European Adventures

First off, I'd like to say that I hope you all had a fabulous start to 2016. I love being part of the Lovecats pride and reading all the comments from the people who take the time to read our posts - you are all wonderful! I wish you all the best for this year and hope that all your dreams come true xx

One of my goals for 2015 was to fit as much travel in as possible, given my husband and I moved overseas to enable us to see more of the world. So it was fitting that the very last thing we did in 2015 was to take off on a European adventure. As we don’t like to do things by halves and we fit A LOT into our three weeks of travel.

ICELAND

All I can say is that if you’ve never been to Iceland before, YOU MUST GO! It was an incredible place. We happened to be there for the Winter Solstice (aka the shortest day of the year) where the sun rose at 11:45am and set around 3pm. Sadly, the three days we were there were very cloudy so we missed out on the Northern Lights…but that’s just an excuse for us to go back.

 Highlight: Feeding bread to a beautiful Icelandic horses on the side of the road

ENGLAND

Our trip to England was actually more about seeing friends than it was about sightseeing, although we still managed to fit a few things in. Our travels took us to Buckingham Palace, Harrods, Liberty London, Museum of London, the Tower of London and the Borough Market.

Highlight: Christmas lunch with our beautiful friends and their extended families, roommates and other random guests.

GERMANY

We did two stops in Germany: Berlin and Nuremberg. Berlin was amazing; incredible food, so much history and we caught the very last two days of the Christmas Markets. Walking around the market in the winter chill, drinking hot chocolates and soaking in the atmosphere was a memory I’ll treasure forever. 

Highlight: New Years Eve party in Nuremberg where we were setting off fireworks from an apartment balcony.

AUSTRIA

We hadn’t initially planned to go to Austria, but our friends in Nuremberg suggested it and they have a car. So we drove the four hours to Vienna and it was such a treat! Although VERY cold, we got to see some of the most amazing, opulent buildings I’ve ever come across in my life. We also ate a ton of schnitzel and strudel…because Austria.

Highlight: morning tea at the Sacher Hotel where we ate the famous sacher torte and felt like royalty in the incredibly opulent dining room.

After three weeks of travel I was definitely happy to come home to my own bed, although I have photos and memories that I’ll cherish forever. It certainly made me want to do a stint in Europe…perhaps that could be a goal for a future year!

Have you been to any of these places? What’s the best holiday you’ve ever had?

Vindaloo To Go

I thought I'd share a new favourite recipe!  I've been looking at vegetarian recipes and especially those with chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans) because they're full of goodness and they come in convenient, easy to transport, tins!  After a bit of combing through recipes online and in books and then a little adapting I've come up with this chickpea and vegetable semi-vindaloo!

We're on the road at the moment and I've just made this in the caravan.  The great thing about vegetarian cooking is that the clean up is easier.

This is us on the banks of the Lake Cargelligo Weir

So here's the recipe for...

Chickpea and Vegetable Semi-Vindaloo

Ingredients 

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil or butter
• 2 heaped dessert spoons of crushed ginger (or less if you don't want it too hot!)
• 1 heaped teaspoon of crushed garlic
• 3 tablespoons curry powder(again add a little less if you prefer)
• 1 x 140gm tin tomato paste
• 1 x 400ml tin coconut milk
• 1 cup vegetable broth – (a teaspoon of vegemite dissolved in warm water works here too)
• 1/2 head cauliflower, cut into florets
• 2 or 3 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 500gm diced pumpkin
• 2 x 400gm tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 250 gm mushrooms, diced
• Salt and pepper as needed

Prepared vegetables

 

Directions

1. Heat the vegetable oil/butter in a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the ginger and garlic. Saute 2 minutes.
2. Stir in the curry powder and heat for about 1 minute
3. Add the vegetable broth/vegemite and stir until any lumps have gone
4. Add tomato paste and again stir until smooth
5. Stir in the coconut milk.
6. Add all the fresh vegetables, mushrooms and chickpeas and stir.
7. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are tender stirring occasionally.  (I like it when the pumpkin is slightly overcooked and it starting to become part of the sauce.)
8. Serve with rice or noodles or on its own as the fancy takes you!

Ready to serve

I'll have mine with noodles, thanks!

And a slice of freshly baked bread!

Got any favourite spicy dishes or meals cooked with chickpeas you'd like to share?

Munich: Part 2...

Last month I told you about my first gloriously messy day in Munich. Today I’m going to tell you about 2 other truly exciting days that will remained marked in my memory for evermore. :)

DAY 3
Today the DH and I strode out to pay homage to two very different monuments. Our first stop was Schloss Nymphenburg (btw schloss is German for palace). This was the summer palace of the Bavarian rulers. Now I’ve visited the odd schloss before (sorry, I love that word. I developed an odd verbal tic where I kept saying it out loud over and over), but I hadn’t done any research so when I first clapped eyes on the place, I just stood there with my mouth open catching flies.

Maybe you’ll sympathise when you see it. This first pic is from the long avenue leading up to the schloss.

This one is closer, obviously, and of the main part of the palace (there are wings to either side, identical...and endless :-) )

This is looking back the way we'd come. Not a bad view, huh?

So the palace is modelled on Versailles, which I haven’t seen, and is utterly amazing and decadent. But then there were the gardens. I swear I could’ve spent all day exploring those. In fact we explored so hard we had to stop at the café to fortify ourselves before our next adventure.

This is the main garden avenue, but off behind the trees to either side are more avenues, less grand, but leading to wonderful things like chapels and pavilions (and a coffee shop). The woods were lush and lovely...and cool for this very warm day.

And this is the view looking back at the schloss. The garden borders and statues were wonderful.

