A late arrival and an early departure

Modes of transportation have (so far this trip) come with a little more excitement (drama?) than is really needed.

There was a sign I should have paid attention to when the guy sitting next to me tried to pick a fight with the guy sitting in front of us on the Air Niugini flight Wednesday afternoon. I am still very confused as to what that was about (apparently the guy in front "looked at" the guy next me...). I am wondering if Qantas/Air Niugini would let me put "not to be seated next to drunken Aussie expats" on my frequent flyer profile?

Also, a short note to Emirates. If you are going to serve croissant in flight, please, please, please, please, please warm them up. Refrigerated ones taste like old shoe leather. If you can warm the strawberry garnish on my breakfast (which was gross by the way, they should not be heated) surely you have the technology to warm the croissant? End rant.

At any rate I made it to Dubai unscathed (only managing to lose Riin once in the whole process) and then jumped on board the next flight. 30 something hours after walking out of the office I landed in Barcelona airport. All I wanted in the world at that point was a shower and a change of clothes. Turns out my luggage had other ideas. It had stayed in Dubai. Thankfully though, this is where being a Platinum FF comes in handy. There was a nice man waiting for me the second I stepped through the aircraft doors. He apologizes profusely, gave me my bags revised itinerary (his words) and handed me off to a woman who escorted me the entire way through the airport and then pushed me to the front of the line at baggage services where she conducted the whole transaction, organising my bags delivery for me in Spanish. That was 2pm. I had the bag back just before 11 that night. 

Whilst my luggage decided to enjoy the hospitality of Dubai airport, I went out to enjoy Barcelona. 

It was a beautiful, warm and sunny day, making it perfect to just got for a walk. There is a motoring show in town (tied to the race this week I presume) which made getting around some key sights a little more of adventure, but we finally worked out how to get up to Palau Nacional.

The view from up there wasn't too shabby.

An observation though on the changing times. Remember the good old days, when you would go to tourist spots and there would be some guy hawking cheap rolls of Kodak 35mm film? Turns out these days the hawkers at tourist attractions have a new product. They want to sell you a selfie stick. If that isn't a sign of the impending apocalypse I don't know what is.

Given the long trip we wanted an early (7pm) dinner, which leaves only one option in Spain - Tapas.

We had squid and olives and cod fritters and ham and mini sausage and snails. Yes, snails.

Thursday morning, happy with my abundance of clean clothes thanks to the arrival of my luggage, we set out on another day of sightseeing. Breakfast was at a nearby cafe and I am going to crown this the greatest chocolate croissant I have ever eaten. Does anyone else look at the coffee and think Tim Burton?

First stop On today's sightseeing was the fresh food market.

There we found ham. Lots and lots and lots of yummy ham.

You know what goes well with ham? Eggs. 

Maybe you need some tomatoes on the side.

Or a really cool looking octopus.

I wanted to eat it all, and luckily you could. I opted for some of the regions best deep fried delights.

Whilst Riin opted for a cone full of ham.

Walking outside we found the ice cream sellers so had to taste test some of that as well. I still find it bizarre that it is okay to make ice cream out of smurfs in Europe. 

Next, we headed to Sagrada Familia.

The line to get in went around the block so we figured we'd come back to that next weekend. So we headed to Park Guell.

We got in line for a ticket there only to be told it was sold out til 5pm. Another on the list for next weekend (when the ticket will be pre-brought in the Internet). We are 0/2 at this point. Except the ham. Ham was a winner.

So instead it was off to the site of the 1992 Olympics.

Such a teeny tiny stadium by today's standards. Only holds about 30,000, which you could never get away with for an opening ceremony these days.

I then decided to hit up a funicular to head up to Castell de Montjuic.

When I got to the top the view was worth the trip. This was the view back over the city.

This was the view out over the Port.

There is even a garden up there with plants that look like giant asparagus.

Back down the hill I went (Which I walked after the wind picked up and created a scary swinging funicular on the way up) and headed to yet another 'early' tapas dinner. This time there was no snails, but there was ham. Because we hadn't really had our ham fix for the day...

