Winterurlaub am Grundlsee

Actually we had planned on a little bit of sun on Mallorca, but my mom could not mind the kiddos this time so we settled for a family vacation at the Grundlsee in Styria. The view from our room was spectacular.

During the day we made trips into the surrounding area, for example to Bad Ischl, where we visited the famous K.u.K. Kaffee-Konditorei Zauner.

The famous Zaunerstollen has been my favorite sweet/dessert since childhood. So of course one of them had to come along for later enjoyment.

We also went to St. Wolfgang where we had lunch at the fabulous "Weisses Rössl" - the opera, musical and film from the 60s with Peter Alexander are still a "must-know" when you are in the area.

In the late afternoons, when heavy snow started to fall outside, it was time for the pool- and recreation area...

... followed by some nice dinner later on.

And the kiddos had fun too. Food was only served for them, of course.

Wavies to the sunny beaches of Mallorca - we will return later this year!

Impressionen aus Madrid

When we arrived here for a girls weekend out we had expected it to be a bit warmer. But blooming was in full swing, so I guess everything was okay.

My good friend from England and I always meet up when we can somewhere in Europe. This time it was Madrid, and of course the first thing we did was hit the Prado.

The Prado definately is a must-see when you are in town. I am happy that we got here in March because it were not too many people there. It must be packed in high-season! My favourite painters are the old maestroes of the Renaissance, and you find all of them there. Unfortunately it is not allowed to take photos.

A good idea, as always, is the hop on/hop off bus. It makes you get a feeling for the city, and you can get off at any sight to stroll around there. We only passed the Houses of Parliament, because there was no stop there.

But of course we got off at the Almuneda Cathedral. Locals say that it is not worth going inside, but I definately liked the inside as well.

Right opposite is the Palacio Real, another must-see in the Old Town. The Spanish Royal Family, by the way, is not living here but in the more decent Palacio Zarzuela.

Walking around the Old Town also is something very nice. You hit the sights almost by accident, like here the Mercado de San Miguel. When we were there it was almost impossible to get inside. People go there for snacks and drinks, and on a Saturday afternoon it simply was packed. So I just went inside, turned around and left again. But it smelled yummy everwhere.

Food is definately an issue in Madrid, there are zillions of places to eat and snack. One of the really nice things you should grab is a Boccadillo del Calamares. Usually I do not like fried food, and I even less like squid, but this was something to die for.

And then of course the Paella. I had had Paella before on Mallorca and it was not good at all - the rice too hard, you could not get the seafood out of the shell - and so I was not sure if Spanish people just like their rice and stuff on top differently, or if the Paella was just badly cooked. But I must say the Paella in Madrid - with tenderloin, Spanish jamon and chickpeas - turned out to be really nice.

Of course Madrid is a place for art lovers. There is no better place for modern art than the Museo National Centro de Arte Reina Sofia.

Here I am trying to look really intellectual. Thing is: I liked the place - the atmosphere of the house is so really nice and quiet - but I simply do not understand Modern Art. I always think "WTF?" when I see these installations - which is why I never went to the New York MOMA for example.

To sum it all up: It was a nice weekend with plenty of impressions. But if you go to mainland Spain for the first time I would rather recommend Barcelona, which is more fun. Madrid is the capital, so it is bound to be serious, but I imagined everything to be more magnificent and bigger and somehow different. And beware: The Spanish do not speak any foreign language at all (or pretend to), so leave for the airport well in advance. It is not so easy to find your way back to your plane. It was a good idea that I calculated like three hours....

London (2)

Going to Greenwich by boat is fun! Thanks for this marvellous idea, Larissa.....

On our way there the weather was typically British, cool and rainy, but once we got there the sun came out and we could enjoy this nice little town, which actually still is a part of London, situated in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

Getting off the boat the first thing you will see is the CUTTY SARK. Impressive, impressive, I loved it! Built in 1869 she was one of the last and fastest tea clippers ever built, transferred to permanent dry dock only in 1954! "All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by...." (John Masefield)

Greenwich Park is a lovely green area which hosts the Royal Greenwich Observatory, and on the side you have a really nice view from up the hill.

Hasi on prime meridian - between the worlds. As the UK grew into an advanced maritime nation, British mariners kept at least one chronometer on GMT to calculate their longitude from the Greenwich meridian, which was by convention considered to have a longitude of zero degrees. I was especially surprised to learn that between 1600 and 1700 hundreds almost each English family had a member in the Royal Navy.

