s use.
We left the theater because a woman said we couldn’t go back the way we came. So we ended up entering a door to the gallery of art and going backwards through the exhibits. Didn’t really matter much. Here are a few pictures.
Loved her expressionThis is a Leonardo da Vinci
Off we went to see the cathedral. We used our google maps to navigate but we could hear the big bell tolling for midday and could follow it’s sound. It was a really big bell. Deep and and slow. Many more than 12 times. I love bells. Bad news is that it closed at noon. We arrived at 12:15. Oh well. We decided to have a pre-lunch glass of wine.
Look at this place! I would love to know who lives here. High in the sky above the cathedral piazza.
Our lunch destination was Osteria del 36. A very old (since the 1880s), very traditional restaurant. Just what the doctor ordered. The cameriere was super nice and friendly. We had some very delicious food. I started with the tortellini in brodo, Luther had a gnocci dish topped with smoky scarmorza cheese. I got the duck breast which was prepared just right IMO. The gelato crema was too good to pass up but it was a big bowl. It was very soft, like soft custard cones in the US, and had chocolate sauce. Best gelato ever.
Duck, so perfectly cooked.
On the way back to the car we stopped into a prosciutto shop. They also had other local specialties, wines, parmigiana reggiano .
Thursday morning we checked out and headed back home to our boyz. Rocky and Simba. Here is a picture of the cantina under the building full of Parmigiana reggiano being aged.
We got home in 3.5 hours. Along the route there was ample evidence of the flooding in the coastal areas. But the worst was in the mountains through which we must go to get to Umbria. The rains caused many landslides and the evidence of the normally small river rampaging through the valley was significant. The good news is our boyz were fine with their new caretaker. So this will allow us to travel in the future for shorter trips.
We are settled back in now. It is raining steadily, day and night. This encourages the Tiber river to jump it’s banks. It is supposed to rain for most of the next week. It could get higher.
~~~~~~ This is a kind of wrap up from our vacation. Best and worst. Some random pictures from my big camera. I have to wait to get home to off-load them. The first three are the Alsace. I adored that dog who knew how to chill. The last picture is of the alps in Germany covered with new snow.
See the dog?
Best and worst. Best room — the apartment in Potschach Worst room — Maison Bergdorf Interlaken Best breakfast — tie between Herrsching and the last night in Slovenia. Best lunch — tie between Gasthaus Obermühle and Osteria del Centenario in Locarno Worst lunch — Das Pumpe, Klagenfurt (not awful, but awful for you!) Best dinner — Hiša Franko Best lake — Königssee ~~~~~~~~~ Today is election day here in Italy. I am sorry to read that the far right parties are predicted to win by a landslide. Anti-immigration. Anti-abortion. Sound familiar? You just can’t get away from it, it seems. The only ray of sunlight is that the coalitions probably won’t last and there will be a new election.😑
Thursday, September 22 I got up this morning to see the lake and mountains shrouded in a thin layer of fog. Beautiful.
Goodness! What a ride today! We left Pörtschach at about 10:45. It was a nice and relaxing stay. The apartment was comfy. Everything was very low-key. I chose a route that took us through the mountains to get to our next destination. Oh my. It was thrilling, scary, and beautiful. We took an autobahn south out of Austria and into Slovenia. Then, when we got to the turnoff to Bled we exited. We had visited Bled once before. Very pretty lake with an island, and there is a castle high on a bluff.
The road headed up a long valley with high mountains and a pretty river. When the road got to the head of the valley we headed up up up. It was a very narrow paved road with many switchbacks. Many kilometers later we reached the summit at around 1,500 meters. There was a camp ground and a restaurant there. It was 12:30 so we decided to stop. Nice place which had some cabins and I am sure ample hiking. We had salads. Mine was roasted veggies, a fried cheese and lots of greens. We didn’t want to eat too much since we were destined for a nice restaurant for dinner.
We descended from the heights. At one point we met a tractor trailer coming upwards towards us. Where he was going up there I have no idea! There’s not much up there. I wasn’t exaggerating that the road was narrow. It was not for the faint of heart! As we got lower there were a few more towns. Then we were in another valley. The mountains were spectacular. At one point we had to stop for cows being driven across the road. Here are a bunch of pictures! They are all shot from the car so none are great.
Luther wanted this one…guess why.
We arrived in Kobarid. It is the capital of its province but has only 4,400 people. There is a beautiful river called the Soca, which draws rafters. We found our destination, Hiša Franko, a Michelin 2 star restaurant. People checking us in were very nice. We have a nice room and our dinner is at 7:30. Wine on the patio after a long drive was just right.