So at this point it was time to head out to the cruise ship. We had double checked all our documents the night before. 23:00 departure, needing to check in three hours before. So at 19:30 we dutifully head to the port. When we get there it is all shut up, and the baggage guys are yelling in Spanish. The taxi driver says that we are late and they have been waiting for us (huh?). So the baggage guy grabs our bags and practically runs through security, through the terminal and up to the ship. Not another soul in sight. 

When we get to the entrance to the ship there is more yelling (in both Spanish and Italian) and lots of ushering us quickly on board. We check in and are told we are late (huh?). We are more than a little confused, but just go with it. Get to the cabin and realise we are moving already! But it is only 8pm??? 

So, as it turns out there were some 'unexpected tidal changes' and they decided to set sail earlier than expected. They just kinda forgot to tell the passengers embarking that day. 

At any rate, alls well that ends well, and we made it on the ship in just the nick of time. This ship in fact. The MSC Fantasia. Where the coffee shop was practically a nightclub at 11pm last night.

It was one of about 5 in port on Thursday. 

The good folks who live on The World were also in town.

 Today's stop (where we have arrived five hours early thanks to the early departure) is Marseille, France. Let's hope I remember to get back on the boat in time. 

Back By Popular Demand - Literally

So my last holiday in December was blog free and that apparently did not go down too well. Rest assured, the complaints department (me) have registered your dislike of this approach and management (me) are going to rectify this - starting Wednesday.

Yes, it is that time of year again. Spring has sprung in Europe and that can mean only one thing - my annual pilgrimage to the Eurovision Song Contest is calling.

So what are this years plans? Well the excitement kicks off on Wednesday when the long journey to Barcelona will commence. It is then 'all aboard' the MSC Fantasia for 7 days cruising in the Mediterranean. I can hear my loyal readers right now screaming at their computer "What?!?!? We did the cruise thing in 2013 and it was hell, remember???". Turns out one really should never say never. I am hoping to build on the lessons learned from the last cruise and see if I can't make this one a little less ... aged care home and a little more ... fun. The fun bit for you dear reader is that I will be torturing others (friends, for now at least) with the cruise.

Assuming I manage to not throw myself overboard (I have a balcony, so the risk assessment on this one reads as 'possible') it will be back to Barcelona to celebrate a birthday (mine) before heading to Vienna for this years song contest. Plan is to try to procure an Icelandic or Norwegian flag somewhere along the line (what the hell, lets make it a treasure hunt).

Following Eurovision it will be off to Paris for a week of champagne, tennis and scrabble.  And maybe Euro Disney. Though that idea has now been squashed more than once by the traveling party...

Sounds like fun, right?

Action starts Wednesday. 

This is what lunch at the number 1 restaurant in the world looks like

So last year when we came to Copenhagen we had booked lunch at what was then the number 1 restaurant in the world only to have them give a restaurant of diners food poisoning and we instead found ourselves eating at the number 2 restaurant. Well this time around we booked number two, only for it to be promoted in the weeks leading up to the reservation. 20 courses, and almost as many glasses of wine later, here is what the food looked like.
We started with red currant and lavender

Next up was a Nordic coconut. It was essentially a warm broth inside the beetroot.

What is lunch without some fried moss?

Elm seeds and yeast (a reprise from last years lunch)

Flower tarts. This was one of my top two courses for the day.

Pickled and smoked quail eggs.

Green asparagus and scallops. The asparagus themselves were cold and the scallop fudge was almost frozen.

Caramelised milk and cod liver.

White cabbage and samphire "sandwich".

Aebleskiver, lovage and parsley. These were my other fav. They are Danish doughnuts and the center was cooked greens.

Lumpfish toast. Mmmmmm duck fat.

Burnt leek and cod roe (another respirsal and one we were very happy to see again).

Shrimp and ramson. They were like little ravioli. Almost too pretty to eat.

White asparagus, black currant leaves and barley.

Beef tartar and ANTS.

Beetroot, sloe berries and aromatic herbs.

Egg and fresh greens (the salad course).

Turbot and nasturtium with cream and wood sorrel

Rhubarb and sorrel with creme fraiche and Spanish chervil.

Armenia berries and sol.

Happily, the chocolate covered pork fat made a come back with the coffee. Can't think of a more perfect way to end a meal than chocolate covered pork fat...

