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

[jedijill]

Alison,

I find the tours on Tripadvisor. Lots of good local info.

Jill in CO

 

[jedijill]

Have a great time! Love the Cinque Terre!

Jill in CO

 

[jenseib]

First off...have fun on your trip!

Was that Princess using the life boat for tenders? I know they do that in a lot of ports and we saw them doing it in one of the Alaskan ports as well.

This food tour sounds interesting. How did you find out about it. It really is neat to try all the different foods of the area.

 

[englishrose47]

Oh a Cliffhanger for the last tasting , and you are off again somewhere else !!Oh well in October I have 2 getaways !!!!

 

[momof3princes]

Your food tour sounded like a great time! Have fun in Cinque Terre, hope we get to hear about another one of your adventures

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Wow! All caught up here, at least! It's fun to see the changes to the Magic! I'm glad you were not disappointed this trip. How fun your Oksana was there!
I have enjoyed your photos and food reports as usual. I see you are almost off on your Italy trip. Hope you come back rested and refreshed with lots of pics! have a great trip in case I don't make it back.

 

[Poolrat]

I am finally all caught up. Hope your trip is fun, relaxing and restful. I am loving all great places and pictures.
Such great food and tours so far.

 

[linetbo]

Karin, I am missing your pictures!!

 

[englishrose47]

Anxiuosly waiting for more !!!

 

[dizneeat]

I am sorry for the long time it took me to come back here, but we had an AWESOME vacation and after we got back we needed to get things ready again, as we are leaving for another week in Italy early on Sunday morning.
I will do replies here and then try to "squeeze in" our Cinque Terre trip report. I have been working on it for the last three days and hope that I can do it fairly quickly. And if there are any rainy days during our vacation next week I can update as well.

Hope you will stay with me through all the little side tracks.

More tasty treats! That's a bustling fish market. :0)

Jill in CO

We were so surprised to see that fish market but they did a lot of business ..... and yes, all the food was really good!

The tour sounds interesting. How do you find out about and book these tours? I only know about the Disney sponsored ones.

I think I sent you a PM about it. Not sure now. I usually just google the tours and use trip advisor. They got all good reviews and did get one from us after the tour. We have done the Disney tours as well, but I am not one who loves to run with a huge group.

Those Rum cakes are SO delicious!

We love them and they keep forever. We still have some from two years ago.

Never heard of a Strawberry Mudslide. Interesting

Neither had I, but it sounded interesting and was really yummy.

Okay this didn't sound good at all. But then when you mention using it as an accompaniment for cheese, I could dig that!

We never gave the pepper jelly much thought, but since it was part of the things we got to try, we did and it was really nice. And it is just awesome with a bit of cheese. You need to like that little kick in the taste though.

They ain't kidding. Was the tour a pretty decent price?

It was 75$ each and to be honest, it was a very decent price for all the food we got and the tour around town. The tour lasted for three hours and we found it very well organized.

this is the kind of stuff I'd love to see!

It was so interesting to see that fish market and while we were at the restaurant they were selling quite a lot.

Have a great time!

Thank you, Alison!

 

[dizneeat]

Have a great time! Love the Cinque Terre!

Jill in CO

Thank you, Jill! We had such a great time, Cinque Terre was wonderful!

First off...have fun on your trip!

Thank you, Jen!

Was that Princess using the life boat for tenders? I know they do that in a lot of ports and we saw them doing it in one of the Alaskan ports as well.

I asked Tom as I couldn't remember and he was sure it was Princess. It just looked a bit "odd" when they tendered with their life boats.

This food tour sounds interesting. How did you find out about it. It really is neat to try all the different foods of the area.

Jen, I checked tripadvisor and googled their home-pages. If reviews are good I have no problem booking with groups other than Disney.

Oh a Cliffhanger for the last tasting , and you are off again somewhere else !!Oh well in October I have 2 getaways !!!!

Sorry for the cliffhanger, Rosie. It was not intended, but there were just so many things to take care off, that I never got around to finish off that day. But I will do so soon, I promise.

And you are off too so soon. October is just around the corner!

Your food tour sounded like a great time! Have fun in Cinque Terre, hope we get to hear about another one of your adventures

It was such an awesome tour and I would take it again if we went to Grand Cayman.

You for sure will hear about our Cinque Terre trip pretty soon, as I am interrupting this TR to squeeze in our Italian adventure.

 

[dizneeat]

Wow! All caught up here, at least! It's fun to see the changes to the Magic! I'm glad you were not disappointed this trip. How fun your Oksana was there!

This trip was completely different to the one we had on the Magic in Europe. We really enjoyed it this time and especially since we met so many "old" friends.

I have enjoyed your photos and food reports as usual. I see you are almost off on your Italy trip. Hope you come back rested and refreshed with lots of pics! have a great trip in case I don't make it back.

