We invite you, if you dare, to join us for 116 days of fun vacations (so far) this year!

[ddluvsdisney]

The first picture is just breathtaking!! I just did a cross country drive in July from San Diego CA to Massachusetts. It was an amazing trip so many beautiful places in the U.S.A. I can only imagine how gorgeous your other pics will be.

 

[dizneeat]

The first picture is just breathtaking!!

It's such a beautiful area with lots of picturesque villages. We just love to go there, explore and enjoy.

I just did a cross country drive in July from San Diego CA to Massachusetts. It was an amazing trip so many beautiful places in the U.S.A.

Wow! That sounds just awesome. We have only done California coastline and National Parks in the area and travelled all over Florida down to the Keys, but we loved every minute of those trips.
We love to see the difference between the countries and trying out new things (means food ).

 

[dizneeat]

Now let’s get this started:

Day 1: December 30:

We had invited our house sitter Elfi to join us on the trip, so around midday we loaded our car and headed over to her place to pick her up.

It’s not a very long drive, just about 80 km on the motorway and then another 50 km on state streets, but it is very picturesque.



We arrived at the village, Strobl around 3pm and checked right in. We had a lovely room,



overlooking the Wolfgangsee (Lake Wolfgang)



and we took a short break to unpack and rest before we took a short walk through the village. There are three villages along the lake’s edge and they all contribute to an advent/Christmas display. Strobl were we stayed is the one that displays all sorts of Nativity scenes.













They were still on display, as here we keep our Christmas decoration up until at least New Year’s or most have them on until January 6, the day of the Three Holy Kings. Time just flew and soon it was time to head back to the hotel where we had half board and were to have dinner at 6.30.

When we arrived at the dining room our table was decorated festively


and we were quickly served some water and our orders were taken. We had all agreed to share a bottle of wine to go with our dinner.​

 

[dizneeat]

Day 1: December 30:

Tom and I both had decided on the



Pumpkin soup which was really wonderfully creamy and just perfect on a cold winter’s night. For our main course Tom had ordered the



pan roasted Pike-perch with house made Ravioli, mixed vegetables and Pine nuts, while I had decided on the



roasted Chicken breast with winter vegetables and rice. They were both delicious!

For dessert we both had



Panna Cotta on berry compote with a red berry ice-cream.

Once our bellies were filled we went back to our room and Elfi stayed with us for quite some time and we chatted and had some of the drinks we had brought with us.

By midnight we were all so tired that we fell into bed.​

 

[ddluvsdisney]

What a beautiful view from your room!! I love all the different nativity displays. Growing up my parents always kept our Christmas tree and decorations up until Jan. 6 (epiphany) as well! I now do it with my family. Your dinners look delicious!

 

[dizneeat]

What a beautiful view from your room!!

We were so surprised with the view when we entered the room and loved it so much. I just love mountains and water, may it be lakes or sea.

Growing up my parents always kept our Christmas tree and decorations up until Jan. 6 (epiphany) as well! I now do it with my family.

Here in most of Europe we only put the Christmas trees up in our houses on December 24th as "the Christkind (Christ child) brings it". So it is customary to leave the decorations up until January 6 or even later. Shops and shopping centres decorate way earlier but mostly keep the decorations up into the new year.
We just love our decorations around the house so much. We took ours down at the end of January when the tree started to shed his needles.

 

[footballmouse]

Beautiful pictures so far.

 

[dizneeat]

Beautiful pictures so far.

Welcome!
And thank you!

 

[jedijill]

Wolfgangsee is really a stunningly beautiful area! Your food looked so good! Can't wait to read about the rest of your adventures!

Jill in CO

 

[DnA2010]

I am very happy to see you are writing again! I've ejoyed reading your TR's in the past!

in one of the most beautiful parts of Upper Austria – the Salzkammergut.

Very lovely indeed!

then use a looooong wooden slide to slide down to where the salt is harvested.

This is too cool! I work in mining, but in copper and gold!

overlooking the Wolfgangsee (Lake Wolfgang)

reminds me a bit of Canada (where I live) in a way!

This looks tasty indeed!, I'm a fan of white fish, so do tend to order different fish in restaurants, as I don't cook it as well as they do!