Our second stop for the day was Allianz Arena, which, according to the DH is home to one of the mightiest football teams in the world—Bayern Munich. I like football so I was more than happy to walk for kilometres to get to the arena and then climb stairs to view the arena…and eat ice cream before heading back to the train station again. But check the arena out. I think it looks like a giant UFO.

DAY 5
I’ve always wanted to be in the middle of big mountains. I mean BIG MOUNTAINS. And seriously they don’t get much bigger than the Alps. So on our last afternoon in Munich we caught a train to Garmische-Partenkirchen (I developed a bit of a verbal tic over that one too). It took an hour and twenty minutes and we passed the most beautiful lakes. Sigh. Not to mention forests full of Christmas trees!

So we reach the end of the line—Garmische (for short ;-) )—and we went for a stroll and I did that whole mouth-open-in-awe thing before a grin plastered itself across my face and refused to leave. The winter Olympics have been held in Garmische and it’s home to Zugspitze—the highest point in Germany. One can catch a cable car to the top, but we didn’t bother with that. The point wasn’t to go to the very top, it was to experience the feeling of being surrounded by mountains and while this coastal girl lapped up the experience, I have to say it felt very odd.

It was so warm there wasn’t a speck of snow on even the highest peaks. I couldn’t believe how wonderful it smelt either—a faint mix of cut grass  and lavender. We found a beer garden where we ate black forest cake, drank beer and lapped up the view. Amazing. Utterly amazing.

I  don't know how to mark a photo with an X but Zugspitze is in this photo.

I fear one loses the grandness and majesty of the scale in photos. But it truly was an awesome sight.

I've never been at this high an altitude on land before. My fingers and feet swelled up.

Love, love, love these chalets! The entire street was lined with them.

This is the town hall...with mountains in the background. :-)

Happy sighs.

Can you see how happy I am that I had the chance to spend an afternoon in the Alps?

Promo alert! My latest release, The Redemption of Rico D'Angelo is out this month and it's set in another spectacular location -- Tasmania. So, tell me, what's one of the most spectacular sights you've ever seen?

Travelling with Animals

Okay, some might say that travelling with certain friends or family members is like travelling with animals! Not that I would of course. Mine are very civilised.

As you can see by these of photos, my post was inspired by someone I saw recently. Before you wonder, no, I wasn't driving the car at the time. I was a front seat passenger and for a change I had my camera with me just at the right time! Isn't this pooch cute?

It got me thinking about how we don't like to leave our furred family members behind. I've seen middle-aged men cycling down suburban streets while their dog runs alongside, probably keeping the pace slow so their 'master' can keep up. I've seen tiny, tiny dogs in the baskets of push bikes. I've seen a teenager hoon along the bike path not far from us, standing on a skateboard while pulled along by his cattle dog.

Admittedly I've only seen a dog in a handbag on a film, but I have seen a small canine head poking out of a backpack.

I've met people out walking in Europe, with their ferret draped around their shoulders, taking the air together. Also in Europe, I recall walking into cosy German pubs on cold days to find half the space under the table taken up by a snoozing dog.

I can't recall seeing anyone travel with a cat, except to the vet, but I'm sure it happens.

How about you? How do you cope with leaving your furred family members or don't you? Have you had adventures travelling with them? What's the strangest way you've seen a pet travel? Maybe you have an interesting animal travel experience to share. Or if you've never travelled with an animal, maybe you've encountered an interesting one on a trip.

Because it's a miserable winter's day here as I write I've decided it's time to spread some cheer. I'll give a signed copy of UNDONE BY HIS TOUCH, my current release, to someone who leaves a comment. I'll post the winner's name here before the next post goes up so do look out for that announcement.

Muse on the Move:

The Travelling Thesaurus!

by Sharon Archer


Reading: Anna Campbell's My Reckless Surrender - fantastic!

Listening to: Credence Clearwater Revival

Watching: Lie to Me

Making me smile: This great excuse... I mean this great reason to get out our trip photographs!




It's a whole year since our big trip and my questions are...

• where did all the time go!
  
• and , most importantly - when can we go again!

For those of you who don't know (and there can't be many because I'll bend anyone's ear given half a chance! ;D) we travelled around the western half of Australia for four months on the back of a motorbike, last year. It was WONDERFUL!! I learned that Australia is a huge and fascinating country!

And I want to see more!


I finished and revised book number three while we were away - BACHELOR DAD, GIRL NEXT DOOR.

Writing while we travelled was a bit like a work-in-progress -- challenging but ultimately incredibly rewarding. And with the passing kilometres, I learned what worked for me and what didn't.

For instance, it was much better for my back to sit in one of the camp chairs with the laptop on my knee than to try to sit at the table.

I needed a thesaurus in the hand - not one in the computer! Something I could thumb through, hop from word to delicious word at the flick of a page rather than the press of a button! I found this fabulous little gem in a book shop in Broome! It has a plasticised cover so it's quite robust. Don't tell my Roget's but I'm using it a lot here at home too!

Pencils rule! No worries about ink drying up, running out or not wanting to write on a grubby bit of paper. With a sharpener and a rubber to complete my kit, I was ready to scribble a snippet of dialogue, write up the diary, or fill in the sudoku.

USB sticks (thumb drives) for backing up -- because we all know how important that is, don't we! (Note to self - do back ups as soon as this is posted!)

My MP3 player! Great for tuning out distracting noises!

And since we've come home, I've discovered another must for a travelling holiday. A wireless plug-in for Internet connection. Love it! I've included it in my pic of travelling writer must-haves.

So have you got any tips, any must-haves for travel? And especially any tips or must-haves specifically for writing on the road?

I'll draw the name of one commenter out and send a copy of BACHELOR DAD, GIRL NEXT DOOR

PS And just because I can, here's a picture of us travelling by camel-power on Cable Beach in Broome.