One Night In London

by Miss Penny Black

We left Belfast around midday and flew to Luton, the only London airport I had yet to pass through. Our flight was the bumpiest I’ve had in years. I won’t blame EasyJet… but should I?

The trip from Luton into the city was straightforward and we had booked a nice-ish hotel, the NYX London for the final night of our trip.

It was very centrally located in Holborn, close the the British Museum and Seven Dials, where I was hoping to get in a final visit to the Gudrun Sjoden store.

The hotel foyer looking a bit like a Vegas casino.

We dropped off our bags in our room on the ninth floor. It wasn’t high enough to escape the traffic noises but it wasn’t too bad.

We had booked the hotel because it had a pool and I wanted one more holiday swim, but by the time we got there I couldn’t be bothered. We went out for a walk instead.

On our walk we had one of the more disturbing experiences of our trip. We were by the Thames and it was rush hour, with hundreds of cyclists going by every minute. We saw a man on a bike, who was probably in his late 50s and without a helmet, go sailing off his bike. He looked like he’d just fainted while in motion and he just sort of flew onto the road head first.

It was so shocking, we were about 20 metres away and a number of other cyclists immediately stopped to help him. We stood for a couple of moments to see if he’d wake up, which he did, and one of the cyclists called an ambulance. The whole sight was quite distressing and even now, two weeks later, I wonder how he is recovering.

I didn’t even know Twinings had a store. I meant to send this photo to Jess but forgot so here it is for you!

For dinner I did a search of local pubs and booked us a table at The Ship Tavern.

It turned out to be a great way to spend our last evening. We ordered a steak and ale pie for two and sat in a cosy booth drinking wine. Lovely!

Despite being in a tiny room the pub restaurant was full of character. The staff were lovely too.

After dinner we went back to the hotel to spend some of last £20 notes. We had a couple of fancy cocktails but then discovered they don’t take cash, which I hate – if it’s legal tender it should be accepted in businesses. We tried to spend it at the airport the next day and came across the same problem. So if anyone wants to buy £80 off me let me know!

Our flight the next day wasn’t until after 8pm, so we had a whole day to fill.

First up was the hotel’s buffet breakfast, which was quite nice. I forgot to take photos, which Mum will be happy about as she told me there were too many food photos in the blog.

We went for a walk around Seven Dials and Holborn.

There’s a public art space in the area that is a huge screen that wraps around 3 sides of a large undercover area and also covers the high ceiling. Anyone can walk in and it shows a range of artworks.

This is all screens, it was very entertaining.

I went back to my favourite store to find that there were lots of things on sale (yay!) but also lots of things sold out (boo!). I bought a bunch of patterned tops and bits and pieces and the lady gave me a discount if I promised to join the store club online, which took me two weeks but I eventually got around to it. She even remembered me from my previous visit! I don’t think they’d ever had anyone so excited to be there.

After that we went to see the new Wes Anderson movie.

We both agreed that it was the most Wes Anderson that Wes Anderson had ever Wes Andersoned.

Before and after the movie we spent some time in Foyles, a five storey book store with a fairly small sci-fi and fantasy section. I didn’t find anything I wanted but I thought this cover was funny.

Last stop was a drink and some food at a pub not far from the hotel. Unfortunately it was full of day office workers but we were happy to be indoors watching the rain come down.

Some extremely unhealthy snacks for our late lunch.

Eventually we went back to the hotel to collect our bags from storage and headed for Heathrow.

We decided to catch the new Elizabeth Line. The sign at Tottenham Court Road said all trains stopped at Heathrow, but once we got on I noticed it said it was going to Reading (pronounced Redding, just to be difficult). As I anticipated, the train did not stop at Heathrow.

We were very early, which was lucky as I might’ve had an aneurism if we had come near to missing our flight. It was also absolutely pouring with rain when we got off at the next stop. A rail worker on the platform told us there would be a bus nearby but we followed his directions and found no bus stop, nothing.

