Posts Tagged With: wine

Japan 2020 Day 10: Niseko (Hirafu and Hanazono)

These next few days are going to be much of a muchness really! Day 1 of skiing saw B up bright and early at our accomodation in Hanazono – Freedom Inn. We like it here because it is off the beaten track so way less drunk muppets and bogans. B was at Hanazono at 8:30am on the dot ready to ski!

I caught the free shuttle bus from Hanazono to Hirafu upper village and went for a wander. I enjoyed the onsen at Niseko Prince Hotel which is a 5 min walk from the welcome centre. In winter it is open from 7-10:30am and 3-9pm at a cost of ¥1000. The outside bath view was stunning.

I then wandered around to some local shops and did some people watching while enjoying a baileys hot chocolate before I walked back (with a lovely view of Mt Yotei!) to enjoy an afternoon of reading at Freedom Inn.

B arrived back off the slopes just before 4:30pm and we headed off to the Hotel Youtei onsen together so he could enjoy a hot soak. Dinner tonight was quite late as we had to make a reservation to get into Steak Rosso Rosso in Lower Hirafu village and this was the only time they had. They are not a cheap option but are lovely for a treat meal. We went with their seat meal option which included a starter, entree, steak of your choosing and dessert. We chose the ohmi 150g steak which is a type of wagyu beef (A4 for anyone really into their steak) and it comes served medium rare with a hot stone so you can cook it to your own preference. The beef was delicious – so tender. I also had some Japanese plum wine called ‘umeshu’ which came served with soda water and was really nice.

Steps not counted today

Japanese food eaten: terrible ramen at a snow cafe, pocky, wagyu beef, Hokkaido scallops and uneshu plum wine

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MICF day 2 and 3: Improvised comedy + some weird shit + Vue De Monde

Day 1:

Today we started with Cafe Issus and the ever popular Nutella brioche with fairy floss. Afterwards it was time to explore Degraves Lane with my nice camera.

Once shopping time (ahhhh Dangerfield ahhhhh) had ended it was late lunch time and Meat Maiden was the go – as recommended by the QANTAS magazine. B highly rated the brisket and I thought the lamb shoulder was decent.

At 5pm we went to Zero Latency. This time I was a spectator and B played Singularity and Zombie Survival with 7 strangers. He wants to go AGAIN next year which tells you how much he liked it…even if he only managed to place first once this time around.

Then it was Impromptunes – the improvised musical. They really lived up to their “adults only” theme tonight, boy did I feel bad for the teacher who had brought in a school group! Tonight’s musical was “Garlic Bread” and it contained multiple simulated orgies haha…hence my sympathy for the school group teachers!

Once Impromptunes finished it was off to a late night showing of “let’s get practical” with Melbourne favourites the very good looking initiative at The Malthouse. Food was average at the venue and I’ll be blunt but polite here and say…this was just not our cup of tea. We both had regrets about missing other late night shows for whatever the hell this was meant to be. We probably should have taken a hint from the audience of 20 people who all seemed to know the performers before we walked in. I’m all for alternate or subversive humour but this just missed the mark for both of us.

Day 2:

Well, today was the long awaited booking for Vue de Monde at lunch. I had to book months in advance for this (and that was just for lunch – dinner was gone ages before then) but far out it was worth it!! You are talking $1000+ for two people to have the chefs degustation and prestige paired wines but B and I both rated it number one restaurant to date. The food, the view, the wine, the service….all A+++

After a wine/food induced afternoon nap, we managed to miss Improv Comedy at the Highlander Bar (dammit!) but did make it to a cabaret/singing show out at the Melba Spiegeltent in Collingwood. Now last year the Spiegeltent was a highlight (drag cabaret) and I though this years acapella performance (Ginger and Tonic) also rated pretty damn high. B didn’t think it was as good as the drag cabaret show YUMMY but enjoyed some of the jokes – it was a bit more female oriented in terms of humour.

After that was an $8 Uber ride back into the city to Coopers Inn for the late night “comedy boxing” show with no names we knew beforehand but a lot of adult giggles. It was the first show we have been to that hasn’t run to schedule but was also our first late night one so possibly that’s a common thing in the later shows. We enjoyed the humour although felt a little bit “odd one out” since most of the audience were, to put it politely, wasted.