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The hills are alive - with the sound of off key singing

Greetings from Salzburg, Austria. Just realised I wrote that out of habit - after starting every postcard I wrote tonight with that line...

Where to start, well I think starting at the very beginning would be very apt for this post, as it is a very good place to start (if that went over your head you may want to stop reading now).

From Zurich I headed to Vienna, but as I am headed back there tomorrow I will save that for another post. This is all about Salzburg. The city itself is quite beautiful.

Lots of nice, high vantage points to get a good look at the old city.

Like many cities in Europe, there is a love bridge - where you put the initials of yourself and the one you love on a lock, lock the key to the bridge and throw the key into the water, locking your love forever (might need to learn to scuba dive if you ever break up - that or invest in bolt cutters).

There also seems to be an obsession with unicorns in the sculpture in this town...

Salzburg as you may know is famous for three things. Mozart was born and raised here, this is where they filmed the movie The Sound of Music, and this is where the guy that created Red Bull is from. If anyone is interested, the Red Bull HQ looks like this

I headed off on a Sound of Music tour of Salzburg and surrounds (as you do). There were many important historical sights to see - like the gazebo. The one where Liesel sings "16 going on 17". Now it used to be, as I had hoped to do, that you could skip around on the seats and dance just like Liesel does in the movie. Sadly people kept falling off and breaking a leg, so now they enclose it in glass and keep you out. Bah humbug. Turns out Liesel herself did an ankle filming the scene and it wasn't as easy as it looks.

We visited the church where (spoiler alert!) the wedding is held at the end of the film.

One very creepy fact about the church - on the alter there are five mummified corpses on display. You can currently only see four (the fifth is covered by Jesus at Easter). Two men and two women. They were apparently gifts from Rome and have been there for about four hundred years. See if you can see them in this picture.

We also headed out to the lakes to see where some of the outdoor shots were done. How's this for a spectacular set for the opening shots of the film. Turns out this is the same village where Mozart's mother was born.

e also went to St Peter's church. It was this graveyard that was used for the scene where they hide from the Nazis at the end of the film.

Speaking of the nazis - interesting piece of trivia about the film - remember at the end when they are going up over the mountains to Switzerland? In reality, had they climbed in that exact spot they would have been toast. That was filmed on the Bavarian Alps (the border between Austria and Germany) and was in fact filmed only a short distance from Eagles Nest - aka Hitler's summer home. So they would have been realllly busted.

We learned a lot about the real Von Trapp family as well. Turns out one of the children they had after they got married was a missionary in PNG for many years (and adopted a son whilst she was there). We even went past the home of the real Von Trapp family. When they left Austria (for America in reality) Himmler actually took over the residence and went as far as to carve swastikas into the Von Trapps furniture. Apparently at one point Himmler and Hitler even hosted a little weekend getaway with Mussolini at the house during the war. The allied forces regained control of the house at the end of the war and in a strange twist two of the Von Trapp children (who fought as Americans in WWII) were sent there to help secure it and managed to convince the allies to hand it back to the family. These days it is a B&B and you can stay the night there. So, this is what the real thing looks like.

And this is the version from the movie (well, one of them, they used two villas for the film). The lake in front of this house was where they filmed the scene where the boat capsizes and Maria and the children end up in the water.

Throughout the entire tour the soundtrack was played in the van, and singing was strongly encouraged. I had some difficulty containing my laughter when our driver was very loudly, and badly, singing along to Do Re Mi, and when he got to the part about "once you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything" he totally flubbed the words. Repeatedly. Turns out Maria was wrong and you need to know more than the notes to sing along. Like the words.

There was also a customary trip to Mozart's house.

Creepily they have locks of his hair on display.

I have tried a few of the local dishes whilst here. Everything appears to be of a similar colour pallet - beige/brown. There has been asparagus with hollandaise sauce

Some apple strudel

And of course a schnitzel

Had to have the schnitzel tonight, could not bring myself to eat their fish selection after spying this on the kinder menu (not just any fish is being served, but NEMO!).

But then again they even shape their bread like cute animals here...

Back to Vienna tomorrow and I think that my first job when I get there is to buy some new socks...

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