We ended up catching an Uber to Heathrow and the driver was very happy to have an airport fare, so I guess that was something!

At Heathrow we found a table at one of the bars and ordered some drinks to fortify us for our plane, which had been delayed past 9pm.

The flights weren’t too bad. We slept through most of the first flight, which was the longest (14 hours) and I slept through about half of the second flight.

The changeover in Korea was tiresome as we had to go through security again, despite not leaving that wing of the terminal. After sitting for so long a bit of standing was fine.

In line for security was a woman with a small white poodle. I’d never seen a pet in an airport before, it was kind of weird.

Apologies in advance – from now on there’s hardly any photos as I was too tired and not thinking. Plus there wasn’t much of interest to photograph!

The food on the flights was good and we had an empty seat next to us on the first leg. Luke was convinced we’d have the same on the second but ended up with a fellow next to us.

We arrived in Sydney around 7am to discover my bag was still in Seoul. Sigh. I filled out the paperwork and they estimated I’d have my bag within two days. It actually ended up taking six, rather annoyingly. I did have an AirTag on my bag though so I could, frustratingly, see it sitting at the terminal in Sydney for five of those days.

From Mascot we caught the airport train to central station then a train to Bankstown, following signs directing us to change there for trains to Lithgow. My brother was supposed to be meeting us there, which was very kind of him!

Sydney was a balmy 20 degrees Celsius, lovely! But as we got into the Blue Mountains things cooled down. We also discovered that this train, which a station attendant in Blacktown assured us went to Lithgow, actually stopped two stops earlier at Mount Victoria. You’d think we’d have learned not to trust rail employees by this stage!

Fortunately Michael was happy to drive a bit further to get us and we waited in a cafe to avoid the arctic winds. Luckily I’d put a cardigan in Luke’s bag!

We stopped for lunch in Bathurst then made it back to Michael’s place, where we both fell into bed. Luke was particularly exhausted, having been up for almost 24 hours at that stage.

We waited an extra night in Orange (hoping for my bag to be delivered – it wasn’t), and I had a catch up evening with friends, which was lovely, and spent some time with mum and dad.

Next stop was Albury. I think I was so pleased to be driving a car for the first time in three months that I got carried away and did the whole six hours. We stopped for lunch in Gundagai and I, rather pointlessly, took Luke to a lookout that was shrouded in mist.

We only ended up spending one night in Albury but it was lovely to see Luke’s family and on the following morning we stopped by Kath’s (Luke’s grandmother) to pick up some gigantic orchid pots to take back to Melbourne.

This turned out to be the most harrowing part of the whole cross-planet journey, as I had not really considered what would happen to all the cockroaches and beetles and various other bugs during the four hour drive.

It didn’t take long for them to start exploring the car and thank god Luke was driving or I’d probably have caused an accident. Eventually we made it home and, after giving the house a hug, we pulled the pots of the car and I emptied a can of fly spray into it to fumigate.

Bug drama aside (and what more Australian way could there be to arrive home, really?) we were very glad to be home. The only things left to do were pick up Bonnie, which we did the following morning, and wait for my bag.

Bonnie was predictably unenthused to see us.

If it wasn’t for the fact that we’d trained her to greet us calmly you’d think she didn’t want to leave Amanda and Matt and their three dogs. that’s what we told ourselves, anyhow.

My bag eventually arrived, only six days late.

Now life is almost back to normal. Luke has gone back to work on The Hundred with Andy Lee and I’m enjoying pottering around the house and having lunch with friends. Melbourne winter doesn’t seem so bad after staying in Orange for a few days and it’s mostly been sunny. Basically, if you can manage to be away from home long enough to enjoy getting back then I think you’ve hit the jackpot, travel-wise.

So that’s it for the blog until next time! to finish here’s some food photos of dishes I’ve made since I’ve got home that were inspired by my travels.

Are you looking for somewhere to eat in Greater London? Click here to try looking through recommendations on Restaurantji.co.uk.

