Whirlwind In A Mama's Head

  One of the main highlights of our trip is the visit to the famous Lavender fields of Provence, France. You know, the rows or purple flowers in photos all over Instagram? The time of our visit was just the right time to see the lavenders in bloom, so I was very excited about it.  In the Provence area, Valensole is one of the most popular village to visit to see the lanvender fields. The fields are actually outside the village, but you can stop in Valensole for meals, shopping, and accommodation. So after our stop in Mandelieu / La Napoule, we continued driving to Valensole. It was close to sunset when we approached Valensole, and just a few minutes before we reached the village we spotted several cars parked on the street side and people walking in the field. It was one of the Lavender fields! Excited, we made the quick decision to follow suit and parked. The lavenders weren’t as purple as I had seen in pictures, but it smelled so good! One thing we realized at that time was ...

 The drive from Ventimiglia Italy to our next main destination was a bit long, so we took two stops on the way. One was Monaco, simply because it was Monaco. The other stop was Mandelieu/La Napoule in France because it was right in between and looked interesting. 

  After we checked out of the agriturismo in Ventimiglia, we continued driving towards France. The French-Italian border was actually just 7 minutes away! We kept driving to our next stop: Monaco! As an Indonesian citizen, the first thing that comes to mind when Monaco is mentioned is the similarity between our flags. They are both red and white, and the only difference is in the ratio between the width and height of the flag. Another trivia info: Poland’s flag is the same colours but with the white on top. In case you are wondering, though very small, Monaco is a country that’s a sovereign state only larger than Vatican. Despite the size, it is also known as one of the wealthiest and most expensive places in the world. It’s a place where the crazy-riches hang out, and you need to have an invitation to live there. One of the most famous person tied to Monaco is Grace of Monaco. Also known as Grace Kelly, the American actress became the Princess of Monaco when she married Prince Rai...

  The town of Finale Ligure is a beach town located between Genoa and Ventimiglia. We made a brief stop here just to look around. We parked in a paid parking lot right by the beach and walked around the old town. The beach was somewhat busy, though I’m sure it will get busier in July. Here we entered St. John The Baptist Basilica, it was beeeautiful inside! Finale Ligure is also famous for their olive oil, specifically the Olio Salvo Finale.

  After spending 2 nights in Parma, we continued our journey towards France, along the Italian Riviera. That day, we left Parma in the morning and started driving towards Ventimiglia, the closest town to France in Italy. Between Parma and Ventimiglia, we made several stops. The first one is Genova, or Genoa. Don’t confuse this with Geneva, as they are two different places :D Genova is a large port town in the Italian Riviera. It’s the capital city of the Liguria area of Italy, and it’s a very busy one, The old town is known for their very narrow lanes, so the buildings looks like they’re almost touching each other. This place is also where the Pesto alla Genovese originates from.  When we arrived in Genova, it was around lunch time. We parked in a paid parking lot (Park and Ride) where my parking skills were put to test. The X5 we rented has an auto parking feature. But either we were not using it right, or it was not able to squeeze itself in to the extra tight parking spot. ...

  Those who know us, know that we love Italian food. Which is why when there is an opportunity to go to Parma we could not pass it up. Because you know what is in Parma… the Parma ham! The whole area is full of distinct products, such as Balsamic Vinegar from the nearby Modena and the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese from an area of the same name. Due to our limited time in Parma, we had to choose between a cheese-making tour or a Parma ham tour. We decided on the latter. There are several salumificio that offer factory tour, but based on distance, time, and price, we chose La Perla Salumificio . Before we talk more about this factory tour, let’s backtrack a bit as we drove from Verona to Parma… I had booked an apartment in Parma for 2 nights via Booking.com. When we reached the apartment, it was already close to dinner time. So we quickly unpack and started walking towards the old town where the restaurant we wanted to have dinner at is located. The Trattoria Corrieri  was recomme...

    Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean ...  — Romeo and Juliet, W. Shakespeare Who has not heard of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Whether you’ve read it or not, you probably know the storyline of the unfortunate young lovers. We’ve had the chance to visit Verona, the setting of this classic play. I’ll tell you more about it, but let’s start with our journey there from the Dolomites. We checked out of our apartment near Lake Braies and followed Google Maps to Val Gardena. After driving through long, winding roads, we found that Google Maps brought us to the middle of nowhere, not in Val Gardena. We traced back a little and found signage, but decided not to go to Val Gardena afterall. Instead, we parked on the roadside and walked for a nice view of the village.

  The Dolomites, known as the Italian Alps, is breathtaking no matter where you turn your heads. When I did my research on what to see and do there, I had a hard time choosing. In the end, I couldn’t decide until we were already there.  We woke up to a beautiful view in front of our window, of the greeneries spread so vast and we watched the morning fog floating down the hill. We had breakfast in our little apartment and soon after we were ready to go explore the mountains (by car).

  We only had one night in Innsbruck, but somehow we managed to pack our time there with the things we wanted to do. Or to be more precise, the things that I decided we wanted to do :D After spending one night, we had our breakfast buffet at the hotel which was included in our room rate. The breakfast was pretty good, we enjoyed it very much. Then, we took the car and found free parking near the station where we wanted to take the funicular train to the top of Innsbruck. The tickets were very affordable, especially when compared to cable car tickets in Switzerland or in Canada.

Innsbruck Old Town It was our last day in Germany! I took the opportunity in the morning to meet up with my highschool friend who recently moved to Munich. She and her hubby were nice enough to meet us at a cafe very close to our hotel. After our quick catch-up, we went to a grocery shop. Yes, I am at the age where shopping abroad involves grocery shopping lol. There was something that I wanted to bring home from Germany: bread flour. I jumped on to the sourdough baking wagon during the pandemic and still continues to bake regularly. One thing I realize is that we can’t really get nice bread flour in Jakarta. At least not at a decent price. Meanwhile I know Europe has a wide variety of strong flour so I wanted to bring some home. I got myself a kilo each of 3 different types of organic flour, and a few packs of dry pasta made from the same flour. We then walked around the neighborhood until it was time to check out of our hotel and pick up our rental car.

  It was the second day and I had had something exciting planned! The Neuschwanstein Castle is world-famous for being the inspiration of Disney’s Cinderella castle. One look at the shape and you’ll see the resemblance. Prior to our travel, I have done my research and decided not to go inside the castle but simply view it from the outside. Marien bridge is one of the best viewing spot but we’ll talk more about it later. That morning, we had breakfast in our room, making use of the ensuite kitchen. We bought the ingredients the day before at the grocery store. Nothing too fancy but tomatoes and sausages do taste a lot better in Europe :D