Categories: MICF 2018 | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Blue Mountains Getaway – Day 1 and 2

We headed off to the Blue Mountains (Katoomba) for a little NYE getaway on the 31st of Dec, 2015. Katoomba is about a 3.5 hour drive from Canberra.

Along the way we stopped for lunch and a leg stretch in Berrima which was very pretty. 

  
We arrived at the Mountain Heritage Hotel and Spa at about 4:30pm. The grounds and the building are lovely and the room size is very good. 

  
The first thing we did after a brief wander around the local area was fill up the private spa bath with far too many bubbles! 

  
After a relaxing spa bath and some red wine, we had our New Year’s Eve dinner at the Jamison Views Restaurant. While the view was nice, the food was spectacular and the guy playing piano for all the diners was also pretty amazeballs. 

  
We saw in the new year while watching the Sydney fireworks on ABC.

  
January 1st saw us enjoying a lazy lay in and then heading off for a couples massage at Yindi Day Spa. Lunch was nothing worth mentioning, needless to say we will NOT be revisiting Katoomba RSL. The day spa was lovely with a mud run, steam bath and one hour essential oil massage each. Pricing was good too – I recommend these guys over the designer spas attached to the local hotels. 

Dinner was at Darley’s which is a gorgeous little restaurant down near Echo Point lookout. I got so excited about the food I forgot to take photos but I highly recommend the duck. And the veal. And the tortellini. Actually…just go the degustation. I have included a photo of one of the courses – it was a mini vegetable garden on my plate! 

   

Darley’s restaurant

 
After dinner we finished off the evening with a short walk and some nice photos at the lookout point.

   
   

Tomorrow: scenic world, Katoomba Falls and the skyway! Then back home. 

Categories: Australian Getaways, Blue Mountains 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Leaving Paris – final thoughts 

Favourite things about Paris:
– the views of different old style buildings and amazing monuments pretty much everywhere you go, particularly good old effy (great nick name for the Eiffel Tower right?) is very impressive. Sunsets and night time in particular have been stunning here while we have visited….I think we have been very lucky with the weather though! 20C in mid-November seems to be unheard of. 

   
 
– the metro, ah I love being back in a major city with a crazy efficient metro system! 

– food OMNOMNOMNOM FRENCH FOOD IS THE BESTEST! Especially their cheese. The wine as well….fab!

  
– the fact that right in the centre of Paris (2 min walk from the Eiffel Tower) they were using sheep to keep the grass under control as part of an eco friendly approach. Awesome. 

  
   

Not-so-good stuff about Paris:

– the service and peoples manners! Gah. Paris staffing and service levels leave a lot to be desired. Especially at the Eiffel Tower, that really put a dampener on our adventure to the top. 

– the hordes of tourists everywhere, particularly Chinese tourists, who are rude and pushy. No worries about being a tourist (after all, I’m a tourist!) but there should be some basic courtesies that we as human beings display in crowded situations…I strongly feel this should include things like not blocking walkways so you can chat to the person next to you, sticking your elbows in someone’s face or pushing in to very long lines! 

– the scammers and hawkers, this was particularly prevalent on both our trips to the Eiffel Tower sadly and was very frustrating. It happened everywhere we went in Europe but in Paris they travelled in packs. I had not had any warning that the fake petition girls were pickpocket gangs and was glad we worked it out quickly. B took to shouting “pickpocket” when they tried to talk to him which was hilarious and I just gave them vacant stares every time they talked to me. We were also VERY lucky not to have to deal with the African gangs of string men, who by all accounts can be extremely aggressive and scary. I’m glad we managed to avoid that experience! 

