Think of all the joy you’ll find …….. Update - January 06

[dizneeat]

Italy Part 5

For my main course I had a sole, which came whole and was fileted at the table. It was SO good!!!!!!

Tom had the Calamari Fritti, served with griddled Polenta

and more table decorations - this time limes

and as you can see, when we left the restaurant, it was siesta time again - streets were empty.

There is a very small ice cream stand right close to our hotel and I picked up another ice-cream, coconut and dark chocolate.

We spent the part of the afternoon relaxing and then packing up, before going shopping for prosciutto and cheeses to take home.

Later that evening we went for another walk to pick up a few more items we had wanted to buy, but I forgot to take any more photos during the walk.

We had a lovely salad and some things out of the fridge for a latish dinner, which ended with me having one of these beauties

and finishing off the wine

Day 4

We got up around 7am and got ready. I picked up some more fresh bread and we had a lovely breakfast, before gathering all our stuff and loading it into the car. Then we were off for a quick final walk around the town and finally got into the car and left the parking garage. We had two more stops to make to shop for a few more groceries that we wanted to take home and around 12.30 we were on our way back home.

About an hour later we left Italy and returned back to Austria

We returned the Telepass and had a late lunch at the rest station there

and finished off with an ice cream cone, then it was driving for the better part of two hours, traffic was okay, it slowed down a few times, but all in all we made good progress. In Mondsee we made one more stop for a restroom break and another ice-cream

before driving the last bit of the way.

Up next - some more real life updates

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[KatMark]

Wow...that sole and calamari look wonderful (I LOVE calamari!).

And ice cream looks yummy too.

 

[franandaj]

Your trip to Italy sounds relaxing and delicious!

 

[Flossbolna]

Lots of great food in Italy! But what is the bacon wrapped sausage called??? My mother used to serve this when we were kids (I think the sausage was even filled with cheese), but I have never seen it served in a restaurant!

You could have had some more sunshine in Italy, but it seems that you made up for the lack in sun with lots of delicious food and drinks! Looks like a very relaxing vacation!

 

[jedijill]

What a lovely (though cloudy/rainy) weekend in Italy! The food looks amazing! I miss the food at the rest stops...always yummy!

Jill in CO

 

[RGirl]

I was still not fully healthy again and having to teach took all my energy.

Karin - I am so sorry that you got so sick. I hope you were feeling a LOT better for your mini-vacation.

So, without further ado here is a recap of that short vacation in pictures (with just a little text in between)

I loved reading and seeing all the pictures from your trip - you know how much I love the non-Disney TRs. And I'm always a huge fan of your trips to Italy.

LOVE these two photos especially - so cool looking!

 

[Leshaface]

We even found a gondola pendant for my Pandora bracelet and picked that up together with a few other small bits and pieces.

What charms do you have? Do you have many from Disney?

Just love how all the umbrellas are put up so neatly.

So European for sure. It really is cool!

Kona beer, one of Tom's favourites

How neat is that! Good find Tom!

We just loved the table decorations

so simple, yet so awesome. They had different ones on all the tables, some filled with pasta (no water) or lemons.

Such a cool idea! Never thought about that, that is really simple and nice.

For my main course I had a sole, which came whole and was fileted at the table. It was SO good!!!!!!

Oh my gosh, this is the best way to eat fish--whole! With tons of lemon. Ugh!!

Yep, i'll take the calamari too please.

and more table decorations - this time limes

Love!

There is a very small ice cream stand right close to our hotel and I picked up another ice-cream, coconut and dark chocolate.

Wow that is some dark chocolate! That looks delicious.

What a beautiful shot. Oh and the mountains and lake is cool too

 

[dizneeat]

Again, I have to apologize for not getting back to you any sooner and do replies, but it again was a full week of work and I kind of never found the time to do the rest of the updates which I wanted to share with you.

But here we go ........
(there should be 3 or 4 more real life updates and then one that is a vacation update )

Another birthday to celebrate

In early May there was another birthday to celebrate and I thought I'd share the decorations and at least a picture (or two) of the cake with you.

Needless to say we needed to have a proper birthday dinner at one of our favourite restaurants.

Both of these were the amuse bouche - there is a potato based spread in the little pot and a wild garlic based spread in the little glass.