The entrance fee is quite dear, but we were amazed to learn that it includes earphones and a guided tour. If you have the chance and time I would highly recommend it. You learn a lot about clocks, times, time zones, meridianes....

In the evening it was time to meet Mr. Benedict Cumberbatch in "Hamlet" at the Barbican. I was lucky enough to exit the theatre almost right at the moment when Mr. C exited too to meet his fans, and I have a couple of great pics, but I don´t dare to put them on my blog because I don´t want to get mail from Mr. Cumberbatch´s lawyers. But fact is, we had a great evening! (Even though I still do not understand what is the big fuss about Hamlet acutally....)

The British Museum is something I also can recommend when you have the chance to travel to London.

The building is fascinating. And the collections are great too. We spent most of the time in the Egyptian/Mesopotamian collection, and we could have stayed even longer.

This human-headed winged lion is the twin of somebody I knew from the NY Metropolitan museum where I used to disappear on weekends.  I thought, "Don´t I know you?" And Iamassu nodded and thought, "You met my twin brother across the ocean"...

We really loved the place. I am not much into architecture, but it was fab!

And then I got a celtic cross from the Original´s collection. I always wanted one, but never wanted to order it on the internet but get it when visiting a special place. I have been wearing it since.

And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, please meet my favorite sweet I have been addicted to since my last time in London: Red Velvet Cake. You can also get it as cupcakes, and I have tried to bake them at home, and they are like heaven....

London was brilliant as always. I just feel extremely sorry that I did not have a proper curry at Curry Lane and no Bangers&Mash and no Bubbles&Squeak. Need to go there soon again.

Oh, and before I forget: This is our hotel in Kensington. I love Kensington! It is a quiet area usually with good connection to the tube. Try to find a hotel there if you are around! And now have fun. And happy Halloween!

Krakow

Krakow is holding the 2nd oldest university of Central Europe und is Poland´s "secret capital". When you arrive you instantly get the feeling that this little town might not be "typically polish" - it is hip and trendy, all is newly renovated and decorated and you see a lot of young people here who definately have a little bit of money in their pockets.

We came here to visit an old friend from University who had been teaching in Krakow for a semester, otherwise I probably would have never gone to Poland, but it was a surprisingly nice experience. (Even though I am still not sure if I have seen the "real" Poland. Maybe I will look into this some more some other time, who knows.)

In medival times Krakow was the capital of Poland and in war it almost had not been destroyed, therefore the historical centre remains almost untouched. You meet at the Rynek Glowny (the main square), where you also find the Koscial Mariacki (St. Mary´s church) and other places of interest, it is a busy, lively area where you can spend a lot of time if you want. (Guys: I do not have a clue about the Polish language and I try my best, but please just ignore my missing accents here and there, I do not know where to put them and I am too lazy to look it up.)

We did a free walking tour, the "food tour", and it was a great experience. Our guide dragged us around in the little streets of Krakow and introduced typically Polish dishes to us. At the end you paid what you felt was right, and I really can recommend this kind of tour. We tasted wonderful food - sausages, pierogi, cakes, soup.... delishious and fun-filled!

Afterwards we needed a break and rested at the "barka" at the river "Wisla" or "Weichsel" in German. We were trying to pull our strength together for a visit to the famous "Schindler´s factory" which is close by in Kazimierz, the jewish quarter right on the other side of the Wisla. Actually "Schindler´s list" has been filmed here, and it is a place full of history. Unfortunately the photos of Kazimierz did not turn out really well, so I have nothing to post here.

There are many things to see and do in Krakow, for example they have a remarkable number of historical and new war monuments. They seem to be scattered everywhere over the city and you find them when you least expect it.

Then of course there is the famous Wawel, the castle and cathedral overlooking the city, the former residency of the Polish kings, where many of the kings and queens have been laid to rest.

And of course we had to visit the university area, which is friendly and newly decorated. It must be great fun to study here! 

It definately were a couple of interesting days, special thanks to our tour guide who scheduled the perfect tour for us as if we were VIPs and who (being a historian) had many interesting things to tell!