I loved these chairs and tables. Woven textiles.
~~~~~ If you aren’t a foodie or person who likes food experiences, you should skip this part.
Where to start? How does one describe what is called what is called Reincarnation 2022? Hiša Franko has a set 14 course menu. They make changes for those who say they have food intolerances, or for those who have allergies…but they dont like it 🙂. We have none so they were happy when we went with the ”experience “. Instead of describing all the dishes I took a picture of the menu. Sorry it got a little wrinkled.
So now for the pictures…in order of the courses, except for anything I captioned.
My cocktail.
So — how did we like it? We really did enjoy the ”experience”. It was one-of-a-kind. I could happily go back. The people were great…if quirky. Actually the whole place was quirky. But it added to the fun. A bit of a blow-out for our last night on vacay.
Breakfast was amazing too. So many choices. Home made yogurt that you could drink. All sorts of fruit. Cantaloupe, blueberries and a whole bowl of other fruit. Granola, juice, bread, good coffee, cookies, honey, jam and butter. You could also order special things but we did not. It was nice.
Dining room and breakfast room.Outside the reception area.,
~~~~~~ Guess where we are now. 🙂 Yep. Back home in Umbertide. At our local market buying good things to eat. Our great house sitters have gone. We really appreciated them. They allowed me to have no worries for my cats while traveling.
Now it is time for all the chores that must be done in the fall. Stufa cleaning. Inspection of the caldaio. And we are trying to sort out a clogged up gutter. The gutter is high above Via Grilli which is very narrow. When it rains hard, it is like a waterfall into the street. What will this entail? Well, we aren’t sure but it looks like we need a cherry picker truck, an operator, and maybe a plumber. Oddly plumbers install gutters here. We have enlisted help from our friend and former real estate agent Jim. He knows alot, but he admits, this is all new to him too… stay tuned!
Monday, September 19 Off we went to our next destination. Pörtschach am Worthersee, Austria. Raining steadily when we left our hotel with very wintery temperatures. Sad because this looks like a super lovely place to go. The hotel people assure us this is very unusual. All the high mountains around us are snow-covered. Odd that it was hot just a few days ago, and now cold.
Chairs in the garden of the hotel. Too cold to use them.Snow!!It was those two big rocks thrusting up i wanted to photo
2.5 hours later we arrived at our destination. The first part of the drive was on small roads over the high mountains. Very beautiful. We crossed the Germany/Austria border up high. Then we got on an Autobahn and the rest of the way was smooth sailing on the fast roads, except for a few construction zones. Along the way were castles and pretty scenery.
We arrived in Pörtschach at about 1:15. We parked and noted that we were very near our hotel. We found the Bad (spa) restaurant with pretty lake views where we had lunch. Very expensive but the wine we got was my favorite since the Franken wine we had. Here was our view from the table.
Our lunch viewThe wine I liked
We walked and found our check-in place. I booked us into Werther Strandcasino. It is a building of apartments next to the resort also called Werther. We aren’t sure if they are affiliated. The man showed us our apartment which is on the ground floor for a change. Three of the hotels put us on the third floor, no elevators. I was happy to have no steps this time. The apartment is very spacious and very modern. Big walk in closet, separate toilet, bath with washer, big living dining room, kitchen with all you need, big bedroom. Also we are right on the lake with a pretty garden outside. The living room and bedroom have doors outside. One side has an outside sofa and table and chairs with sunshade. It’s really quite beautiful. The price is €135 a night.
View from the living roomOur terraceFrom the terrace.In the garden right behind our patio.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ OK, here’s something that doesn’t happen every day. Luther put his change on the table and this happened. That coin, on it’s edge, sat that way all night before we noticed it. Very unusual! Reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode, only in our case Luther couldn’t hear people’s thoughts. A little disappointing.😉
There are signs of autumn everywhere. There are piles of pumpkins and goods for sale along the roads everywhere!
~~~~~~~~ We went out for groceries since we have a kitchen. We stopped in what was billed as a wine store. Mostly Italian wine. Hard to find the good Austrian wines here. I don’t get it. Austria makes great wine. Then we went to a small grocery. Bought stuff for breakfast and for 2 dinners if we decide to cook in. We are here three nights so we could cook twice and go out once. We will decide later.
Tuesday, September 20 Arose a little late. We only planned a walk around our town and along the lake today. We had spaghetti aglio olio (worlds easiest dish) for dinner last evening and sat outside afterwards. Nice.
