Those that have been regularly following our not so regularly posted adventures, must remember THE misadventure with the Gaustatoppen climb.
TOP TOP GAUSTATOPPEN
EATING IN CRES
I didn’t find Cres a particular gastro destination. I mean, there’s food, there are restaurants but nothing out of the ordinary.
OSOR
There are locations that you remember forever.
It might be your favorite childhood place, or a spot where you met your lover. Might be your favorite restaurant or just your home. But it also might be a very important part of your renaissance architecture exam. Bet you didn’t expect that 🙂
Together with the cathedrals in Šibenik and Hvar, the Osor cathedral, which is today the parish church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, is one of the few renaissance cathedrals on the Dalmatian coast with a trefoil façade.
What is a trefoil façade, you wonder? In a simple explaining term, it’s a leaf shaped three part front peace of a building, a church in this case, a symbol of Holy trinity.
Having this in mind and a fact that Osor is just a short drive from the main town of Island of Cres, we decided on a short visit. Very very short. We took one of the grandmas, the baby and arrived early in the morning, set for a coffee and bagels in the local coffee shop where everybody else was already there.
With only about twenty permanent residents currently Osor is actually an ancient town that still lies on a narrow Cavanella channel that separates the islands of Cres and Lošinj. Originally the channel was built by the Romans to make the easier passage for the sailboats, as the two island were a huge mass of land before the channel was cut.
At first the channel was of great importance for the trade sailors, but as of 15th century as the sailors became better in open sea sailing the channel lost its previous importance.
Today there’s a rotating bridge that is connecting the islands but also making a huge traffic jam as there’s only one main road leading through the islands. Very discomforting during the summer season.
One of the main attractions in the village is the Renaissance cathedral built between 1463 and 1498.
The three-nave construction of the building is attributed to the famous builder and sculptor Jurij Dalmatinec and it is considered one of the most beautiful preserved Renaissance monuments in Croatia.
The bell tower of the cathedral, located east of the cathedral, was built in 1575 by Jakob Galeta from the island of Krk.
But the most interesting details about this small village were actually bronze art sculptures representing different real or imaginary characters related to music; like composers Jakov Gotovac and Boris Papandopulo, some of them reproductions made by famous Croatian sculptors like Ivan Meštrović, Frane Kršinića, Vanje Radauša.
Small, peaceful, quiet, with it’s rich history and magical details, Osor makes for a perfect day trip if you’re vacating on one of the islands, so make sure to drop here if near.
LUBENICE
Lubenice is 🍉 not just vegetables, Lubenice is a village on the Island of Cres that we had the chance to visit during one of our summer holidays.
CRES ISLAND
My first encounter with island Cres was two years ago when we decided to spend summer vacation in Croatia.
PREIKESTOLEN
When you say Norway, the first things that comes to your mind are Vikings, fjords and beautiful nature. So beautiful that you would climb the highest mountains just for the view. The price doesn’t matter, it’s the experience.
LYSEFJORD
Before heading out to Stavanger, my only plan and desire was to hike Preikestolen.
STAVANGER
It’s no secret that we haven’t traveled Norway as much as we would like to. Apart from short city brakes to Drøbak, Drammen or Tønsberg, we still haven’t seen the west coast, the North or the South. To be completely honest, it’s crazy expensive to travel anywhere in Norway. And with long and hard winters, we always prefer to travel somewhere warm. But….last year we did several short trips around Norway.
MAHLZEIT 🌭🍺🥨
So, I have this theory where the national food resembles basic characteristics of a certain nation. Like, let’s look at Mexican food…it’s spicy, it’s colorful, it’s versatile. Like Mexicans. Or French food par exemple. It’s fancy and artsy. Simple but rich at the same time. Or Norwegian food let’s say. Perfect representation of Norwegians themselves; plain, colorless, reserved.
Well German food in that case would be straightforward, strong and powerful. Like Germans, right?
Anyway, during our ten-day road trip we had the opportunity to both dine in and out. When your friends are chefs that means that you get the best food treats and you don’t even have to dress up. You just show up for the dinner. And that’s what we did in Hohnstorf where T made the best goulash ever with tons of spätzle .
Oh, my, how I love this egg noodles and I find traveling to Germany worth only because of it, and all of the bakery products.
When we were looking for an Airbnb accommodation in Braunschweig, I was more than satisfied when I found out that around the block there’s a sandwich shop, Brötchenmanufaktur.
They had all sorts of sandwiches with all sorts of fillings; so we had few during our stay. I preferred the usual ones with salami and cheese but D went wild ordering some weird combos like jam and brie, hamburger patty or tartar with onions.
Named after a marinated slice of pork neck grilled over charcoal that is a Thuringian speciality, Thüringer Rostbrät’l in Leipzig was our lunch destination upon arriving and visiting H.
The Gasthof or a type of a German trattoria / restaurant with typical German food and wood setting is situated near a park in Gholis neighborhood.
We had the classic meat and potato options in several variations. The food was good with no big surprises, very fatty and satisfying.
A short stop in Kassel was planed but we had no restaurant plans so we just visited the first mall food court and did a small step from German food. We had Asian & Turkish food instead.
Our last dining spot while on the trip was near Dortmund. A former colleague and a friend of D owns a classical German restaurant used for various occasions like conferences or wedding but it’s also very popular among the locals that like to dine out in the early evening hours of the weekend or for Sunday lunch.
The Bürgerhaus is set in a peaceful and idyllic village some thirty minutes drive from Dortmund.
The rich menu offers variety of dishes, both German and Croatian ones, so we had soup after long long time. SOUP!
If you come from Croatia you are probably familiar with the fact that no lunch, especially Sunday lunch is complete without a soup. My favorite ones are clear coups made from chicken or veal, something that one can’t find in Norway. They only have creamy, thick veggies soups, so I was delighted that we had, not just a plate but a bowl of soup offered to us.
Vegetable soup
We enjoyed some surf and turf combinations as well, and a lot of meat. Yum!
Simple but great and strong dishes enjoyed in a good company are the reason why I document these trips and stories, because I want to remember them forever. Not to make you envy, or me hungry again while writing about it 🙂
RUNDREISE DURCH DEUTSCHLAND 🚗
A lot of our friends and acquaintances in Germany invited us for a visit on several occasion, but only last year in March we decided to take up on those invitations.