Looking forward to more adventures!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hey Karin and Tom! I'm so glad to see you back on the boards! I hadn't been on the boards in what seemed like forever and recently started a new report too. I'd good to see some DIsboard oldies but goodies back.

 

[dizneeat]

Welcome!
Glad to see you here.

Wolfgangsee is really a stunningly beautiful area!

It's as beautiful as it was when we visited together. We love the area.

Can't wait to read about the rest of your adventures!

I am working on updates. More coming soon.

 

[dizneeat]

Welcome!
So many "old" friends around here still. It's like coming home!

I am very happy to see you are writing again! I've ejoyed reading your TR's in the past!

Ah, thank you so much. I really enjoy being back and there is lots to report. Disney travels and others.

This is too cool! I work in mining, but in copper and gold!

The area is our "salt chamber" and it is so interesting and fun to see how it is harvested.
Must be even more exciting when it's copper and gold. Not sure if you ever heard of the Poldark Novels (Cornwall copper mining) - it's what got me reading in English. And it's all about copper mining.

reminds me a bit of Canada (where I live) in a way!

Okay - need to do some more research for future travels.

This looks tasty indeed!, I'm a fan of white fish, so do tend to order different fish in restaurants, as I don't cook it as well as they do!

All the food was really good. We didn't think it would be that way, given that we had booked last minute, when only the half board option was available. Usually half board does not look like this. May I add that I really loved it.
And I really need to add that Tom is the cook in our house and he does a really great job at. Me, even though I taught it for 40 years not so much. Guess my heart is no longer in it.

 

[dizneeat]

Hey Karin and Tom!

Welcome!

I'm so glad to see you back on the boards!

It's good to be back! And to see so many good friends on here again.

I hadn't been on the boards in what seemed like forever and recently started a new report too.

Good to know that there is some reading material for me! Going to look for your TR now!

I'd good to see some DIsboard oldies but goodies back.

Back at you! Love to see that some of us "veterans" are still here.

 

[dizneeat]

New Year's Vacation

Day 2: December 31 – New Year’s Eve:

We slept in a bit as we knew it would be a long night anyway. Once we were up the view out the window was just beautiful.


We got ready, got in touch with Elfi and headed down to breakfast. They had a really nice buffet with mostly regional produce and we got our coffee and tea, filled a basket with rolls and started to fill our plates for the first time.



Needless to say we made several trips to the buffet, but we were too busy munching away to take more photos.


After breakfast we headed back to our rooms, got ready to do some grocery shopping. Guess I’ll need to explain. There is a sheep farmer who has a self serve shop where they sell all things sheep.



They make the most yummy sheeps milk spreads and cheeses and we had decided that instead of chocolate or marzipan good luck charms we would give out those spreads as good luck charms.
Baskets were quickly filled with yummy spreads but no visit to Eisl’s shop is complete without having some of their ice-cream. We had chosen



"Apfelstrudel" Applestrudel ice-cream and "Zwetschkenröster" Stewed Plum ice-cream – both made with sheeps milk and they are delicious. Elfi had Cookies Caramel and it was just so yummy too. They have so many different flavours that it is always hard to pick just one.

There we sat in the car with the heating on munching our ice-cream. Now, once we had emptied our little containers of goodness we drove back to our hotel, stowed the food in the fridge and walked over to the pier to take the boat over to St. Wolfgang.

We didn’t have to wait long, got on board, and a few minutes later the ship started to glide towards our stop. It’s only a short ride, about 10 minutes, but it was fun to see the area from the lake.





St. Wolfgang always brings back some fun memories but it’s especially charming around Christmas time. The whole village transforms into a Christmas village with life size figures and stalls. The stalls stay closed after Christmas, but the figures stay until after New Year. It was so fun to walk through and stop ever so often to see the displays.






Only not so nice thing was that my favourite cake shop/patisserie was closed. Oh well, you can’t have it all.

To be continued​

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Beautiful pictures! I LOVE ice cream and unfortunately all the homemade ice cream shops around here close for the winter.
I have yet to find good ice cream in Florida.

 

[dizneeat]

Beautiful pictures! I LOVE ice cream and unfortunately all the homemade ice cream shops around here close for the winter.
I have yet to find good ice cream in Florida.

