Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Four

Good afternoon Coolers :)

 

Today is crispy Peking duck with pancakes, mooli, peppers, red onion, carrot etc. and white wine au boîte ....

 

 

 

 

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Looks yummy! I love a good Pekín Duck. To make it properly, in courses, takes about two days. I was thinking about what wines I might pair with it. Perhaps a spicy Gewurztraminer?

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Good to see you back again .....

I like to reinforce my plum sauce with a touch of honey and chilli and dark soy.

You can see I like non-conformist veg with my duck. Mooli is perfect as is sweet white shredded cabbage. So being a non-conformist, you may think this extremely odd but I think the perfect "wine" for Peking Duck is an extremely cold Fino. Tio Pepe is our preferred. It is perfect.

Here I was thinking it was Hoisin sauce.

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Two weeks to go. We fly to Barbados two weeks today and board Silver Wind two weeks tomorrow. Looking forward to it a lot now especially 32 degrees of warmth (that's 90 for you other guys!!)

Peter

Two weeks to go. We fly to Barbados two weeks today and board Silver Wind two weeks tomorrow. Looking forward to it a lot now especially 32 degrees of warmth (that's 90 for you other guys!!)

 

Peter

Hi Peter, lucky you!

We sail to Barbados on January 3rd...too long to wait!

Hey, mysty: remember when you posted that link about WestJet cancelling flights to San Juan? Seems they've cancelled flights to other places in the Caribbean as well, and their PR department is going to have to start working overtime, because this time it isn't the fault of the TAs.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/westjet-turks-and-caicos-airport-cancel-flights-hurricane-1.4407641

Thanks for the photo Jeff - so looking forward to the markets - I'm sure we have a few later departures so will be good to be there when it's dark.

Can you recommend somewhere in Vienna to have a decent 'local' coffee? Preferably somewhere central. Thanks.

MissSophia - thanks for your kind comments. Will be lovely to see my family.

Best wishes, Karin

Hello Karin,

I suggest two. The first is on the other side of the road from Rathausplatz which is the Christmas Market you are most likely to visit. It is called Landtman.

http://www.landtmann.at/en/das-landtmann/our-coffee-house.html

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=landtmann+wien&client=firefox-b&dcr=0&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjm14ylsMrXAhXJnBoKHaxqByAQ_AUIDCgD&biw=1064&bih=620

Rathausplatz

http://wienerweihnachtstraum.at/en/viennese-christmas-market-and-ice-dream/

Others/all

https://www.wien.info/en/shopping-wining-dining/markets/christmas-markets

Two or three minutes walk from Rathausplatz is Cafe Central which I would prefer.

https://www.cafecentral.wien/en/

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Caf%C3%A9+Central&client=firefox-b&dcr=0&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiS3sX7r8rXAhXEXhoKHXbeCKMQ_AUICygC&biw=1064&bih=620

Walking the extra few minutes is not only better but our favourite Christmas Market, the Old Christmas Market at Freyung is a few minutes from the Cafe Central.

https://weihnachten.altwiener-markt.at/

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=alt+wien+freyung+christmas+market&client=firefox-b&dcr=0&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjP_8rEscrXAhVJ0hoKHXS9CRcQ_AUICygC&biw=1064&bih=620

Enjoy your visit to Vienna. :)

G'Day All.....still cold and gloomy here in Wales

Have spent the morning wrapping presents and gathering last few bits together for packing.

Love the Vienna post Jeff....must try and visit sometime, I'm sure you and Mrs J are looking forward to going back to enjoy the festivities.

Happy Sunday 😊

Good Afternoon S,

I hope you visit Vienna. For thirty years or so I guess we visited three times a year .... some of the visits were a week or so and a couple of shorter trips. Now - except for one year - it's just twice a year.

All the central area is within the ring road and is easy walking and public transport is very easy and cheap. It seems to us to be a perfect city and you can get to the vinyards in a few minutes on a local bus or tram and take a nice walk amongst the vines. And then drink some of the produce.