Categories: Europe 2015 | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

Day 17: exploring Florence 

Definitely a big fan of Hotel Ester in Florence, the free breakfast at a local cafe was great value. I topped it off with some banana gelato!  

selfies with banana gelato

 
Our day started with drizzly rain as we explored the cathedral and the square again in daylight. We then headed off with our reserved tickets to see Michelangelo’s David at the Galleria Academia. The line for reservations was about 30 people, compared to the general entry line which was about 300! Well done us on paying the extra 4€ and having a reserved time. The statue was amazing, really astounding to see that sort of craftsmanship up close.
 

what nice eyes you have…

  

token tourist mel

 
After seeing David we walked up the road to the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum and B got his geek on admiring all the cool, life sized replicas of Da Vinci’s inventions. He also added to his ever growing collection of laser cut blocks (I collect postcards from every location, just in case anyone was wondering). 

my beloved doing his thing

Then it was lunch time. The place we chose was shit and touristy, but the afternoon wine tasting more than made up for it (more on that later). I went off to do some shopping and B climbed the bell tower and the Duoma (dome), which I had done on my last visit to Florence. He got some amazing photos:

view of the duomo and city from the belltower

 
Then it was wine tasting time! We went to the wine bar Entoca Alessi on the recommendation of our tour leader with another member of our group and holy crap it was amazing. Five wines, all indigenous to different areas of Italy plus this amazing food platter. 
 

omnomonom

  

sniff them they said…it makes you an expert they said…smells like wine to me!

 

Tonight will be dinner at the local market place and then off to Siena for a day trip tomorrow.

Mel 

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I’m Day 16: Pisa and Florence

We left the town of La Spezia at 9am and headed for Pisa on the train and local bus. After visiting the famous tower and cathedral, we wandered around the local square and had lunch at an AMAZING local sandwich shop. 

 

the cathedral and its famous belltower (the leaning part)

  
  

no cheesy tourist photos from us…Percy on the other hand….

 
   
   
 We then headed back to the local station where we had stored our luggage and onwards to Florence! The hotel here (Hotel Ester) is a gorgeous little B+B set up with a shared kitchen, huge rooms and a terrace with a view!

the view from hotel ester

After settling in (and B fixing every rooms TV because he’s a legend) we headed off to explore the local area and eat.

 

pretty florence!

  

the sculpture with no defined start point – you can look at it anywhere and it looks like the correct viewing angle could be obtained. Amazing detail, look at the butt dimples!

  

the start of the secret tunnel from one part of the city to another

  

100-200 years ago you would knock on this little door and the hatch would open, they would take your money and wine would appear!


 

ponte vecchio (bridge) at night, we need a daytime photo though

 

Dinner was at a tiny little restaurant that usually only serves lunch. Our intrepid tour leader knows the owner so he made dinner for our group. 25€ was 6 courses plus all you can drink wine and the food was AMAZING! No food pics but I think this image sums it all up perfectly (thank you my beloved for taking this stunner of a photo haha): 

  

1.5L bottle of chianti….mmmm


  
  

Tomorrow: Visiting the statue of David, the Da Vinci museum, wine tasting and more in Florence

Steps today: 20614…not bad. Nowhere near enough to walk off the amazing food though!  
Mel
P.S. Cold update: my snot seems to have improved but chesty cough is raging. B now has snot, but no chestiness. YAY TOUR GROUP BUG SHARING! 

Categories: Europe 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Day 11: Exploring the Provence Region 

Today started very boringly – coffee and a chocolate croissant while we spent anhour and a bit doing our washing at the local laundromat in Arles. Percy found the dryer riveting. We were up before most of the locals and the streets were very quiet. 
   
 We then were meant to catch the train for around 20 mins to Avignon, where our tour leader had arranged for us and the Canadian couple to go on a local tour of the Provence region. Unfortunately, the train timetables were incorrect (it being almost off season now) so we had to catch a taxi. Note to self: double check train timetables with the transit officers next time. 

First, we stopped at Gordes, one of the most beautiful villages in France, famous for the architecture with dry stones and the astounding views over the countryside. 

   
 
Then it was off to Les Baux de Provence, a village located upon a rock with much of its buildings actually carved straight out of the rock! I got some gorgeous jewellery here and presents for lucky people. The view was pretty spectacular as well. 

   

 Finally, we visited the famous site of the Pont du Gard, dated from the first century and now world heritage listed.  This was an amazing and well preserved part of the Roman acqueduct which supplied water to Nîmes.

   
   
We then headed back to Arle and with our tour leader went for dinner at Chez Felix. The owner was very friendly and the food was brilliant…but most importantly, the view was unbeatable 🙂 

  

  
Mel 

P.S. Percy had a little too much red wine tonight…

  

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