Ladee's Travels: Austria

Showing posts with label Austria. Show all posts

Danube River - winter Scene

The trees are bare. Life along the river has slowed. The views are best in black and white. We are sailing all day from Bratislava.

Ladee

www.LadeeTravels.blogspot.com

"There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign." Robert Louis Stevenson

Fun stuff here: http://fineartamerica.com/artists/ladee+rickard

Amadeus Silver - Captain’s Dinner #2

The Captain's Dinner continued...

Lemon Sorbet with sparkling wine and mint.

One of the choices for the main dish was Oven Roasted Fillet of Roastbeef served with ginger-bread sauce, potato gratin, and Romanesco.

My selection was Grilled North Atlantic Salmon served on grilled leek with wild rice and saffron sauce.

Or you could have a Cheese Soufflé with roasted garlic velouté.

Some nice chocolates

Desert was MS Amadeus Silver Baked Alaska.

Fun stuff here: http://fineartamerica.com/artists/ladee+rickard

Amadeus Silver - Captain’s Dinner #1

Tonight we celebrated the trip at the Captain's dinner.
The wine choice was:
White - 2015 Grüner Veltliner, Langenlois, Austria
Red - Blauer Zweigelt, Langenlois, Austria

My appetizer choice was Trio of Smoked Salmon, carpaccio, California roll and tartar with spicy wasabi soy sauce.

Or Arugula salad, cherry tomatoes, roasted nuts, grapes and croutons.

The soup was cappuccino from Forest Mushrooms with Chester Stick.

and an Oven Baked Cannelloni stuffed with Ricotta served with Sauce Alfredo

and it continued! See the next post.

Fun stuff here: http://fineartamerica.com/artists/ladee+rickard

Vienna, Austria - Dinner on Board

Yum

Christmas Day dinner
Wine selection
White - 2015 Müller Thurgau, Rheinhessen Germany
Red - 2015 Dornfelder, Rheinhessen, Germany.

Salad was Mesclun Salad, raspberry vinaigrette, crispy bacon, brioche croutons, sunflower seeds.

My choice was Amadeus Shrimp Cocktail, avocado cream, diced tomatoes, marinated shrimps with cocktail sauce.

Spinach-Ricotta Ravioli, truffle foam.

Pomegranate Sorbet

I had Baked Peters fish fillet with herbed potato, sautéed vegetables and sweet curry sauce.

You could also choose Orange and Soy Glazed Pork Tenderloin with grilled polenta, roasted bell peppers and aromatic jus.

Desert was Viennese Sacher Cake or
Fresh Fruits or
Cheese Plate.

Ladee

www.LadeeTravels.blogspot.com

"There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign." Robert Louis Stevenson

Fun stuff here: http://fineartamerica.com/artists/ladee+rickard

Vienna, Austria - City Center

I toured the old City Center today and got updated photographs of ones that I had taken earlier plus a few new ones.

This post has the few that I took on my iPhone as summaries for the day.

The huge church in the center was beautiful as always. The sections that had been covered for repair (in 2015) was shiny and new and there appeared to be only a small part that was still under cover. I like that the refurbishing company makes a print of the church to use as cover cloth so that the look of the church is not ruined.

I had one thing on my list to buy and it was a "cafe melange" at the local well known Aida store. It was awesome and I managed to order it "to go" in German! Today is Christmas Day so while there were a lot of people enjoying the streets, a few cafes were open. Stores were mostly closed. One co-traveler said that she found a souvenir store open (but of course!).

We did have a chance to see the Lipizainer horses in the stable. I took the shots on my big camera so I need to wait until I return home to post it.

All is good in Vienna. The celebration from Christmas Eve is done and the workers are building the sound stages for the New Year's Eve celebration. The weather is nice and although some were hoping for a white Christmas, I liked that it was dry with no slush. I like the white snow, but not the street slush. The Christmas markets should be open later in the day, especially the ones with the good eats and drinks. This is a socially active day!

Merry Christmas to all!

The blue dot is where the boat docks in Nussdorf. The little balloon is the city center. It took us about twenty minutes to drive from pickup to drop off

Ladee

www.LadeeTravels.blogspot.com

"There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign." Robert Louis Stevenson

Fun stuff here: http://fineartamerica.com/artists/ladee+rickard

Amadeus Silver - Christmas Eve Dinner

Docked at Durnstein, Austria on the Danube River.
This dinner was the big event, outside of the Captain's Dinner.
Festive Appetizer Plate with veal paté with brioche and red onion confit, celery-truffle mousse and smoked trout with cranberry aspic.

Or Lamb's lettuce salad, potato dressing marinated lamb lettuce with bacon, chopped eggs and croutons.
The soup was Cream of Chestnuts with orange-cinnamon foam.

Appetizer Tiger Prawn with Lobster vanilla Sauce with saffron risotto.

Cassis Sorbet with Sparkling Wine

My choice - Grilled Black Halibut with Dijon mustard mush potato, tomato concise-celery stalk and leaf spinach, parsley beurre blanc.

Or Stuffed Zucchini with Artichoke-Tomato Stew

Or Oven Roasted Veal Tenderloin on morel sauce, potato soufflé and vegetable.

Desert Platter:

Ginger bread mousse, rum coconut truffle, poppy seed parfait and blood orange sabayor.

Or Fresh Fruits

Or Selection on International Cheese from the Board.

Ladee

www.LadeeTravels.blogspot.com

"There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign." Robert Louis Stevenson

Fun stuff here: http://fineartamerica.com/artists/ladee+rickard

Melk, Austria - Wachau Valley

We left Melk Abbey and drove along the most picturesque section of the Danube in Austria...the Wachau Valley. Terraced vineyards hold up the hillsides on either side of the river and great apricot orchards are planted between the shore and the vineyards. I need to come again in the springtime to see the 160,000 Apricot trees present a spectacular bloom.

The Melk Abbey sits on the hill.

The "Wachau Cultural Landscape" was added to the UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites in recognition of its architectural and agricultural history in December 2000,

Apricot trees play a heavy role in the production of specialty wines and liquors.

Vineyards. The Wachau Valley is well known for its high-quality wines. The wine growing tradition in Austria and Wachau Valley in particular is attributed to the Romans during the medieval settlements. The grapes produce white wine such as Reislings and Grüner Veltliners. There are some low, level vineyards, but a great deal of the valley is planted on the steep stoney slopes. Look at some of these vineyards. Steep is putting it mildly! The first few photographs show the level vineyards and then the steep slopes follow.

Steep slopes!! The valley has a great difference between the day and night temperatures and plays a significant role in the ripening of the grapes. It is interesting to note that the rainfall in this area is not enough to grow the grapes so the fields are irrigated.