Good morning Coolers,

Loved the mapping of the Christmas Markets! I will try and save the post since I would love to visit sometime.

Good morning from here too.....it is drizzly outside today.

Yesterday I went to new our new IKEA store..........it is LARGE I will say that..........I will probably go back after the new

year.......will let all the holiday shoppers do their thing.......LOL

Then I went and filled up my car with gas and then I went shopping for some new clothes. The big point here is I know I

used my credit card for the gas and when I went to pay for the clothes I could not find it:eek:......I dumped everything out

of my purse and it was not there:(........so I paid for the clothes with a different card but I had no idea where the other

card went.........so I drove back to the gas station.......(It was a Dailey's-Shell) and looked on the ground and went inside

the store to see if someone had turned in a card (thinking maybe I had lost my mind and dropped it)...........NOPE....

So I then called my credit card company and she was very nice and told her the story and so they closed my card and

will send me a new one.................THEN last night, the store where I bought the clothes called me.........while they were

cleaning the dressing rooms out they FOUND MY CARD.....it was actually on the floor.....I never thought to go back

into the dressing room when I was checking out.....anyway, isn't that the way it happens? Have a new card issued

already and find the old one LOL......I normally put my cc back in my wallet after I fill up my car......in this case I must

have slid it into one of the pockets and it fell out in the dressing room..........well, at least I know nobody had it that

would charge on it and nobody can use it now since it is closed...........I am going to pick up the old card later this morning. The store is right out the corner from me...........it is a CHICO'S and I shop there all the time:) (It is the store who had the Fashion show last month)

so they know me.

Good morning Coolers,

Loved the mapping of the Christmas Markets! I will try and save the post since I would love to visit sometime.

No need Cams .... always happy to help. If you ever have the flex we always tend to go from the first Monday in December until the Friday. That also gives us a nice run up to Christmas preps at home. We find the weekdays lovely compared to weekends when there are a lot of coaches. We also have another 5 nights booked in September for a joint birthday Stelze at the Swiss House.

Was what's in the picture your creation, Jeff? I wouldn't be surprised, but maybe is a little taste of Vienna...

We have visited Vienna only about three times and feel that there is so much to enjoy there. Of course, the instrument museum is a must every time we go! We have been there in the Spring and early Fall but never in Winter... We don't like to get out of the cold to get to the colder. That's why we will probably not do Alaska. Oh, well!

It's a pork knuckle (stelze) as in The Swiss House.

Unfortunately one of my favourite paintings is in Vienna - Hunters in Snow by Bruegel and so anxious am I to have some precious solo time with it by my (our) selves that one of our rituals is to be first in and straight up the stairs until the hordes get up that far. There is a challenge however. If the next few people buying entrance tickets are Japanese, for some reason or other they always follow us. But this happens almost everywhere we are followed by Japanese tourists who seem programmed to simply follow whoever is in front.

I don't know whether you both ever made it to Einsteins just by Rathaus, but in the original days all the staff were music students, and their name badges also had their instruments in italics under their names. Long since just become a bit of a gimick. But it is still very studenty and the food and beer is good value.

http://www.einstein.at/

The other place we love that is young is not far from the IC is The Poor Student ... we often go there very late on the way back to the hotel for a late night schnitzel or sausage and beer in the warm ....

http://bettelstudent.at/

Drool...Schweinshaxe. I love those!

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Jeff, thanks so much for the recommendations; I don't remember visiting them. I tend to remember a Bruegel room at the K Museum. Why are you fascinated by this particular painting?

Hi JP,

It isn't an exaggeration to say that many of our Vienna trips have been basically for that meal and we've built a trip around it.

