December in Vienna

This year we decided to go back to Vienna. It was my favorite city during most of my younger years, and at some point we were visiting every December, because there's no Advent like the one in Vienna. This time around, I'm a little older, a more experienced traveller, and a bit more demanding, so I started noticing little flaws of Vienna (like crazy amounts of visitors and obligatory dinner reservations for any of the better restaurants)- nonetheless, we enjoyed the city and its atmosphere, and those little flaws gave it a more realistic touch and by the end of our stay, we started feeling at home.

We stayed for five days, and in that period visited four amazing museums and a couple of restaurants (some of them new to us, some of them already tried and liked before), reconnected with our friends that live there, had a couple of cups of mulled wine and punch, strolled around the famouse Viennese Christmas markets, ate the beloved original Sacher Torte, marvelled at all the festive decorations, took a stroll in the Schonbrunn park and all in all did what almost every visitor to Vienna (in December) does. 

This post ist mostly dedicated to Vienna's festive Advent atmosphere, and the market we liked the most, the one in front of the Schoenbrunn palace. We visited first in the evening with Susanne and Michael (our Austrian friends), and then came back for a stroll in the park and some more Kaiserschmarrn (traditional Austrian sweet, serwed with plum jam) the next day. In the evening we drank mulled wine and hopped from stand to stand in hope of warming up a bit (it was a pretty cold week). We tried (and ate repeatedly) some of the local dishes such as Kasespatzle (home made pasta with cheese and fried oninons), Lauch and Speck spatzle (the same thing only with leek and ham), Kaiserschmarrn, and belegte Brot (Austrian style open sandwich). 

Of all the markets we visited in Vienna, the one in front of Schonbrunn had the nicest hand made products as well as tastiest local food. We were very disciplined "window-shoppers" this time, due to the resolution we made earlier of not buying anything we don't need, or have a place to put to, or like so much that we couldn't help it. We did take a couple of photos as all the Christmas decorations, hand made ceramics, gingerbreads and liquors looked so lovely and suitable for the occasion (that is, this post). :)

It was as cold the other day when we took a walk in the Schonbrunn park. We wanted to see and feed the squirrels that live in the park and don't seem to be bothered by visitors. They weren't impressed with the walnuts we brought though. :) The beautiful steel and glass construction of Schonbrunn's Palmenhaus (a large greenhouse next to the Zoo) stood proudly surrounded by bare trees with the background of icy winter skies. Quite a motiv for our photos. All of the fountains in the park were covered with ice, and whenever I took my gloves off to make a photo, my fingers would freeze, so we ended up on the market again, hovering those food stands. And although we decided not to buy anything for ourselves, little holliday gifts were allowed, so we bought a ceramic Lichthaus (model house with a tea candle) for Luka's grandma, to lighten up her cozy livingroom during winter evenings. It will also be a nice reminder of our trip to Vienna when we come to visit her.

Have you ever been to Vienna in December? And what is your take on buying souvenirs that are nice, but still end up just as decorative items in your home?

Photo diary: Christmas lights in Vicenza

Since it's that time of the year again, I want to share a little Christmas post, a photo diary of our visit to Italian town of Vicenza. When it comes to Christmas markets, decorations, twinkly lights and festive spirit, first thing that crosses my mind is Vienna, second thing giant gingerbreads and mulled wine on German markets. It turns out that Italy as well have some magic to offer in December. We visited Vicenza, situated in the Veneto region, as a day trip or rather an afternoon trip from Padua, without any specific plan. We just wandered around the center, from one of Andrea Palladio's renaissance buildings to another, approving of Italian style decorations, wandering at Italian style Christmas markets (you can buy both sweets and plastic kitchen utensils there), and when it got too cold, we found a cozy caffe whose name I can't remember, where we had muffins with hot chocolate and a spremuta (freshly pressed orange juice). Here are some photos we made that afternoon, I hope they'll add a bit of sparkle to your festive mood. 

This photo was taken mainly because I wanted to capture that Italian lady reading newspaper in the background :)

A place to return to: Antwerp

We visited Antwerp twice during the course of the last year. We loved it so much that we started picturing ourselves living there: morning runs in the Middleheim park, weekly dinners at our favorite restaurant, bike rides to work- stuff like that. We wanted to spend more time there, to feel the vibe of the city, hence our twice-in-a-year score. Our first visit to Antwerp in October last year was kind of improvised- we wanted to get away for a couple of days, found a flight from Pula to Brussels and decided to make a little road trip out of it, which included Brussels, Antwerp, Utrecht and Waterloo.

We did have some trouble finding the apartment in Antwerp, as everything nice and affordable was apparently booked, but we decided to stretch our budget a bit on behalf of comfort. We ended up in amazing town house, so beautifully decorated that it would fit perfecly the pages of some interior design magazine, with luxurious room and a view of the neighbouring forest park. Our hosts were a source of usefull information about the city and served the tastiest breakfast in their classy dining room (think arguably the best croissants in Antwerp, a selection of tasty jams and juices and inevitable pot of tea). 