We made coffee in our little pot and toast in the toaster, which is a little odd as it doesn’t accept a regular slice of bread all the way. Part of it doesn’t get toasted. Then we read and checked mail etc, and finally went out around 11:30. Pretty sunny day. The town of Pörtschach is quiet. Even though it is only mid September it looks like the season is done. There were few people walking the pretty promenade. Evidently this town used to be a real destination for the rich back in the 1880s. Brahms even stayed in this hotel. There are quite a few vintage buildings and some private homes right along the water are stunning. I found this one sweet little house which is rented out as an apartment. It is so cute and I love the perspective in this picture.
Sweet little house.View along our lake walk.
After the promenade we walked into the wee town and looked in the few shops. Then stopped in the grocery for salt, which we didn’t think of yesterday. Next up, lunch. We went back to our hotel to try the on-site restaurant. Turns out it has both German/Austrian specialties and…Indian! Hah! I decided to get chicken curry as a change. It was only OK. I can make much better. It was super bland. But that figures. Germans/Austrians don’t like anything spicy. But the outside tables made up for that and we watched the small boats, and the big ferries which docked just next to the restaurant.
One of the ferries from our lunch table.Our dining companion.
Wednesday, September 21 The last few nights, while sitting outside enjoying the evening, we have gravitated to exploring different things we are both interested in knowing about. Using the internet of course. First we explored geology. We learned a lot about rocks and their formation. Last night we learned about Charlemagne and Barbarossa and their campaigns in Italy. There were so many characters. And so much conflict! Sadly I have concluded, humans are doomed to fight. Forever.
Up early and enjoyed our coffee and toast before setting off to visit and explore Klagenfurt. It is the capital of Carthenia, a region of Austria. It is a pretty sleepy place. Not that much traffic or activity. Luther commented that no one seems to be in a hurry. For a place with a population of 100,000 it’s very quiet.
We parked and walked into the Mitte. We visited the overly baroque church, and found the pedestrian area with lots of shops. Then we visited the Museum of Modern Art. It was a big disappointment. All of it was focused on architecture. Maybe if you are an architect it would be interesting…but somehow I doubt it.
Baroque church — and how!!Pretty passage
That entire roof is copper. It must be new since it hasn’t turned green yet.
The Rathaus.
Next we decided to sit in the warm sunshine and have a glass of wine. Very enjoyable. They put a little bowl of snacks out with the wine. There were what looked just like cheezits except they were brown. I tasted one…peanut flavored! Actual peanuts would have been better.
Then it was time for lunch. Luther had picked out Das Pumpe. Since the 1800s it’s been serving beer and food. It is definitely no frills. But lively and full of people. We sat and ordered two of the Puntigamer lagers. Really good.
Perusing the menu we decided we would both get the Berner Wurstl with fries and a green salad. We know what wursts are so we thought it would be light. Were we surprised when we got our plates! Two sausages that looked exactly like hot dogs, split and filled with cheese and wrapped in bacon, then cooked until crisp. A heart attack on a plate! Came with good German mustard and ketchup. The salad was typical. They couldn’t make a salad in Germany or Austria without all their jarred pickled vegetables. Pickled red cabbage, pickled beans, pickled carrots. On the bottom potato salad, and on top lettuce. We could fool ourselves into thinking it was offsetting the wursts. But that would be lieing.
Once done we found a wine shop Luther was looking for and he bought three bottles of wine. And we returned to the car, and then homeward to our hotel. It was a fun, if rather low key outing.
Tonight we will eat in our apartment, and then tomorrow we go onward to our last stop, Slovenia for just an overnight and to try a restaurant there. We had booked this in June 2020 but as we all know, no one could travel then and the restaurant was closed. So since it was on our way we thought we would try again. Tschüs !!
Friday, September 16 We headed out to our next destination, Schönau am Königssee. Just near Berchtesgaden and right near Salzburg in Austria.
It sprinkled rain on and off and there were momentary bursts of sun. The alps would have been amazing if the sun was shining. We chose a southerly route to avoid the Munich traffic. It was a beautiful road.
We got on the autobahn and headed towards Berchtesgaden. It didn’t take long. We exited and drove along smaller roads. It was lunch time so we were in search of a Gasthaus. We came upon the Gasthaus Obermühle, a pretty building with flowers and blue shutters. The parking lot was next to a pretty brook and a field full of noisy ducks and geese.
