Another day trip to Riva del Garda.

A couples of days ago I went back to Riva del Garda. I can say I visit quite frequently that town on the lake of Garda. I  spent around one hour in Torbole, like some months ago (see post "closed for...". I wished to go to a viewpoint, but there isn't one. I was misled by a sign post. I only took a pic of a hotel with portico in Torbole. I wasn't in the mood of taking pics during the first hours of that day.

Then I headed to Riva del Garda. The street you see here is via Piave. It is where my favourite restaurant is located. Unfortunately it was closed that day.

Piazza III Novembre is the main square of the town. Here you can see the Apponale tower, The town hall, Palazzo Pretorio; some restaurants and cafes.

                                                                                                          

The tower is a leaning a bit.

                                                                                                                         

The flowers in this well are really beautiful for me. This pics doesn't give justice to their beauty.

The old core of Riva del Garda has also a maze of narrow streets like this.As you can see on the pics it was a sunny day. I can say it was a real spring day.

Sunny Innsbruck.

A couple of weeks ago I spent almost a week in Innsbruck (AT). I visited this city some years ago as a day trip from Seefeld in Tirol. I booked a short package holiday there. I almost saw all the main attractions in the city years ago, but I missed the Alpenzoo. This is a zoo located on and around a mountain. Only animals that live on mountains live there. So no lions or elephants. The Alpenzoo was a real disappointment for us. Even if we walked a lot in that area we couldn't see many animals. We could see  some birds, several savage cats and a couple of ducks.

After the visit to the zoo we had lunch and then we went to the Hofkirche. This church has a sarcophagus that should have been the resting place of Maximilian I. It is surrounded by many tall statues representing the ancestors and the relatives of this emperor. You also can see king Arthur and other characters who weren't related to Maximilian

The Tyrolean Museum of Popular Art is housed in a building joined to the Hofkirche. It is a large museum with various items. There are several stube (wooden panelled living room) there.

This is the Helblinghaus; a palace built in the 15th century and decorated decorated in Baroque style in 1730.

Innsbruck has some row of ancient porticoes, like towns as Bolzano and Merano in Italy.

This is Ambras castle. It is situated some 2 km from Innsbruck. This reinassance castle was built in the 16th century over ancient fundations.

Inside this castle there is a rich collection of armoirs and a room with strange things. Here you can see some pieces of this collection.

We did a day trip to Hall in Tirol. Here we visited a mint museum, but I wasn't too impressed of this place.

 

Hall in Tirol has some nice spots.

 

Almost every day we spent some time at konditorei (confectionery) Walter.  I enjoyed a a ice cream with whipped cream  and my mother a piece of cake or a hot chocolate with whipped cream.

This is a typical Austrian dish. Spaetzle with cheese and roasted onions. We used to have a lunch at a typical restaurant; Stiftskeller.

This is the square at the back of our favourite restaurant. Have a look at the mountains with the snow!

  I didn't want to miss the Wilten basilica. It is a richly decorated church  in Rococo style.

Innsbruck has a beautiful covered market (Markthalle). Here you can buy mostly food, but you can also have something to eat or drink. In fact there are some cafes and stalls with bakery products inside.

Here you can see some houses by the river Inn. Most of them are colorful

Ok; that's all. Have a happy Easter everyone!

Cakes anyone?

Sometimes my kitchen looks like a confectionery laboratory. My mother's main hobby is making cakes. She mostly makes biscuits to give away or to sell at a charity market.

Today she had several eggs to use so she thought to make some small cakes with jam and another bigger with Nutella. 

Closed for the holidays.

Yesterday I visited Torbole. It is a nice village some km far from Riva del Garda. I had a stroll in the old core and also to the beach (a peeble beach).

Goethe stayed at this house. I think it was a hotel when he was there.

Most of the shops in Torbole were closed (see the title of this post...for the holidays). 

This should be called "Casa del Dazio (Custom House) This nice huse has lots of flowers and a statue of a madonna on a corner.

a "not to miss" flowers shop.

Some days ago I went at Ognibeni's. It is a large flowers shops located in Levico Terme. Some weeks before Christmas you can also find lots of Christmas decorations there.

This item  isn't Christmas related, but I like it!!!

A cupboard full of nice things. These bears you see were very expensive.

A snowman...I could stay at Ognibeni's for hours!!!!

This should have been my first post...Valencia!

Valencia is the third largest city in Spain.

Here's one of the landmark of Valencia; the Miquelet, or Miguelete. It is the cathedral belltower.

I visited a couple of museums. One of these was the ceramic museum. Here's its main entrance.

The ceramic museum has lots of items on display. Things from ancient to modern times.

The highlight of the museum is a typical Valencia kitchen made entirely with tiles.

There is also a fully furnished apartment inside of the ceramic museum.

Another museum we visited was the fine arts museum.It is housed inside the building with a blue dome you see in this pic. The collection of pictures here it is really large.

Valencia has a very long park that surrounds the old center. It was built in the old bed of the river Turia. They decided to divert it south of the city long ago the last time it flooded. This park; its name is Jardines del Tùria is crossed by 19 bridges. Old and modern.

El mercado central. The main covered market in Valencia has around 1000 stalls. It is a food market.

There are lots of fruits and vegetables stalls inside the market.

Plaza Redonda (= round square). It is really round! In fact the buildings here are join together and each one is curved. So that the whole is round.

We stayed at a large four star in Alboraya. Hotel Olympia and Events spa. Alboraya is a village some km from Valencia.

A place not to miss in Alboraya is horchateria Daniel. We went there several times to eat their homemade pastries.