Tom had the pan seared pike, served with white asparagus, wild garlic infused hollandaise, "some" foam and parsley potatoes.

I had the filet of lamb over candied walnut polenta, served with steamed green asparagus and lamb jus.

Tom chose a small dessert, coffee ice cream in a cup (Frozen segafredo) topped with whipped cream

I had the chocolate lava cake served with raspberry sorbet. All the food was delicious.


​

 

[Flossbolna]

So, I guess I should say: Nachträglich Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!!

Looks like you had a great birthday! I like the little bag that you got, very colorful! And the meal looks truly excellent! I have been indulging in asparagus for the last few weeks, it is grown locally and somehow because of the strange weather it came out very late and now there is an abundance and it is so much cheaper than in previous years. I am feeling really bad for the farmers...

ETA: Ok, looking at the picture of the whole table, I realize that the bag is not that small! At least not if your cake was not very very tiny. Still, great bag!

 

[dizneeat]

So, I guess I should say: Nachträglich Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!!

Looks like you had a great birthday! I like the little bag that you got, very colorful! And the meal looks truly excellent! I have been indulging in asparagus for the last few weeks, it is grown locally and somehow because of the strange weather it came out very late and now there is an abundance and it is so much cheaper than in previous years. I am feeling really bad for the farmers...

ETA: Ok, looking at the picture of the whole table, I realize that the bag is not that small! At least not if your cake was not very very tiny. Still, great bag!

Thank you, Magdalene!
It was a lovely weekend we had, very relaxed and with lots of yummy treats.

How funny you should mention the asparagus as we just bought more (locally grown too) for dinner over the weekend. Could not believe the prices they charged, way below average.

And yes, the bag is pretty big, I just love Britto and even though the pink would not have been my first choice, I really like the cat motive, so we went with this one.

On a side note - your coconut patties will be mailed on Tuesday. We found a little extra coconut treat for you as well and you should get it before you leave on vacation.

 

[dizneeat]

Getaway for a day

A week ago there was a holiday weekend here and with the weather not being all that great in May, we were hoping that it would at least clear up enough so we could go to Germany for a day.
Thursday was a rainy day and so was Friday, so we kind of had given up hope, but Saturday started out to be a nice day and after a bit of a discussion we started out a little late, but we did go through with our visit to Germany.

The drive is pretty scenic and we soon hit the part where the road runs right next to Danube, pretty much the views the ABD guests will see on the AMAViola next summer.

Loved to see that they had the old ferry boats out to cross the Danube

There was one ship I hoped to see ....... and we got lucky.

it is called Kristallschiff (crystal ship) and they used Swarovski crystals to decorate it. If you drive past it, you can see the crystals glittering in the sun.

When we next go to Passau we want to cruise on the Danube on it. (They do day trips on it.)

Shortly before we reached Passau there is a lookout over the city, so we drove up there and snapped a few more photos.

​

 

[jedijill]

Happy Birthday! Your meal looks delicious!

I love the castles in Germany. Passau looks so scenic!

Jill in CO

 

[dizneeat]

Getaway for a day

Very soon later we arrived in Passau.

And after parking the car we were off to the pedestrian area to do some window shopping.

We had wanted to do a city tour on a small bus, but when we came to the bus stop our options were to get on the bus in about 15 minutes, or having lunch first and take the last bus of the day. Since we had gotten on the way late, we decided to have lunch and do the city tour another day, as there were clouds rolling in anyway.

We both had the "Backhendlsalat" (breaded chicken strips on top of a mixed salad and some potato salad dressed with pumpkin seed oil)

Tom had a Frozen Cappuccino

I had three different flavour ice-creams, topped with whipped cream and wafer biscuits.

Once we were done, the skies had cleared up again, but we decided to just walk around a bit and shop a little instead of doing the tour, leaving that for another time.

We went in search of where a friend had lived when she was working in Passau and came across that cute "border".

And soon we were back in Austria and on our way home.

Next up - vacation updates​

 

[dizneeat]

Happy Birthday! Your meal looks delicious!

I love the castles in Germany. Passau looks so scenic!

Jill in CO

Thank you, Jill!

Passau is really cute - I just loved looking down on the city from the viewpoint - and the drive there is pretty nice too.

 

[jedijill]

Thank you, Jill!