Inside it was warm and cosy. The waiter was very nice. He brought menus. At last, there was Forelle on the menu! This is trout. And I have always loved Forelle Müllerin Art. We had a really lovely salad with pretty flowers in it and a nice bitter arugula with many crispy greens. Then the trout with tasty parsley potatoes. A totally satisfying lunch. Afterward, I was tempted by the honey ice cream. Made from honey from their bees. I couldn’t resist!
I almost missed noticing these tiny dolphins made from lemon peel.
We went on into Berchtesgaden and bought a little something for dinner and headed for Stoll’s Hotel Alpina. The weather was now sucky. Steady rain. Our room is comfy with a nice balcony. It will be perfect for our three day stay.
Saturday, September 17 Downright cold here this morning! They were predicting a high of 8C or 46F! Breakfast was typical German, and the place is crawling with them. 😁 This place caters to families (what was I thinking?) and there were a lot of kindern, running around madly. One group of Dads seemed to get ”Dad duty” yesterday. The Moms were nowhere to be seen. They had four little ones under four I would say. If they could harness the energy they have it would power the world! They even have a ”chill” area for the kids for them to let off steam. We passed by it and it was a madhouse! After breakfast we put on every warm piece of clothing I brought and set out.
Luther has always wanted me to go with him to the Eagles Nest. It was built by Adolph Hitler and was a sort of conference center for him where momentous decisions were made about war, and life and death. It sits way high on the tippy top of the Obersalzberg. There is an elevator made of brass which was drilled up through the mountain. It rises to what was “the summit of power” during the Nazi regime. It was built to impress. Evidently they had to blast a road out of a shear rock cliff to create the road that reached the elevator. It was 6 kilometers long and crossed the rock face twice with one switchback.
Today you drive to a parking lot and take a bus from there to the elevator level. There is a restaurant in the building now. It is one of the few buildings built by Hitler and the Nazis that wasn’t destroyed after the war.
Luther bought tickets online for the bus. We were to depart at eleven am. It rained through the night and was still raining when we got up. Optimistically we proceeded with the plan and had breakfast and headed out. It is only a 15 minute drive from our hotel. As luck would have it, it was not raining when we got to the bus departure point. It was also not raining at the elevator drop off point…it was not raining, it was snowing! They cancelled the buses. Too dangerous. Sigh. I really had looked forward to seeing it even if I wouldn’t be able to see any of the magnificent alps around it and the views.
We left in defeat. Returning to Berchtesgaden we parked and and walked along the Main Street in the town. It was cute with a big schloss platz with a pretty church and also prettily decorated buildings. We bought some sausages and meat and some wine in a couple of stores with Bavarian specialties. I found a great pair of boiled wool slippers! They will be perfect for the winter. It began to rain and was noon so we ducked into a small wine bar and had some wine.
Sadly, this very traditional gasthoff serves Chinese food.
We stopped in the grocery store for more cheese, grapes and bread. Also I bought mustard to take home. I have always loved the sharp German mustard. And we took a look to see if here they have the equivalent of zip lock bags. They did! So we bought some. ~~~~~~ Later. This night we decided to try out the restaurant in the hotel. Turned out to be nicer than I expected. Good service and traditional German food. I like fish but I don’t order it often mainly because of how it is prepared. I like it simple. The way they prepare fish here in Germany is exactly how I like it. I guess that’s why I have been ordering it often lately.
I ordered the whole Char. It was served whole and grilled on top of a pile of roasted vegetables. It was delicious. It looks big, but once it is beheaded, de-tailed and the spine and bones removed you end up with two small filets. Luther fulfilled his wish to get a Wiener Schnitzel, which came with preiselbeere.
~~~~~ Sunday, September 18 The weather report was not promising. It was supposed to rain all day with a high of 50F. We went out to get gas, find an ATM and have lunch.
We left the hotel at around 12:15 and went first to get gas. Turns out they also sold the Vignette required in Austria so Luther bought that too. Then we found an ATM and got some money. Three things off our list so tomorrow we can just head for Austria.
We went down to the Königssee. It is a small-ish lake cut back in the Jurassic by glaciers. It is only 7.7 kilometers by 1.7 kilometers at its longest and widest. But it gets as deep as 190 meters or 600 feet. It is Germany’s third deepest lake. It is surrounded by the biggest alps in Germany — 2,700 (8,900 feet). It is much like a fjord since the walls of the mountains plunge straight into the water. There are no paths around most of the lake because there is literally no room for one. The end with the small town of Schönau does have some nice lakeside paths and from that end you can take a boat tour of the lake. The water is crystal clear because since 1909 they have allowed only electric boats on the lake.
It was very beautiful.