29Jun2023

One Night In Derry

by Miss Penny Black

Our overnight trip to Derry did not begin well, due to the uniquely confusing setup at Lanyon Place Station. We managed to miss the 10am train and had to wait an hour for the next one. Annoying, but possibly meant we missed the morning rain in Derry.

The trip to Derry is about 2 hours and as we got closer the sun came out and we hit the coastal section of the route. Lovely!

There was even a stretch of beach that looked remarkably like home.

We arrived at Derry station a bit after 2 and the station was a pleasant surprise. Very modern, clean and bright.

The station is on the opposite side of the river to the centre of town so we walked across the Peace Bridge.

We’d booked an Airbnb property but only brought a small backpack each so we were fine to carry our things with us for a few hours.

On a day like this it was a nice way to enter the city, although it was still spitting a bit… but also sunny. So Irish!

There was a nice-looking walkway along the river but we headed into the city.

Not many people around, which is always nice.

We headed into the ground floor of the building below. I was interested in the stained glass. I read later that the windows tell the story of Derry through the centuries.

There was an exhibition on the history of Derry, which I can poorly but fairly accurately summarise as: English people arrive and ruin everything and the fighting goes on forever. Luke and I talked about this a lot, not just what happened but what could’ve been done differently, what might have happened if the English had never come. Ireland is so small that it might’ve been invaded by Spain or Portugal, or how different it would be if it had been left to itself. Is there even such a thing, in history, as a nation being left to itself?

I didn’t realise the English came to completely drive out the locals in the 1600s to set up plantations, much like those in the US and the Caribbean, although I think this happened first.

Next we visited the tourist information centre and picked up a map. They had a lot of Derry Girls merch and some interactive exhibits.

The craft village was recommended to visit, it’s a series of little craft shops that sell very typical Irish stuff, some more modern things and several hairdressers. Not the highlight of our visit but it might appeal to some.

The centre of Derry is surrounded by defensive walls, the mostly recently constructed in the UK and Ireland. They’re in excellent condition and the wall around is about a mile and offers an excellent view of the inside and outside parts of the city.

The wall walk was also surprisingly wide and the surface seemed quite new. There were sets of stairs along the way but it wasn’t a hard walk.

If I had more time I’d have looked for a walk to do in the hills around the city.

This area, Bogside, was where Bloody Sunday occurred. More on that later.

If you don’t immediately recognise these faces you need to watch Derry Girls immediately. Go do it now, I’ll wait.

After all the walking in the sun there was only one thing to do.

We stopped in at Peaddar O’Donnall’s for a drink and to listen to the old men at the end of the bar talk about what a good movie The Mighty Ducks was.

I had to photograph the place below. We didn’t eat there but I enjoyed their scattergun approach to punctuation.

Another photo of Northern Irish library architecture. It looks like a very defensible structure.

Before heading to the Airbnb we walked to the Free Derry area to have a look at the murals.

The old style, then the new below.

Our Airbnb was back over the peace bridge in the newer part of town.

After going through this door we had to let ourselves out the back door into a grim alley then down to a little apartment that was sparse but felt pretty new and was clean.

Plus they left us bread, butter and everything for tea and coffee so we were set. Back to the pub.

There were a bunch of pubs in a row so of course we went back to the same one we were at before. We had an hour to kill before dinner at Mekong, Derry’s top rated restaurant.

An unprepossessing exterior but the food was unreal. We ordered a range of smaller plates to share.

Vermicelli spring rolls, beef laarb balls, spicy sticky chicken wings, pork belly and glass noodle salad

The flavours were amazingly fresh and rich, with each dish having a unique taste but all tasting very Vietnamese. It was really hard to pick a favourite.

Dessert was a mandarin crème brûlée with ginger biscuit, which we used to dip in the brûlée and then crumbled over the top. I had a very sad moment at the end when I realised I’d probably never eat here again. We both agreed it was one of the top five meals we’d had on this trip.

In the morning we started with a morning walk through St Columb’s park. It was a nice big green space with just one creepy statue.