What also was remarkable that coming from a "Western" country staying in Krakow is wonderfully low-budget even though you eat lovely food and see lovely things. The food you get everywhere is definately high quality and the entrance fees to museums and sights are absolutely affordable. I especially recommend the famous pierogi - we were taken to a tiny little place where they offered more than 50 kinds of pierogi - Heaven for a carb lover!

And of course don´t forget the Zapiekanki, basically the Polish version of a baguette, mostly with a layer of tomatoes and mushrooms and then all other sorts of toppings. They are nice to-go food and will definately fill you up for a while!

Krakow is great fun. If you are in doubt - go anyway, it is worth a trip. Even Benedict Cumberbatch was here, and he cannot be wrong, right? ;-)

Budapest (2)

On a sunny Spring day you have a wonderful view over downtown Budapest from up the Várnegyed (the Castle district).

The Várnegyed is huge, up there you do not only find the massive castle, but also the National Gallery, the Castle Gardens, the Halásbástya (in German the "Fischerbastei") and of course - maybe the most famous building on the hill) - the Maýás-templom, (in German "Matthiaskirche").

But before you venture out to discover all these place of excitement you should invest a couple of Forint and ride the Sikló up to the castle hill. The stretch of the funicular is ridiculously short, but it was built and opened in 1870 and it gives you this feeling to do something that people a loooong time ago have done just the same, maybe riding up to the palace with their families on a Sunday afternoon. And if you listen closely you can still here the whisper of people having fun almost two centuries ago...

And then you are right inside the castle district and enjoy the great view. Getting out of the Sikló on the left hand side you wander into the Gardens where you find the castle and the national gallery. You should reserve more time if you want to visit extensively, because it would take you at least half a day. (This is what the travel guide says, I doubt it. If you REALLY want to go see all that you can find there you might want to book a day.)

We did not have that whole day so we wandered off into the opposite direction to find nice and surprisingly quiet little lanes and then of course the Máyás-templom.

It looks surprisingly modest from the outside, but legend has it that the founder of Hungary, King Stephan I., has also founded this church by his very self in 1015 (which is probably more fiction than fact). During the Turkish occupation the church even served as a mosque, but still it has been there since at least 1250 (which is proven), and it´s maybe most popular chapter in History happened when Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elizabeth of Austria were crowned as King and Queen of Hungary here. Franz Liszt had written his famous "Hungarian Coronation Mass" right for this event, and another legend has it that the people calling "Ferenc! Ferenc!" in front of the Máyás-templom actually ment the composer and not their new king. I think I mentioned before that Franz Josef was not very well-liked in his new kingdom...

Inside the church it was also surprisingly quiet. I wonder how it must have been like on the day when the Royal Couple was crowned....

What upset us a bit was the fact that you have to pay extra to be able to climb up the few stairs of the Fischerbastei. You are high up and then they want you to pay extra just for a few meters more after you have paid for the church anyway? What we also found very surprising that also just a few meters away from the Máyás-templom they built a huge hotel which is almost towering over the church and steals a lot of the feeling. I mean, who allowed this crazyness to be built?And as long as we are at it, why not IN the church itself?

With this in mind but also with a lot of good memories it was time for some hot tea and some postcards to be written (none of them has unfortunately arrived at their receiver´s so far. Is it me or the Hungarian mail?) Then we returned to Kettenbrücke and to our hotel to prepare for the events of the evening.

I had been to the Cafe New York years ago, and at that time it was almost a landmark of Budapest but also a little run down which I felt sorry about. Meanwhile it was closed and stood empty, but finally a very rich 5*group bought it, invested lots of money and brought it back to its former glory.

If you want to eat there: Be careful, now there is a cafe and a restaurant, when I wanted to book a table from home I could only book in the restaurant, which is great but there is a huge price difference. Anyway, dining there is an experience in itself, they make an enourmous fuss about you, and salt and bread was never served more exclusively to us before. And the amuse gueule, and the soup...

I think they really liked that we went along with the orchestration, went "ooh" and "aah" and really enjoyed the waiters making a grand huge fuss about us. The food of course was excellent. It comes like this...

And it got almost kitchy when the piano player started a potpourri of "Phantom of the Opera", *sigh*... It was a perfect evening (for at least half the price that you would pay for something similar in a "Western" country, even though it still was insane) and we really really enjoyed it. But I am not sure if we will be going there again, because expectations would be enormously high, and it could not get any better. Still: Take the chance if you are around!