We have returned from trip one to Italy and will be off to the next one on Sunday morning. This time we won't do a "roadtrip" just drive to a beachside town and relax for a week.

I am finally all caught up. Hope your trip is fun, relaxing and restful. I am loving all great places and pictures.
Such great food and tours so far.

Tell me about falling behind, Pat. I fall behind on my own TRs.
We had a fantastic trip, everything worked out well and we did visit some awesome places.

Karin, I am missing your pictures!!

More photos coming up shortly, Linet!

Anxiuosly waiting for more !!!

Your wish is my command, Rosie. Pictures of Italy coming up VERY shortly.

 

[dizneeat]

Ready?


Sit back and let us take you on our ..

Day 1, August 16

Off to a great start - Part 1

We woke up to the alarm ringing at 4.30am.
Since we had gotten to bed later than we had wanted to we gave ourselves another half hour of sleep and finally got up at 5.15. Quick shower and getting ready and by 6am we were ready to load the car with our stuff and finally at 6.15 we were off.
The weather was not looking all that nice but we had quite a drive ahead of us and we were hoping for good weather at the end of that first day. We hit the motorway,

made good progress and after an hour we stopped at the reststop in Mondsee. Since we had not had any breakfast we found a table, sat down, had a look at the menu and quickly ordered some breakfast. We both had a

Landzeit Cappuccino, a large espresso topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

Tom ordered the griddled

Austrian “meatloaf – Leberkaese”, topped with a fried egg and coleslaw, while my heart was set on the

Honey Berries Waffle, a fresh waffle topped with strawberries, blueberries, Canadian maple syrup and whipped sour cream topped with granola. We decided to share a bottle of Diet Coke and sat back waiting for our breakfast.
Didn’t take long for it to be served and it was just as good as it looked. Once we had finished our breakfast, we made a visit to the restroom and back to the car and on the motorway we went. Soon after we made it Salzburg and crossed the border into Germany.

It started to drizzle for a while, but we made good progress

and soon again we drove back into Austria

and towards Innsbruck. The skies were still grey, but it had stopped raining and again we made good progress.

While driving past Innsbruck I caught sight of the “Berg Isel” Olympic ski jumping “hill”.

And after pointing it out to Tom we decided to leave the motorway and head back to see if we could go and visit it. Off the motorway we went

and back towards “Berg Isel” and we soon found directions towards the Olympic sight.

Soon we found ourselves driving into the car park, going past the spaces at the back, just to find that this was the whole parking lot and now most spots were taken. We found one, but it was too small and finally made it into one right at the back of the parking lot. It was nice to stretch our legs and we started our 5 minute walk up to the ski jump hill. The walk was beautiful, past some old shooting ranges

from when the Emperor would visit Innsbruck

and up the hill.

We got tickets and entered the area just to witness a jumper going down the slope and jump.


To be continued ..........​

 

[Flossbolna]

I really have far too little knowledge of Austrian geography! Who would have thought that the shortest way from you to the Brenner was via Rosenheim!!

The Mondsee breakfast looks delicious! But I would have preferred yours over Tom's!

And the Mondsee reminds me that in a recent DISUnplugged podcast there was a review of the "Central European" Adventures by Disney trip. You might find it interesting! I thought it was. Even though I was appalled that they stayed in Berchtesgaden just to go to Salzburg and do all kind of Sound of Music sightseeing instead of going to the Königssee. But they stopped in Mondsee, too.

 

[jedijill]

How fun to take a quick trip to see the ski jump and to catch someone jumping too! Your breakfast looks yummy too!

Jill in CO

 

[dizneeat]

Day 1, August 16

Off to a great start - Part 2

We got tickets and entered the area just to witness a jumper going down the slope and jump. It was an awesome sight.
We looked around the area for a short time,

then headed for the funicular that went up to the top from where the sportsmen go down the slope.

There is a viewing area and a restaurant up there and soon we were at the top and got off the funicular and around the building and up to the top to admire the view.

It was awesome to be able to see the whole of the city of Innsbruck from up there and we stayed for a while. We then headed up to the top where you can see the sportsmen get ready and go out to the slope. The path there leads you through the restaurant and low and behold when we looked to our left, what should we see? A Mickey balloon!

Even on a non Disney trip, Mickey is never far away. So, after stopping to take a photo we headed outside and looked down where the jumpers are getting ready.

There was not enough time to stop and wait for him to jump, but we walked around the back to enjoy the view as well, then walked down to the funicular again. And while we were walking we saw the jumper coming up again. So, now we wanted to wait for him to jump again from the bottom. We got on the next funicular down, walked through the gift shop and then found a nice spot to wait for the jumper.

It did not take long and he got ready and finally jumped. It was quite the sight.