There were Columb-related statues and other things to look at in the park.

After a walk through town we went to the Free Derry Museum. Before entering I knew very little about Bloody Sunday but the museum was extremely informative and had artifacts from the day, footage and recordings.

If you go take a box of tissues, it’s tragic on so many levels and really makes you sympathise with the people of Derry.

On our way to the station we bought some fancy biscuits from this very instagramable shop then forgot to eat them.

We saw some fancy cars on the way.

Back over the Peace Bridge and to the station.

On the way home we got off the train at Castlerock, a little seaside town. We had a slightly underwhelming lunch at a local bar but the staff were very friendly.

Not as friendly as local character Ronnie, who wandered over as we finished eating and told us about basking sharks, how he had dropped his cornflakes on the floor that morning, and swimming in Greece. Having an extremely thick accent meant he was quite hard to understand but we concentrated very hard and seemed to make all the right noises.

We had a nice walk along the beach in the warm, windy weather and stopped to take a few photos before heading back to the station.

The trip back to Belfast was largely uneventful apart from the train running a bit late.

The weekend just gone has been very busy so this has been my most delayed post of the trip! We’ve done a few things over the weekend so I’ll to to finish everything off before leaving London. Only a couple of sleeps until we are home!

21Jun2023

Salzburg: Days 2 to 4

by Miss Penny Black

Well, I won’t lie, we didn’t do a whole heap in Salzburg. It was hot, especially after about 11am, all the way to the middle of the night.

I combated the heat somewhat by soaking my T-shirt then rolling it in a towel so it was lightly damp. This technique keeps you cool for at least an hour outdoors. If it gets really hot I add a wet thin cotton scarf for my head and neck. By then I look like Lawrence of Arabia but with more dripping.

Every morning we started our day with breakfast in the apartment followed by a trip to Kaffee Alchemie.

Luke probably looks sad because I’ve won more wordle games than him.

We tried their cappuccinos, iced cappuccinos and affogatos. Their coffee was extremely flavourful and not bitter or burned, it had a light sweetness and their milk foam was thick, not like the styrofoam- consistency milk froth you get in the UK. If I had two I never felt jittery either, just perfectly awake. Basically I’m crying on the inside leaving it behind ;-).

We did do a few activities in Salzburg after the first day.

On the recommendation of our lovely friends from the Mozart concert, we went to the midday organ recital at Salzburg cathedral. It was worth the €6 just to spend an hour sitting out of the heat, the architecture was very imposing and elaborate and the organ music was… fine. Not my thing but kind of interesting to see live. They had two organists who moved around and played each of the six organs in the building.

At the end we saw our friends (if you’re reading this, ladies please leave a comment, I wasn’t sure how to spell your names!) and they took another photo and I wish I had too. It’s always nice to run into familiar faces in a new city.

We spent some time walking around the narrow alleys of the old town. Most of the shops were luxury brands and had tourist prices but we did go into one cheese store that sold cheddar style cheese but with lots of different flavours.

The most unusual was lavender, which had the colour of blu tac. I ended up tasting some the second time we went in and it barely had any taste beyond cheese, the colour was a bit off-putting though. We did buy some aged sheep’s cheese and used it for our dinner.

The cheese shop also let us try some of their white port, which we hadn’t had since Porto. We bought a small bottle of that too.

We had two meals that I cooked in the apartment – pasta with grated cheese, salt, pepper, olive oil and cherry tomatoes. I feel like it’s my travel go-to since it’s so easy and usually most of the ingredients are already in the cupboard if there’s a kitchen in the Airbnb.

The fresh fruit and vegetable stall around the city sell the most amazingly perfect produce. I bought a big tub of red currants – something you almost never see at home. Luke didn’t want any so I got to eat them all myself.

There were many stores around town selling traditional clothing. Much like in Munich, it’s not unusual to see people wearing outfits like this around town. At around €500 for a complete set, it was out of my budget. I would’ve loved a proper dirndl for multicultural days at school though, a connection to my German heritage.