I think us Brits too often forget how lucky we are to have so much of Europe on our doorstep and just a few hours away. I think I was lucky because many times in my working life I was able to leave home at breakfast time and have a meeting in Paris, or Amsterdam and a few in Munbich and Vienna and be back in time for supper at home. Traveling with a carry on onto a short flight makes so many of these places a no brainer. However a hort break was a good thing to do ...... I just bought 240k IC points at half price towards some of our future trips. :)

Perhaps one Christmas we'll have a Cooler Vienna. :)

Jeff, thanks so much for the recommendations; I don't remember visiting them. I tend to remember a Bruegel room at the K Museum. Why are you fascinated by this particular painting?

I suspect thinking back, I had an uncle from South Africa who moved here with part of my family to escape apartheid and he was a real Bruegel nut. He had the peasant wedding on his wall and I'd spend some time studying all the detail in it. I guess I'm overwhelemed by the skill of Bruegel and I always loved Hunters in The Snow, and then visiting Vienna in winter and seeing Hunters in Snow was a sort of moment for me. I think ... or I hope ... all or many of us have paintings dotted around the world we gravitate to. Many people feel Vienna is Klimt ... but I suspect that's a girl rather than boy thing.

Although I was booted out of school at 15 I had been allowed to take A level Art (when A levels were proper A levels .....) at 15 and I took it as an academic subject as well as dabbing ie history of art and in particular 19thC French Art. I really introduce wifey to "art" and I'm so pleased it has enriched her life. I remember taking her to the special Monet place in Paris and getting her into the basement before the crowds and explaining that to understand Monet's best paintings you had to be a distance away abd to screw your eyes up as he was almost blind when he was at his best. The lightbulb moment for her when she did that and her joy of discovering Monet's Monet and going through her journey of discovery.

My A levels kept me occupied for a year or two at the National in London whilkst I was starting to play records. Understanding that group of artists within their time made me appreciate Bruegel and Claude. My favourite artist will always remain Claude. I use to go to the National and watch his skies change from dawn to dusk depending on the lights coming through the skylight.

How does he do that?

I do go on. :)

Well, in between entertaining the grandkids, I took a moment to google your favorite Bruegel painting and read some interesting information. This painting appears in many well known movies, and, as it happens, in my favorite movie of all times...Lars von Trier's Melancholia. At some point I will watch it again to pinpoint the apparition of the painting. A movie I like so much, but have seen it only once. The cinematography is exquisite. The reason I've avoided seeing it again is that I don't want to mess up with the arresting impact it had on me at the time. Would this be a little bit crazy? Maybe....

I love Monet, mainly because that was my view of the world before I got glasses, but have never had the opportunity to see an original.

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Hi M,

The great tragedy of Monet imho is how his work has been so overtaken with those bleedin' Lillies. Go to any gallery where his work is shown and the souvenirs people (particularly the younger women) - are always the postcard, posters and calenders featuring lillies and or the bridge in his garden. He did wonderful snow and wonderful Thames. My theory was that his lilly paintings became so large simply because of his increasing blindness.

And many people may not know but his chum was Renoir and they would feed off each other. In fact each changed and influenced each others work. If you are interested this was the product of some days they spent painting together and you can see each's inluence in the other's work.

Monet and then Renoir and each of their take of La Grenouillère.

I like to think of them sitting side by side painting, drinking, smoking, and cursing the flies ... 19thC French art was a sublime time and I wish I was there .

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Fascinating information, Jeff. Really neat to see the two pictures.

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Thanks so much for the recommendations Jeff, will make a note of them and do some Googling.

Really appreciate your help.

Karin

Greetings.......loving the art. After my grandmother passed in 1985 l found a load of 'paintings' rolled up in a cardboard box...research told me that they were by an artist called Cecil Aldin who was known for his hunting scenes and other horsey subjects along with old coaching inns....every painting features his dog.

I had them all framed and right now they're stored in my loft and as I've nowhere to show them I'm going to go to auction with them....this post actually reminded me!

As l wade through the cruise stuff I've lost or mislaid my favourite pair of comfy flip flops.....over the weekend l failed to find all my adapters so that's two down and there's bound to be a third! So damn annoying are these senior happenings!

Happy Monday :)