Passau is really cute - I just loved looking down on the city from the viewpoint - and the drive there is pretty nice too.

I just love Southern Germany and Austria. Everything is so picturesque!

Jill in CO

 

[dizneeat]

Vacation update ..........

Summer 2015

As I have let you know a few weeks ago, we had to cancel our summer holiday plans, which had included two weeks at WDW and a back to back Fantasy cruise. The thought of not having a summer vacation planned did not sit well with me, so I started to explore options. We need to stay "close" to home so the surrounding countries came into focus. And then it hit me. Tom and I had so enjoyed and loved the Cinque Terre that this quickly emerged as a favourite. So here is what we have planned for this summer now.

Starting the vacation of with a nights at Lake Garda

then move on to Santa Margherita

from where we would like to visit

Portofino.
Next we are going to Manarola where we will stay for three nights

to enjoy the scenery

neighbouring villages

and the local specialites

after that we will move on to Florence for two nights

before three more nights of relaxation at an Italian costal town

We will then return home, stay there for 10 days before we head back to the Italian town where we usually go for weekends. There, we'll spend another 5 nights to end our summer vacation.
​

 

[dizneeat]

I just love Southern Germany and Austria. Everything is so picturesque!

Jill in CO

Living here we don't always appreciate how beautiful it actually is, but having friends here and showing them around opened our eyes for the beauty of our home country.

 

[jedijill]

I'm sad you had to cancel your Disney plans but your Italian vacation looks awesome! I love Florence and fell in love with the Cinque Terre. You are going to have an amazing time and have some fantastic food to try!


Jill in CO

 

[dizneeat]

It's been quite a while since I was able to do replies, but slowly I am catching up ........

Already found joy as soon as I saw Olaf-head Thomas............

I knew you'd love it!

Those plan overbookings are something, I am way too obsessive to NOT do Online check-in and pick seats especially with the kids. Best airport breakfast, Karin that Eggs Benedict looked good. And the bus to the plane on the first flight

I think they all overbook - it's common practice, it just did not really work out this time around. Lucky us that I am as obsessive as you are when it comes to do online check-in. I NEED to do it as soon as I can, even though I often pay to have my seats reserved as soon as I book.

The bus to the plane is such a laughable things. But it is because you are not allowed to walk under the airplane and even though it is only twenty steps they need to "drive" you there.

Just want to check in and thank you for the invite! Already lots to catch up on...going to read right now..how exciting!! So happy you let me know, Karin.

Great to have you, Christine! It was a really great trip and we enjoyed it and had such a lot of fun. I hope you won't be disappointed and am sorry it took me so long to get back to you, but as you can see, so many things happened that just cut into my DIStime.

Thanks for the shout out. I know this is going to be a wonderful trip.

Feels good to know that you are here as well, Mary Ellen! It was a really great trip and made up for quite a lot of the disappointment we had on our Med trip.

OMG - Tom's breakfast sandwich looks SO amazing. I totally want that. Why can't I get a sandwich like that in the states??? Why oh why????

It tasted as good as it looked! We really enjoy that restaurant during the layover. Somewhere nice to sit and enjoy a relaxed meal.

Boo to the 5 hour layover.

Well, there are two flights that arrive in time for the trans atlantic flight, but during the colder months of the year I am always rather safe than sorry and have a 5 hour layover with a relaxed breakfast, flying out early than having just 1 hour and 50 minutes with the second flight of the day. Since it can still snow and have weather related delays that makes more sense to me. AND, there is only one direct flight to Orlando a day, so we would not want to miss that.

I'm a little worried about the door now and how its going to impact your take-off.

You will find out VERY soon.

I love the pictures your posted that represent each day of your trip.

 

[dizneeat]

I'm sad you had to cancel your Disney plans but your Italian vacation looks awesome! I love Florence and fell in love with the Cinque Terre. You are going to have an amazing time and have some fantastic food to try!


Jill in CO

We didn't know of the instances that made us cancel when we first booked and we were so looking forward to going back to WDW after we had missed a summer in 2014 due to our Med cruise. So, it was a huge disappointment to both of us.
But when we came up with the Cinque Terre idea, it helped a bit. Especially since we had loved our day at the Cinque Terre last year so much. And funnily enough we did a foodie tour and that gave me the idea of going back and try more of that yummy food.