Luke did a load of washing when we first arrived and repurposed the shoe rack into the worlds smallest drying rack.

We spent two nights eating at a beer garden just around the corner from our apartment. It was a huge setup with both indoor and outdoor spaces, but we preferred sitting beneath the chestnut trees.

The food was very Germanic – meat, gravy, potato-based sides or dumplings, beans or noodles.

We also ate (or rather I ate while Luke watched because he was feeling a bit hungover) at the Afro Cafe, which was also only a couple of hundred metres from our accommodation. It was recommended online as a good place to eat and something different from Australian cuisine. It was good for brunch – I had the shakshuka, admittedly something that’s pretty common at home.

We went back to the Mirabell Gardens and saw a bit more of them. We were interested in seeing more of the palace but only a small part was open… or we couldn’t find any other open sections. The roses smelled lovely.

Outside the university was a funny set of sculptures of giant gherkins. I had a student last year who was obsessed with gherkins so we took a few photos.

One of these cucumbers in not like the other ones.

One thing that should be mentioned if you’re thinking of going to Salzburg, is the fact that they sell Mozart chocolates everywhere. They look very fancy but be warned – they are primarily filled with marzipan so just don’t bother unless you’re one of the 1% of the population that actually likes it.

There really isn’t much else to report about Salzburg. It seemed like a really nice city and there are several hills I would’ve loved to climb if it hadn’t been uncomfortably hot. I know no European Airbnb owners are going to read this, but for god’s sake please put some fans in your apartments. Just a pedestal or desk fan would make life more bearable!

The heat has convinced me that April to mid-June are definitely my preferred months for European trips. Either that or autumn. Go when it’s quieter, cooler, cheaper and just generally more pleasant.

Right now we’re in Frankfurt airport, which surely has to be one of the biggest in the world. Terminal B was approximately a kilometre from Terminal A and staff ride bicycles around!

Next stop: Belfast! Don’t let us down, Lufthansa, we have a dinner booking somewhere fancy.

19Jun2023

Hallstatt to Salzburg

by Miss Penny Black

Last night we very much enjoyed an excellent night’s sleep in our lovely bed, but we have noticed that in the hotels we have stayed in, both in Switzerland and Austria, the double beds are always made up of two single beds. Even when the room/bed head would not accommodate two single beds with spaces between, they are two separate beds. Often they have completely separate fitted sheets, which must be a pain to change, and they always have two separate duvets/quilts/doonas. Weird!

See how the bedhead is in two sections? This one has a cover but you can see two separate duvets underneath.

It does make me wonder what things people find strange when they come to Australia.

Despite our room being quite hot last night there was still no cooler option sheet-wise than using either the divested duvet covers or the ornamental spread that covered the whole bed. There was a small Dyson fan but we couldn’t open the windows for a cool breeze as there were no fly screens and, being by a lake, there were plenty of bugs. It feels like a market someone could really capitalise on financially!

There’s two layers of doors and windows, one of which is double-glazed. Excellent for winter but not for summer.

Anyhow, our sleep would’ve been a bit longer but the sun was shining in through the thin white curtains by 5:30am. Fortunately we’re both pretty good at sleeping through daylight. Seeing as how many parts of Europe experience extremely short evenings for at least a quarter of the year, the ineffective curtain situation is also mind boggling. I think I’ve reached the point of the trip where all I’m noticing are problems… sorry! I am actually still really enjoying myself!

Breakfast was a buffet that seemed to be manned by one extremely busy waitress. The selection of food was great and we ended up sitting next to an older American couple who had just finished their fourth biking holiday. They were both retired teachers and we had a good chat about work. One had been a reading teacher and told me how much she had loved the First Steps program, which was developed in Australia.

We left our bags at reception and went to hire a boat!

The small electric boats are hired for 30€ for an hour and it’s a great way to escape the hot streets and noise. Plus I love boats!

We hired one immediately at 11:30am but by the time we got back there was a queue.

