you don"t need to save the crystal for a special day, even water tastes better in a "Fancy Glass"

Monday, January 01, 2007

one of my favorite days from the trip



One of the best days on the trip for me was 12/23- the day we traveled from vienna to prague. Reason being... the tiny town of Valtice.
Valtice lies on the road between Mikulov and Bøeclav. From way back there has been a vintner school in the place and the castle is famous for its wine-cellars. There is moreover an interesting church, a monastery and the old alms-house of the monks hospitallers.


We went to this small winery town in the czech countryside called Valtice. (val-tee-che) Stopped at a wine shop where the proprietress schooled us all about czech wines. She was great and the shop gorgeous. We bought two bottles. One of which I hope to enjoy with dinner on Jan. 2nd! when I get off a hellish day at work... we are understaffed and are going to be BUSY!

after the winery visit, we went to this great little restaurant that had a celtic inspiration but was all local czech food. First course was an amazing pork and cabbage soup. I could have stopped there! YUM. I had some white Czech wine, a local reisling. Chris had czech beer. Next course was this tasty, Marinated Cheese with onions and peppers, and then we had the mains which were HUGE. I had Chicken and potato pancakes. Finally ended up with a czech dessert, a crepe type dish with raspberries, sugar, whipped cream and poppy seeds. It was way too much food but I enjoyed every mouthful. It was especially nice to share this kind of meal. I believe food is culture and to truly experience another country you need to slow down, taste the food, drink in a cafe, relax and take it all in. A few of the folks on our tour did feel the lunch was too long. BUT I was NOT one of them. I really enjoyed relaxing and I know the kitchen and manager of this little place "the Avalon" were proud to have served us! This was one of the 3 favorite meals I had on the whole trip!

you can read more about Valtice here.

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