Postcard No 1 from Salzburg – Brainfood and Big boys toys

We arrived yesterday in Salzburg – driving from Munich through the beautiful Bavarian countryside on the ultra efficient autobahn – with dandelion filled meadows on either side and mountains in the distance, leading us on the the city of Mozart and the Sound of Music.

http://to.austria.info/er
After checking into our hotel at the traditional gasthaus Hotel Der Post, we decided to try something a bit different – a visit to Hangar 7 which was just a short walk away.

This modern hangar on the edge of Salzburg airport is packed full of restored old planes and new ones that have been featured in Bond movies mixed in with Formula 1 cars.

We finished our oggling at the big boys toys with a smoothie in the Mayday bar on the 2nd floor overlooking the hangar. The concept here is Clever food – choose from the mood food, brain food or beaty food menu. I had the brain food set menu including this delicious desert with loquats, nougat mouse and pistachio ice cream. Which menu would you have chosen from?

Today is about exploring the old town of Salzburg – after our ultra modern start at Hangar 7 it’s back to history and nostalgia with Mozart and the Sound of Music.

Wish you were here!

Check out this great video about Salzburg, Innsbruck and Graz as well as the other videos about Holidays in Austria

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com – Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

You’ll also find our sister blog with tips on how to build a successful travel blog at My Blogging Journey

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A Royal Wedding and what the bride wore – in Bath

Yes folks, today is the Royal Wedding day for Will and Kate. And of course the big question on everyone’s lips is ‘What will the bride wear?’ I can practically guarantee the miles of descriptive prose and full colour magazine pages that will be devoted to every detail of that dress.

Perhaps Kate and her dress designer will have taken inspiration from brides of yesteryear, having paid a visit to the exhibition I enjoyed recently at the Fashion Museum in Bath. The ‘What will she wear’ exhibition is a celebration of wedding dresses from the museum’s collections and continues until January 2012, so you’ve no excuse not to visit if you’re looking for design ideas for your own dream wedding dress.

The dresses were displayed in no particular order with the bride from the 20s next to the bride of the surprisingly demure 60s although as wedding dresses are often inspired by historic costume it was not so easy to tell them apart. The high necked dress with delicate lace from the 70s looked distinctly Edwardian and the Alexander McQueen dress from 2010 had 18th century panier skirts.

If only those cases full of gorgeous gowns could tell their stories; the romance, the fluttering hearts, the courtship, the proposal and finally the big day. For many of those dresses the owners are known and there might even be a newspaper clipping to give the account of the wedding, with full details of what the bride wore. For others, not much is known about the owners. On the walls of the exhibition were formal portraits of elegant and wealthy brides from the 1930s modelling their couture gowns from the House of Worth, in the studio setting surrounded by flowers.

Bridal exhibition at Bath Fashion Museum

Bridal exhibition at Bath Fashion Museum

Fashions for brides have been a reflection of the past and the present. A hundred years ago weddings were held in the morning, so a day dress was worn, but later they came to resemble evening wear with long trains as worn at court. Our teenage girls took it in turn to pick the one that they would choose for their wedding day and the dress above left is my daughter’s favourite. I was married not long after Diana and Fergie and like many brides was influenced by their full skirts, ruffles and lace. Now I think I might like to wear one of those elegant bias cut columns from the 30s. Which one would you choose?

Bridal exhibition at Bath Fashion Museum

Bridal exhibition at Bath Fashion Museum

So what will the bride wear? – we’ll find out soon enough but in the meantime, enjoy these lovely wedding gowns of yesterday.

The What will she wear? exhibition is on display at the Fashion Museum in Bath until 8 January 2012.