The house was close enough to the city center that we parked our car in front of the house and didn't use it again till the day of our departure. With Antwerp city bikes (called Velo bikes), the car was unnecessary. There are bike stations literally on every corner of the city, and for 3.80 Euros a day, you got your transportation in Antwerp covered. There is an organized network of bike lanes and cyclists definitely have a priviledged status in the city transport system. From the area we covered with bikes, it seemed that you can be anywhere in the city within 20 minutes ride. 

Our hosts offered suggestions on what to visit, and the crown jewel of their recommendations (and Antwerp as a whole) was the Middleheim park. Situated on the outskirts of the central Antwerp, it functions both as a park and one of the oldest open air museums in the world. We were taken there by our host on a foggy October morning, which made the first impression to be even more enchanting than it might have been on a sunny day. As we walked trough the park, unexpected views kept opening in front of us: there were Rodin's Honore Balsac, Juan Munoz's figures trapped on the trees, Giacomo Manzu's Cardinal, just to name a few. Then there were contemporary instalations and sculptures which left us in awe: Honore d'O's Shouting is breathing (a giant network of wires and motors that makes the tree braches vibrate), Antony Gormley's Firmament III (a three dimensional net of stainless steel), Erwin Wurm's Misconceivable (a bended sailingboat which deviates subtly from the reality)... All in all, a morning spent there was not enough. So we went another day with our Velo bikes, and enjoyed art while cycling (sounds familiar?). If you find yourself in or around Antwerp, take some time to visit this park. It will pay off, and not just because the entrance is free of charge. :)

Juan Munoz's figure

Giacomo Manu's Cardinal

Anthony Gormley's Firmament III

Antwerp is loaded with museums, and we got to see a couple of them the first time we visited. The Plantin-Moretus museum ranked as one of the most important Antwerp museums, so we decided to pay it a visit. Once the first industrial printing house in the world (founded in 1555), now it hosts a collection of oldest printing presses in the world, typographic material, art, books, and also period rooms with Rubens's artwork. It was protected by Unesco in 2005, and completely renovated in 2016. 

Except for the museums, strolling around the city and admiring its architecture is worth a day of sightseeing. Grote Markt (the main square) reminiscents medieval times, with its medieval guildhalls and a town hall which is one of the first examples of Renaissance architecture in the Low Countries. A couple of minutes walk from the Grote Markt is a hidden 16th century alley called Vlaeykensgang- once a place where shoemakers and the poorest city dwellers lived, now a hip secluded street with restaurants and shops in a medieval atmosphere.

One of the unmissable stops in Antwerp is its Central Train Station, built in 1905 in eclectic turn-of-the-century style. Our first glimpse of it was by night, which made it even more magical- we marvelled at the lighting on the red steel construction, and the recently built levels below the ground where trains kept coming and going. We visited it by day as well, just to see what daily light brings to its glass and steel construction.

One morning before breakfast, our host offered to take us to see the Cogels-Osylei street, famous for its grand turn-of-the-century houses. He drove us around, showed us the street, and while he went to grab those delicious croissants for breakfast, we had some time to admire and photograph the houses. Photos don't do them justice, especially not on a cloudy day like we had, but there were some seriously interesting (and romantic!) round windows, golden sunflowers, representations of seasons of the year, mosaics and entire flow of refined ornaments for which the peirod is known for.

Cogels-Osylei street

It wouldn't be a complete post about Antwerp if I hadn't mention how amazing the food is there. I've heard before opinions on Belgian food to be boring and tasteless, which was so off according to our experience. We got hooked on waffles, stews, beer (that's food as well, right?), mussels, frites, all traditional Belgian, but also on falafel, burgers, fish and chips... A place called Falafel Tof got us excited about vegetarian dishes- tasty and colorful vegetable sides, crispy potatoes with sauces and falafel of course. A place called Brutal got us excited about Thai Boulabaise, burgers, stew and the best yoghurt, clementines, crumble and mint desert. And a place called Bia Mara got us excited about proper British fish and chips with tasty dips (think truffles with mayonaisse). We loved the diversity of diferent cuisines, reflecting diversity among Belgians, a thing not that common back at home.

In those three days we got to know the city pretty well, thanks to the fact that we cycled to almost all of the places we wanted to see. We decided we'll be back, and so we were, about half a year later. In one of my next posts, I'll write about our second visit to Antwerp.

Have you ever been to Antwerp? Or plan to visit? I would really love to read some thoughts or tips on this amazing city.

Beautiful landscapes: De Hoge Veluwe National Park

I heard about De Hoge Veluwe National Park from a Belgian couple we met here in Premantura. We were talking about Cape Kamenjak, a protected landscape just next to the village; and how cool it would be if the area was closed for cars, and if there were free bikes offered to visitors instead. It sounded so efficient, so sustainable, so northern: they talked about a national park in The Netherlands that had white bikes included in the entrance price and scattered all over the park for visitors to take them or drop them off whenever they want.