The boats have two speeds: slow and stopped. Fine by us, and the electric motor means the lake is very quiet. The town has signs up asking people to keep the noise down and not play music on the street. Also there were signs about not flying drones but we saw one in the air just before we left.

As we had some time before the ferry back to the train, we went back to the hotel and had a drink on the deck.

Several staff members remembered us from the night before and I got to ask one of them about living and working in such a tourist town.

He said they often work 12+ hour shifts and the hotel they work for provides accommodation if they want it nearby, but it does cost them money to stay there. He rents a place in a nearby town and travels to Hallstatt.

He said people in the village had mixed opinions on the value of the tourism and the vast number of visiting cultures had changed the nature of the place, with some people taking photos through peoples’ windows and being more invasive and pushy. Right after he said this a family came in and immediately demanded a particular table, an umbrella (in a huge concrete stand) be moved and then they plonked themselves down despite the manager of the restaurant saying she couldn’t accommodate them.

It’s almost incomprehensible to me, with my reticent Anglo cultural heritage, to argue and demand something in a business then sit down and be perfectly comfortable with people I’ve just upset serving me food and drink. I’d just leave, but according to my Watching the English book, that’s not a trait everyone shares and I guess maybe there’s something to be said for being so much more bold…?

Watching the manager deal with the situation was quite something. She was a very dynamic and direct person, and she came to our table soon after. We told her we admired how well she did her job.

It must be quite the challenge to deal with people from all over the world, all with their own ideas of what is appropriate, what is polite and how to behave. Businesses in such places seem to do all they can to manage people effectively, but when people don’t speak the language (ourselves included, obviously!) it’s not hard for things to go wrong or get very confused. The restaurant had a sign in German and English asking people to wait to be seated but a lot of people just walked right in and sat at a table.

After our drinks we headed to the ferry landing next to the hotel. This might be the smallest non-chihuahua breed I’ve ever seen.

We caught the ferry back across the lake.

It was quite hot inside but better than being on the back of the ferry in the direct sun.

We’d booked dinner and a show in the evening, not thinking about the train cancellations and travel time but it worked out fine.

We sat on the scenic side of the train this time. Apparently the water in this lake is drinking quality!

We took a taxi from the station in Salzburg to our Airbnb place in the old town.

This is the building entrance, not our front door. Pretty imposing though!

The kitchen, note the fold out table and folding chairs and the complete lack of room if you chose to use them.

The kitchen is so tiny it reminds me of our Camden flat but the lounge and bedroom are quite spacious. We would’ve really appreciated all this room when there were four of us!

The flat has windows on two opposite sides so the evening breeze is nice but the amount of noise from people walking past is quite high. The stone walls of the buildings means that it echoes a lot. Also there are no fly screens and the owner had left the windows open so there were heaps of flies zooming around.

Still, the mattress is decent and it’s nice to have cooking facilities and a washing machine.

We had a lie down for an hour then changed for our dinner and classical music evening at the St Peter Stifskulinarium, the oldest restaurant in the world.

How old??

It’s been in operation since at least 803 AD. 1220 years!

It’s huge too, over 600 seats in 11 rooms. All the rooms are different colours and themes. The main restaurant looks like this:

We had a drink here before the show, which was in a large room upstairs. Parts of the restaurant are carved straight into the cliff face.

One the way to our concert we saw some pretty amazing wallpaper.

Also some fancy lighting fixtures.

Our concert room was more traditional.

We were sat at a table with two lovely ladies, one from Delhi, one from New York, who had become friends because their husbands were childhood friends and now they go on trips without the husbands! I love that! These lovely ladies told us about an organ performance that happens at the cathedral each day at midday so we said we might see them there.

The concert was all Mozart, mostly songs from operas but some instrumental pieces. There were only two singers, one man and one woman, and they were quite incredible! The volume and notes they could reach were something I don’t think I’ve heard in person before.

I do wish there’s been more instrumental pieces though, they were Luke’s and my favourite.