Thank you!
Ice cream here is what you would call Gelato (the Italian word for ice-cream) in the US. Most of it is really good, but the fun thing here was that we had been having dinner at a restaurant and all their desserts included sheeps milk ice-cream. I wasn't really sure if the taste would be very different from regular cream, but we gave it a try and fell in love with it. They do supply the ice-cream to many restaurant and even shops in the area and in the summer they even have their own ice-cream parlor.
The flavours they offer go from simple strawberry and chocolate to fun creations like "curd dumpling" which we tried this spring and it was so good or yeast dumpling, another dessert that we have. The dumpling is filled with plum jam and you douse it in butter and poppy seed with sugar. The ice-cream has layers of plum jam and the poppy seed sugary sauce runs through it. Might not sound so yummy to someone who doesn't know it, but I promise - it is just so good.

 

[dizneeat]

New Year's Vacation

Day 2: December 31 – New Year’s Eve: part 2

Elfi had not been inside the church in St. Wolfgang and even though it is small it is absolutely beautiful.

So we headed up there and we showed her the dedication that the village was founded in 976 and I told her all about the 1000 year celebration in the year I had been working there.

Inside the church they still had the Nativity Scene on display and we stopped and had a good look at it.

​

Later we walked all the way down to the Schafbergbahn (the steepest cog railway in Austria with a 26% gradient) which was closed and enjoyed the Benatzky-Promenade enjoying the view of the lake and mountains.

Slowly we made our way back to the ship and caught a ride back to Strobl. We decided to all rest before the New Year’s gala dinner that was part of our package.

At 7pm the New Year’s celebrations were about to start and everyone gathered in the garden,

where they had lit a huge fire and everyone was presented with

a drink and

some cute little snacks. There was music playing and people were getting to know each other. And at 7.30 we were all invited inside the restaurant where the decorated tables were waiting for us.

We found Vintschgerl, a special bread, and a trio of butter made with regional butter on the table as well as the wine and water we had ordered the day before.

There was some whipped salted butter, butter with herbs and a paprika and tomato butter and they all went wonderfully well with the bread.

They took their sweet time between courses but finally the first course was served. It was a beautifully arranged plate that consisted of

smoked char, a char and egg custard, beets, mint, peas and apple caviar. One word … delicious.

Again, it took quite some time until the next course was served. It was a

Cappucchio of Jerusalem artichoke served with a “cigar” (filo pastry) filled with fermented walnuts and pear. We were not sure if we’d like it, but were pleasantly surprised. The soup was so tasty and the “cigar” the perfect crunchy accompaniment.

By now we were kind of used to the “breaks” between courses and they were quite welcome as it gave you time to sit and chat and not feel rushed.

Course no 3 consisted of

Scallops and Crayfish, served with potato-truffle espuma. Not a fan of Crayfish myself, but Tom loved having two of them.

Next was the palate cleanser,

Sorbet from Kalamansi fruit (which we had to google - never had heard of it before), jellied “Riesling-soup” and Kumquat. Very different but really nice and light.

By now we were just getting really full, but there were still two more courses to come. Next one was

Deer Filet Wellington, with Blueberry Jus, baby vegetables and potato juniper gratin. It was so good and even though we were full by now we made an effort to finish it all.

Thankfully there was a longer pause before the last course. But finally the

Curd-Chestnut dumplings were served. They were rolled in caramelised and chopped hazelnuts, baked apple cream and pistachio, a lychee and some lychee ice cream.

Dinner had taken more than 3 hours by now and we were more than happy to leave the restaurant.
We returned to our room and chatted with Elfi and rested until midnight when Tom opened the Sparkling Wine we had brought with us from home and toasted the New Year. Fireworks had already started when we made it out onto our balcony in the drizzling rain.

Most of the fireworks weren’t visible very well, as there was a lot of smoke, but it was more than enough to feel festive.

When the fireworks ended we walked back inside and finished off the bottle of bubbly before calling it a night.​

 

[jedijill]

Dinner looked quite delicious! Great way to ring in the new year.

Jill in CO

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Wow that dinner was amazing! The only time I had that many courses was at Victoria & Albert’s. That was a fantastic way to ring in the new year. I would love to watch fireworks from my balcony.