I forgot about that story until we ended up roadtripping trough Belgium and The Netherlands last October (I already wrote about sailing the canals of Utrecht in my previous post). After a quick research, I found out that the park is situated just about an hour drive from Utrecht, or more specifically, Zeist, were we stayed in a wonderful AirBnb. Lucky coincidence for us was that (as we found out from our lovely hosts), the park was home to the Kroller-Muller museum, which hosts the second largest Van Gogh collection in the world, some well known masterpieces from modern masters such as Monet or Picasso, and has one of the biggest sculpture gardens in the world. And that was a great alternative to Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam which was vaguely in our plans, but in the end we decided to leave Amsterdam for next time. 

The morning of our daytrip didn't start promising- it was grey and foggy; heavy rain kept following us during the entire drive to the park. And then, as we approached the park, the sun showed up and stayed for a while, perfectly enough for us to take an exiciting bike ride trough the park and enjoy this peculiar landscape covered with everchanging skies. The moment we got off the bikes in front of the museum, the first raindrops fell, but we didn't mind. We had the entire afternoon to marvel at Van Gogh's Potato eaters and Country road in Provence by night, quite a nice collections of Paul Signac (one of Luka's favorite painters) and Odilon Redon (one of my favorite painters); even some Croatian artists, such as Dusan Dzamonja are represented. It is a good place to get to know some of the (not as well known as Van Gogh, but still amazing) Dutch and Belgian artists such as Theo van Rysselberghe, and all in all, it is an impressive collection ranging from modern to contemporary art.

The boundaries between nature and exhibition space are kind of blurred here, with tall glass walls that allow you to enjoy the greenery of the park from the inside and the sculptures that found their place in the sun in the park surrounding the museum. Approaching that museum in the middle of the wood seemed like a treasure hunt to us. 

Visiting De Hoge Veluwe is a combination of spending an active day out in the nature and soaking up the culture in beatiful, natural setting. The cycling roads are paved and used by bikers and walkers only, crisscrossing a diverse and mostly flat (Yay! for a relaxing bike ride) landscape, ranging from yellowish grassland to pine tree woods with rich earthy scent and a lot of mushrooms (we even saw a couple of agarics, which looked exactly like Christmas decorations). Amazing alternative to a day in the city, and you still get that essential Dutch experience!

How about you? Have you ever visited this or some other interesting place where art and nature meet?

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Sailing the canals of Utrecht

About this time last year we did a little road trip around Belgium and the Netherlands. It was perfectly fit for October, filled with hearty food, lovely encounters, autumn colors and murky days. I can imagine Low Countries being nice and sunny in the summertime or flowery in the springtime, but somehow when the weather gets colder, I long for the north, be it that I find medieval streets looking at its best when gloomy and foggy, or that I find stews, waffles, chocolate and beer being especially fit for cozying up after a walk in the rain. 

We enjoyed every bit of our trip, but fondest memories are mostly made of spending time with people that are dear to you. So, for a couple of days we ended up in Utrecht, where our wedding photographers-turned-friends Hanneke and Robert live with their son Loek. They organized a perfect day trip for us, which included the ultimate sightseeing of Utrecht, and that is, sailing the canals of course. 

Since they moved to their new neighbourhood, they got themselves a small boat, which they frequently used before, only not with two more adults. That turned out to be a lot of fun and only a little bit frightening at the beggining, when I was positive that the boat was going to sink under our weight and subtly asked Hanneke what would happened to us if we fell into the water of the canal. Her answer was soothing enough: The swim in the canals wasn't recommendable but we wouldn't die either. That was when I started enjoying the experience. 

After the motor almost bailed on us once, we got to the city center where we had to turn it off and continue on rowing, a task very well performed by Robert and Luka, and also very suitable for enjoying the views and taking many photos. We were visiting Utrecht for the first time, and seeing it from the canals on a gloomy day, with leaves on the trees showing off their autumn colors, and the midweek absence of other merry sailors, was indeed an unforgettable experience. We had some good laughs (mostly teasing the guys and their ability to row), some good talks (catching up while being introduced to the city), and some good cakes and coffee (we bought chocolate cakes in a shop on the canal and had them in a boat accompanied with a few jealous looks of the passers by). 

On our private tour we got to know that all of those bicycles tied to the railings of the canal weren't tied because of stealing but because of possibility of being thrown in the canal at night by drunk youngsters. We also got to know that the Mayor takes a swim once a year in the canals of Utrecht to point out that the water is good enough (I'll never be able to become a Mayor of Utrecht). And that the best netherlandish chocolate is called Tony Chocolonely, peculiar both in flavor combinations and Willy Wonk-ish design (We bought a lot of those later that day). You don't get stories like that on a guided tour. So thank you, Hanneke and Robert.

We ended that day in a best possible way, having dinner that Robert prepaired at their place (it was perfectly baked whole chicken), talking, laughing and getting to know Loek (a very cool little guy who left to bed early without being slightly bothered by us chatting downstairs). With October rolling out to November, I'm not only reflecting these lovely memories, but also daydreaming of going back, while it's still cold.  

What are yours favorite autumn / wintery escapes?

* If you're interested in Hanneke's work (which is pretty amazing, trust me on that), you can check out her website here, even just for lighting up your day with all the brightness she manages to capture.