A very interesting way of laying the table!

The only food I photographed was the dessert, nockerl, a local dish that I think is supposed to represent three mountains. It is served with raspberry sauce underneath and basically tastes like undercooked meringue, very sweet and soft.

A short walk home afterwards and straight to bed, although it was still warm inside. We opened up the windows for some airflow but noisy passers-by meant closing them, then putting in my noise-cancelling earplugs and playing rain sounds.

In the morning (6:30ish) a sewerage truck parked almost under our window and ran some kind of pipe down every sewerage line in the area for about two hours with a loud motor running. Not our best night’s sleep!

Tomorrow: the cathedral concert and back to our new favourite coffee shop. Also, lavender flavoured cheese!

18Jun2023

Hallstatt

by Miss Penny Black

Our trip to Hallstatt was supposed to be two trains then a short ferry ride. When we got to Salzburg train station our first train had been cancelled.

How annoying.

Luke managed to work out which train and platform we needed to get to and soon we were on our way.

The countryside between Salzburg and Hallstatt is supposedly Austria’s Lake District – not such huge mountains as the Alps and lots of lakes and rivers between gentle green hills.

It was indeed green but it’s no Cumbria;-)

The trains weren’t very crowded, although we managed to sit right by a woman who talked loudly and non-stop for the whole first half of the journey.

On the second train trip we had a bunch of teenage girls sit at the table across the aisle and they managed to be quieter than the woman on the previous train.

After a couple of hours we reached the ferry landing. It’s possible to get to Hallstatt by bus and road but it’s more fun to go by train then take the short ferry ride over.

It also provides a water view of this fairytale-like hamlet.

We were very lucky with the weather too.

We had booked one night at a lovely hotel called the Seehotel Grüner Baum, right on the waterfront. It was our one really fancy hotel for the trip (well, that we’d planned in advance) and so we were really looking forward to it.

The view from the water is lovely and very quiet but when you get off the ferry the number of tourists is quite astonishing.

Fortunately our hotel was right by the ferry landing and on the waterfront so we went down to their restaurant area and had a drink in the shade.

We had a cocktail called a Hugo, apparently popular in this region.

We spent a couple of hours waiting for the crowds to die down a bit – not a hardship with this view!

Then we took a walk through town. The square outside the hotel was extremely picturesque.

The front of the hotel is the orange building on the right.

Many of the building were covered with stunning climbing roses.

After a walk around town, down some of the back alleys and along the main street, we checked into our room at precisely 3pm, very keen for a shower and change of clothes.

A lovely bathroom but the shortest shower screen I’ve ever seen, water went everywhere.

The view from our balcony was pretty spectacular

Refreshed, we walked to the viewing point which is crowded all day. We got there at about 5:30pm when it was relatively quiet.

If you’ve only seen one picture of Hallstatt, it’ll be something like this.

We walked back through the graveyard, where graves are rented for a few years at a time. If no one pays you get dug up and your skull moved to the charnel house. The graves were probably the best-maintained I’ve ever seen.

All had very neat and colourful flower gardens on top.

There are two churches in the centre of the village, the one higher up offers an excellent view from the path around the outside.

We had a drink before dinner and soaked up the peace and quiet of the lake, while at the same time watching the staff of the hotel work with the constant flow of tourists wandering in without bookings and expecting a table. Also we noticed a cat had been asleep in a palm pot the whole time we had been sitting right by it.

I had fish caught from the lake for my dinner. There are only two people licenced to fish from the lake to protect their stocks, which is reassuring, what with the complete disregard for fish numbers in most other places. I know the risotto doesn’t look amazing but it was delicious!

Luke had the pork, which looked much more appetising.

We asked if we could take a bottle of Prosecco and our desserts up to our balcony and were told ‘you can take whatever you want!’ So we did.

Our balcony neighbours were all out but being very quiet, and so were we, except for when I took the cage off the Prosecco and let it sit and then the cork popped all by itself, making us both jump.