If your heart is in your DREAM a Aug/Sept 2011, NEW - links to dining/trip report

[dizneeat]

Finally time for updates!!!!!!!

There wasn't a lot of time for updates those last two weeks, reasons were - that

we celebrated my birthday,

spent a day in Passau, Germany

had lots of work for school,

more tests to grade,

plan a trip to Italy

.........

and finally spend the last weekend in Italy.

I have photos of my birthday (cake and lunch on my birthday), our Passau trip and lots of photos of our Italy trip to post, but will start with the Italy one!

So, let the fun begin ............




OUR TRIP TO ITALY, May 20 - 22

We both had to work on Friday - Tom's day started super early around 4am (he works for the PO) and when he got home, he got things ready for our trip - got the bags downstairs and filled the cooler.
I had 3 regular lessons and then I prepared a buffet for 200 people and prepared the same amount of food a second time for a buffet the very next day. I had 18 pupils who worked hard and within 3 hours we had both sets done!

I got back home at 2.15pm and Tom had gotten everything ready, and prepared some ham and cheese sandwiches and when I was done eating we were all set to go.
By 3.10pm we hit the motorway - it was a 550 km drive and we hoped to do it in about 5 1/2 hours.

On the way we crossed through 3 Austrian counties and 2 in Italy! Since the scenery changes a lot on the trip I took a lot of photos from the car. So here are some of them.

Driving out of our city

rolling hills turning into mountains

passing farms on the way

finally in Salzburg

crossing through the Alps

And through a lot of tunnels and finally Carinthia!

 

[dizneeat]

We passed some beautiful castles

and even more mountains and then suddenly .........

we hit a rainstorm! Thunder and lightning and LOTS of rain!

And a little while later - more castles and more sunshine!

and finally the border! Oh, how I love the united Europe, no more stops for passport controls!

and more mountains on the Italian side!

And finally we got closer and the first signs of our destination, Lignano!

and the sunset. We arrived in Lignano at around 8.45 and found our hotel to be in a pedestrian area. So we parked the car a few streets away and walked up to the hotel.

 

[dizneeat]

About 15 minutes later we were checked in, so we went back to drive the car to the parking area at the hotel.
They have an underground garage and the spaces in there were TINY!!!! Some of the spots were so small we didn't even try to park the car there. We finally were directed to a spot our car would actually fit in and after some driving back and forth we finally had parked the car and went to our "apartment" on the 2nd floor (3rd floor in the US!).

Kitchen and living area

Master bedroom

Second bedroom

Bathroom

Once we had everything upstairs we thought about how to conclude the evening. We had planned on "maybe" going for a walk after grabbing a bite to eat, but we were real tired.
So we decided to just have dinner out of the cooler.

 

[dizneeat]

Thankfully Tom had prepared some turkey "Viennese Schnitzel", cherry tomatoes and some bread from our favourite baker IF we should get hungry during the drive!

All those things came in handy, when we were too tired to go out for dinner!

Schnitzel

Bread and tomatoes

Once we had had dinner we decided that we were FAR too tired to pop down and have ice-cream for dessert, so we just called it a day and went right to bed!

 

[cbg1027]

What a gorgeous drive you had in to Italy (except for the rain, of course)! Can't wait to hear more of the mini trip report!

 

[dizneeat]

What a gorgeous drive you had in to Italy (except for the rain, of course)! Can't wait to hear more of the mini trip report!

It was a fun drive and apart from the short but heavy rainshower it is real beautiful. The change of scenery on the way there is just breathtaking!

 

[dizneeat]

Day 2

After a good night's sleep we both woke up refreshed and ready to enjoy our only full day in Lignano.

We knew they served breakfast at the hotel, but since we had a kitchen we wanted to enjoy breakfast in our kitchen.
So after we got dressed we walked down down to the Main Street, "Via Udine" to find a baker and a grocery store to pick up some breakfast goodies.

When we last had been to Lignano, Via Udine was a VERY busy street, lots of cars and traffic, now it has changed into a pedestrian area and it looked completely different.
But after a few steps we saw a bakery! And round a corner there was a familiar sight - a grocery store we had been shopping at more than 30 years ago! It still looked exactly the same as it had been all those years ago.
We picked up a few essentials, then walked back to the bakery for more yummy breakfast goodies and back to our little apartment.

Time for breakfast!

Cherry jam (which we didn't even open! ) coffee, sugarcubes and some Grissini (bread sticks)

Italian rolls

meats and olives

Parma ham

Sopressata

and VERY yummy olives!

And very nice .....

coffee

So after enjoying some rolls with all those goodies it was on to the sweets .......

I had a vanilla doughnut! So good, tasted just like I remembered it!

And I had picked up two small filled pockets, wrapped in philo pasty. They were small and looked yummy.

One was filled with PURE Nutella - VERY sweet, and VERY heavy.

The other one was filled with vanilla creme - not as sweet and not as heavy - very good!

Tom had picked two canoli, one filled with vanilla creme and the other with Nutella and puff pastry roll filled with vanilla creme. So good!

We were stuffed when we left the table and ready to conquer the shopping street!

 

[Stefy]

Yay for an Italian TR Welcome back

Yumma yumma that breakfast looks delish, must find somewhere that does those pockets in Garda.

Loving all the photos so far, esp the road trip pics

 

[lovealldisney]

Karin,

Thanks so much for sharing you pictures! The Alps are so beautiful! When my DH were in Salzburg last fall we kept asking ourselves are they for real? I felt so tiny driving through them.

 

[Minnie&Nana]

The drive is simply stunning!! I loved the tunnel under the Alps - imagine!!

Yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy.....oh and did I mention how YUMMY all that food looks????

Such wonderful pics - thank you so much for sharing your delightful trip with us!!

(nice Vera Bradley bag!)

 

[englishrose47]

The drive was soo picturesque !!! I still remember how beautif=ul the Alps were from the 40 odd year ago that I was there !! I also crossed into Italy , so we were pretty close to the border as I recall about 10 miles !!

The breakfast food all looked Yummy!!!

 

[tinacaplan]

Great pictures, Karin. It felt like I was in the car with you! And that prosciutto totally made my mouth water...still is, actually! I am so thankful that I live in an area of the country that has a lot of Italian-Americans, so finding things like that isn't as hard as it might be in other places. And the nutella pastry looks delish, too..but then you know of my love for all things hazlenut and chocolate! So, you would think I would eat more Nutella, but I don't for some reason. Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip!

 

[jenseib]

Why am I now hungry for a pastry?

The scenery on the drive is just amazing. I live in such a plain area. I always gobble up beautiful views.

 

[annmarieda]

Those pastries do look good!!! What pretty pictures of the drive too!

 

[KatMark]

The drive to Italy looks so pretty and scenic.

Cute room; and the food is making me hungry as I'm sitting here deciding what I want for lunch.

 

[pinkxray]

Thanks for sharing your Italy pictures. I love that you take us along for your trips, since most of the time you guys get to do some cool things I'll never be able to do.

I now need to go out and buy some pastries.

 

[dizneeat]

Yay for an Italian TR Welcome back

Yumma yumma that breakfast looks delish, must find somewhere that does those pockets in Garda.

Loving all the photos so far, esp the road trip pics

I am sure you are going to find the pockets somewhere. They were a bit on the VERY sweet side! - AND I like sweet!

I really enjoyed the drive - the scenery is very pretty!

Karin,

Thanks so much for sharing you pictures! The Alps are so beautiful! When my DH were in Salzburg last fall we kept asking ourselves are they for real? I felt so tiny driving through them.

Yes, the Alps ARE beautiful. The funny thing was, that while we were driving I kept taking photos to post and it made us even more aware at how beautiful the scenery really is!

The drive is simply stunning!! I loved the tunnel under the Alps - imagine!!

Yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy.....oh and did I mention how YUMMY all that food looks????

Such wonderful pics - thank you so much for sharing your delightful trip with us!!

(nice Vera Bradley bag!)

They did a great job on those tunnels! So much easier than driving up and down the mountains!

I knew, someone would spot my Vera bag!

The drive was soo picturesque !!! I still remember how beautif=ul the Alps were from the 40 odd year ago that I was there !! I also crossed into Italy , so we were pretty close to the border as I recall about 10 miles !!

The breakfast food all looked Yummy!!!

The mountains are pretty impressive, aren't they? So glad they brought back some fond memories!

Breakfast was REAL yummy!

 

[dizneeat]

Great pictures, Karin. It felt like I was in the car with you! And that prosciutto totally made my mouth water...still is, actually! I am so thankful that I live in an area of the country that has a lot of Italian-Americans, so finding things like that isn't as hard as it might be in other places. And the nutella pastry looks delish, too..but then you know of my love for all things hazlenut and chocolate! So, you would think I would eat more Nutella, but I don't for some reason. Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip!

If you felt like you were coming along then I did a good job.

We can get the same prosciutto here as well in an Italian deli, but it just doesn't taste the same.
Much better in the real Italy!

Why am I now hungry for a pastry?

The scenery on the drive is just amazing. I live in such a plain area. I always gobble up beautiful views.

Hm, I wonder why you could be hungry?

I am glad you enjoyed the views!

Those pastries do look good!!! What pretty pictures of the drive too!

Thank you, Ann!

The drive to Italy looks so pretty and scenic.

Cute room; and the food is making me hungry as I'm sitting here deciding what I want for lunch.

It was a really nice drive! It was a typical Italian room - they all look like this and we were really lucky with the location!

So, what did you have for lunch?

Thanks for sharing your Italy pictures. I love that you take us along for your trips, since most of the time you guys get to do some cool things I'll never be able to do.

I now need to go out and buy some pastries.

You are very welcome to share our little trip to Italy! I am glad you enjoy it!

Hope you find some real nice pastries as more food is coming up soon!

 

[dizneeat]

Once we had finished breakfast we walked outside to stroll around the small town for a while.

We came by some familiar sights!

And some beautiful flowers

We walked all the way down to the end of the street, did a little (well, not just a little) shopping and on the way back to our hotel, we paid a visit to the local church.

The sky was so unbelievably beautiful!

We took our purchases back to our room, chilled for a while and had a few beverages!

 

[dizneeat]

After we had chilled for quite a while we left the hotel once again, this time walking towards the harbour.

It was past midday by then and we decided to find a place to have some lunch. Most places were packed, but after a while we were lucky enough to find a nice restaurant.

There were a gazillion lamps and if you looked at some of them from the correct angle they would appear as Hidden Mickeys!
Even on a non Disney vacation we were happy to find some Hidden Mickeys!

Tom started off his meal with a nice beverage!

I was stunned at how my Diet Coke was served!

Tom ordered a Pizza Frutti di mare, which had a lot of toppings and was very tasty!

I had a Pizza Capricciosa, which had lots of ham, artichokes and olives and was so good. We both could not finish our pizzas as they were HUGE.

We asked for the bill and after we had paid we were served this frozen treat.

I cannot describe the taste, but it reminded me of a hard candy, being mashed up and frozen!

Tom finished his, but it was far too sweet for me.

Once we left the restaurant we decided to head back to the hotel for another little break.