We went to Echostüberl for lunch. Right on the shores of the lake. A slew of outside tables made me wish for a nice day, but it was still raining so we went inside. It was cosy, warm and very lively. Very Gemütlich.
On the way back to the hotel. After the filling lunch we decided we will eat in the room since we have plenty of food left. Tomorrow it is only a 2.5 hour drive to Pörtschach, Austria.
Tuesday, September 13 It was a drive across Germany this day. All on Autobahns. It was just as I remembered — parts of the road were light in traffic and had no speed limits, and then there were the staus (traffic jams) mostly caused by road work. It was around 4.5 hours. Luther did get the Giallo Angelo up to around 190 kph – around 120 mph – AND we were passed by cars going faster. A one of a kind thing, the German Autobahns.
Unable to find a restaurant we stopped in a rest stop to get something to eat. Then proceeded and arrived in Herrsching am Ammersee around 2:45. The nice lady told us to sit in the garden where we enjoyed a glass of wine while our room was being finished. We decided to reserve in their restaurant for that evening.
We wanted to stretch our legs a bit so we walked down to the lake, maybe a ten minute walk. There were a ton of people there. There is a path around the lake and there are a couple places to eat or get a drink.
The Alps to the southKur haus.
After showers and naps we felt ready to go again. We had a bottle of wine brought up and had a glass, then went down to dinner. I didn’t take pictures. The food was the second best on this trip. It has been a culinary disappointment so far. I had carpaccio and a tagliatelle with Steinpilzen. Can’t get away from Italian cuisine around here! Steinpilzen are the same mushroom as Porcini or Cepes. They are just being foraged out in the woods now as autumn is the season. If I see them I get them. Or order them. All was good. We retired to the garden and then to bed.
Wednesday, September 14 They have a terrific breakfast here. Wowie. And I was interested that not one single thing on our table was waste. Everything was in individual glass jars. We each had five little jars to choose from. They contained fresh fruit, yogurt, oatmeal, butter, or a fruit and cream dish. Then came the meats and cheeses and breads. Good German bread with many kernels and seeds. Confiture, jams, honey rounded it out. Oh, and fresh squeezed juice and not-too-bad coffee. It was perfect.
After breakfast we went for a walk to the lake and along the path that goes around it. It was lovely except for the weather. The wind was fierce and there was intermittent rain. But it wasn’t that bad that we didn’t continue. We watched the paragliders, and the wind surfers. They were in their element. Returning to Herrsching we decided lunch was in order so we stopped in the Seehof Herrsching. It was right on the lake. We had fish with potato salad and a great wine from Franken (in very northern Bavaria). A wine we remembered from our days in Frankfurt. It is in a distinctive shaped bottle called bocks beutel — translates as a goats testicles 🙂. It was drier that what we had been drinking and much more to my liking.
We took a different route through town and made a reservation for dinner in Zum Post, near our hotel and it has a real beer garden. Should be interesting! ~~~~~~~ Dinner was exactly what we expected. A German dinner. In a German restaurant. We had Augustinerbrau Oktoberfest beer. And Luther got his schnitzel and I had fried chicken with salad. Oktoberfest in Munich starts this Saturday. First one in 3 years due to Covid. I am sure it will be swamped.
Thursday September 15 After another fine breakfast we drove to the next lake over called Starnbergersee. First to the town called Starnberg. The day had changeable weather. Clouds, then sun, then spitting rain. But not too bad. We visited the Starnberg museum. It was a great exhibition of life around the lake back in the 1700s and 1800s. They had amazing pleasure boats that sailed the waters. King Ludwig came there regularly. There was an exhibit of old photographs from then. They showed everyday life. There were many schlosses along the banks of the lake. They had all sorts of competitions in boats like jousting, and racing. I took some pictures.
This is the house of the photographer. It was built in the 1400s. That door is shorter than me!From the house to a nearby house and garden. Really old glass.House from outside. Note the rocks holding the roof on. Very common in Germany and Austria.One if the pleasure boats that used to sail the lake.Model of one of the big boats. They were very fancy inside.Starnbergersee. Alps barely visible due to clouds.
Then we drove down to the other end of the lake to a pretty town called Bernried am Starnberger See. Really pretty village. It was lunchtime and we found a place called Seeblick. Another very German but leaning more upscale than a Bierstub or Biergarten. I had a very nice Zanderfilet that was grilled (for an change from fried) with lots of vegetables. Very nice.
Tomorrow we head east to near Berchtesgaden. This is where Hitler had his Eagles nest. I hope the weather reports are wrong because it calls for rain all three days of our visit ☹️.