Other adventures in Bath

Fancy a dip at the Roman Baths in Bath?
Dressing up at the Fashion Museum in Bath

If you’re looking for a hotel in Bath, compare prices and Book at Hotels Combined

www.flickr.com    heatheronhertravels’ Bath – Fashion Museum photoset

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com – Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

You’ll also find our sister blog with tips on how to build a successful travel blog at My Blogging Journey

Don’t miss out – subscribe to Heather on her travels

Good history, good eating and great living in Galicia

This article from Monica Adorno takes us to Galicia in Spain where she visited Santiago de Compostela  for the Feast of St James, wandered around the old streets, visited the famous cathedral and ate some goose feet at the best restaurant in town.

Good history, good eating and great living; Spain is famous for doing these things and Galicia, with her fierce Gaelic heritage and her shire-like landscape, is no exception. Sometimes you visit a country or a region where there’s a palpable sense of identity; where the locals are inherently proud of their roots, and the feeling is contagious. If you’re lucky, something will click and you’ll connect with a place to which you had no previous ties. The region of Galicia, Spain, that sits at the north-west corner of the Iberian Peninsula, is one such place.

My boyfriend and I arrived in Santiago de Compostela last July. We arranged the holiday so that it coincided with the Festival of St James, celebrated each year on July 25. Last year the festival fell on a Sunday meaning that the dramatics and the exuberance were tripled. This doesn’t happen often and the next one, known as a Holy Year, is due in 2021. The festival was marked by an impressive fireworks display and other symbolic gestures. The local families who can be more reserved here than in other parts of Galicia were out enjoying the day’s activities and it was clear to see that it’s a fiesta that brings people together.

Santiago de Compostela is famous as a place of pilgrimage that millions have travelled to for over a thousand years to pray to the apostle St James whose remains, legend has it, were taken there for burial (Chaucer’s Wife of Bath made the trip). Neither the boyfriend nor I are particularly religious and like many others we made the trip to enjoy the magnificent Baroque and Romanesque architecture, the art, the history and the museums. The entire city is a World Heritage Site, which is a testament to its medieval beauty.

On our first day, having made no arrangements, we decided to spend the afternoon exploring the city. It would be a shame not to get lost in the maze of winding arcaded streets and granite buildings. We walked to the Old Quarter where the pièce de résistance is the magnificent cathedral. Described as the ‘Romanesque jewel within a Baroque case’ it looms impressively over the Praza do Obradoiro, flanked by giant bell towers. We went into the cathedral (entrance is free) and did a guided tour of Las Cubiertas, the cathedral roof. The guide took us through the upper floors of the cathedral interior and once on the roof, the boyfriend and I took in a panoramic view of the labyrinth below.

Back outside and feeling peckish we went in search of some tapas and strolling along la Rua Nova we came across Don Gaiferos, which locals and tourists describe as one of the best restaurants in the city, next to the Church of Santa Maria Salome. I ate estofado de carne, a delicious local stew, and the boyfriend, ever the adventurer, ordered the exotic sounding percebes which translates as goose barnacles. His plate arrived piled high with what looked like small dragon feet which he had to suck the meat out of. These claws don’t come cheap at 30€ for a small portion but they’re a local delicacy and worth buying if only to say you ate dragon feet (though that wouldn’t be strictly true).

Dining in Galicia can be pricey but the food is fresh and everything is so good that to deny yourself these pleasures is sheer madness. For a quick snack try the cheekily titled Queso de Tetilla which literally translates as cheese of small breast and are shaped like them too. The boyfriend, rather predictably, couldn’t resist bringing a bag home.

Author Bio: Monica Adorno is a snowsports writer living and working in London. She spent her university days hitch hiking across Central America and South East Asia. She plans to conquer Mount Everest and marry explorer Bruce Parry!

My thanks for this sponsored post to MyDestination Galicia, where you’ll find comprehensive information on all things Galicia

Photo Credits: Cathedral by bernavazqueze, other photos from MyDestination Galicia

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com – Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

You’ll also find our sister blog with tips on how to build a successful travel blog at My Blogging Journey

Don’t miss out – subscribe to Heather on her travels

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