Everyone applauded when he got to the exit and he just smiled and walked back to the funicular to go for another jump. We had to get a move on and exited and walked back to the car.


To be continued ..........​

 

[jedijill]

That is so cool! Love the perspective and the view from the top!

Jill in CO

 

[dizneeat]

I really have far too little knowledge of Austrian geography! Who would have thought that the shortest way from you to the Brenner was via Rosenheim!!

Welcome back, Magdalene!

The shortest way was to go via the "Deutsches Eck".

The Mondsee breakfast looks delicious! But I would have preferred yours over Tom's!

OMG, that waffle was awesome. I really hope we skip breakfast again on Sunday and stop at Mondsee.

And the Mondsee reminds me that in a recent DISUnplugged podcast there was a review of the "Central European" Adventures by Disney trip. You might find it interesting! I thought it was. Even though I was appalled that they stayed in Berchtesgaden just to go to Salzburg and do all kind of Sound of Music sightseeing instead of going to the Königssee. But they stopped in Mondsee, too.

I haven't had much DIStime, but I guess that podcast will be something to enjoy while in Italy next week. Thanks for the tip.
And the Berchtesgaden to Salzburg tour sounds just as silly as the idea of hauling people to Salzburg from Linz when they are on their river cruise. Lots more interesting things to do and see here than having to sit on a bus for an hour and a half to go to Salzburg by coach.

How fun to take a quick trip to see the ski jump and to catch someone jumping too! Your breakfast looks yummy too!

Jill in CO

We were pretty happy with our spur of the moment decision. I had had no idea you could go up there, but Tom has been before and knew about it. We were pretty surprised to see him jump a few times.

That is so cool! Love the perspective and the view from the top!

Jill in CO

It was so impressive. The photos don't really do it justice.

 

[dizneeat]

Day 1, August 16

Off to a great start - Part 3

We had to get a move on and exited and walked back to the car.
Didn’t take long and we were back on the motorway

and driving towards our next stop, the “Europabrücke” (European bridge),

which used to be the highest motorway bridge (192m) in Europe at the time it was built. Didn’t take long and we were approaching it. We went over and when we had reached the other end we went into the rest area for lunch.
We were so lucky to score parking, as this is not really a huge stop, but since there is a lookout back at the bridge it is heavily used. Once we had parked our car we walked past the McDonald’s that had been opened there and down to the regular restaurant,

walked in, found a spot and ordered some lunch. We both had the same things,

Diet Cokes, which were served pretty quickly and

Cheesespaetzle, which were served shortly after. They were really nice and since it was past regular lunch time and we were hungry, they hit the spot. Once we were done we had a short restroom break and then went to explore. Right before you head up to a little chapel there is part of an old Roman road,

which has been preserved. Then we headed up to the chapel, but it is only open for services, but since there are huge glass windows we had a great view inside.

Photos done we walked around,

then took a selfie with the bridge in the background

and down to the outlook over the bridge.

And after having a good look around we slowly walked back to our car

and finally hit the motorway again. We made one more stop to fill up the car before crossing the border into Italy.

Didn’t take long and the GPS told us that on the road ahead there would be a traffic jam and we followed its directions to get off the motorway and use the countryroad.


To be continued ..........​

 

[dizneeat]

Day 1, August 16

Off to a great start - Part 4

Didn’t take long and the GPS told us that on the road ahead there would be a traffic jam and we followed its directions to get off the motorway and use the countryroad.
We drove parallel to the motorway

and indeed a little while in, all the cars on the motorway were stopped while we drove on. It was a lovely and scenic drive and finally we got back to the motorway. We were about an hour from this day’s destination, Riva del Garda, a small city on the north end of Lake Garda. Once we left the motorway there was still quite a way to drive and it was nice and scenic through little villages and vineyards. We arrived at our destination, found the parking structure where we were to park our car and drove up to it. There was a button which opened a line to the hotel, they gave us directions and off we went. We parked our car, unloaded it and after calling the hotel for the golf cart shuttle to pick us up we waited outside. The shuttle arrived a few minutes later, our luggage was put in the back, we got on and off we went. It was literally a 2 minute drive to the hotel, where we checked in and were taken to our room.

We were still checking out the room when a bowl of fruit and a bottle of sparkling wine were delivered.

This was one of the perks that came with that particular package I had booked.
We continued to explore the room and were pretty happy with it especially when we opened the curtain and stepped out onto the balcony which was overlooking Lake Garda. Yippie.

We both freshened up, then went into Riva to explore. It is a lovely small city at the edge of the lake and it was lovely to be able to walk around and explore. We had a look in quite a few shops and picked up an item or two before we strolled back to the hotel. When we got back dinner service had already started and since half board had been part of my deal we got ready and then went down to the dining room for dinner.


To be continued ..........​