Exploring The City

full vegetarian breakfast

This morning my boyfriend and I enjoyed breakfast at the castle. It was a real treat to be on the other side of the kitchen again. Breakfast is by far my favorite meal of the day, and I have always adored how breakfast is done at the castle. It is so special and so much care is put into it. I have tasted most of the elements on their own, but it is different to sit down as a guest and order what you want, and it made me realize why we hold an award for the best breakfast. Guests are offered tea and coffee on arrival, and are brought hot toast - white and multigrain. The tables are already set with sugar cubes, cream, butter, and marmalade. Guests can help themselves to the buffet set up in ceramic jars at the front of the impressive dining room. The buffet includes a minimum of five types of fruit salad (mixed fruit, apricots in vanilla syrup, prunes in port, pineapple in lime syrup, oranges in caramel, poached pears, grapefruit segments), several types of cereals (crisp rice, museli, cocoa puffs, wheat biscuits, cornflakes), several types of nuts and dried fruits (raisins, linseed, walnut halves, flaked almonds, pumpkin seeds), several types of juice (pineapple, grapefruit, cranberry, apple, orange), three types of homemade bread (brioche, wheaten, and banana), several types of jam, natural yogurt, several kinds of pastries, fresh fruit, and granola parfaits. Next they come to take your order for hot food from the menu, which includes full breakfasts and full vegetarian breakfast, omeletes, porridge, scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, eggs Benedict, and kippers. My boyfriend ordered the full vegetarian breakfast and I ordered the buttermilk pancakes with seasonal berry compote. 

After breakfast we packed up and checked out of the castle, retrieved the remainder of our belongings from the B&B, and took a taxi into town. We then took a bus into the capital city. There was a bit of confusion with our bus tickets and which bus to get on, but we made it ok.

We arrived at the city bus station by 4:00p.m., which was a bit further from the hostel then we had intended to arrive, but still within walking distance. We grabbed a map from the bus station, and tried to find our way. I just wanted to check in at the hostel first because it was a bit annoying for my boyfriend to have to lug his huge suitcase around the city, and we both had backpacks as well. Problem is, both my boyfriend and I are bad with directions and I cannot read maps. After a few wrong turns, we found the hostel and the walk was not all bad as we found several interesting spots we decided to return to once we ditched our baggage. Plus the weather was great. We checked in to a hostel room with three sets of bunkbeds, no sign of our roommates, but the place seemed clean and comfortable enough, then headed back out into the city. We decided to just wander around, eventually heading back the way we had came, and trying to get to the few things I had on my list of things to do, but mostly just walking and stopping anywhere that caught our interest. 

Nutella waffle

One of our first stops was a chocolate café, where we shared an iced chocolate drink, an uncommon drink that we had last summer on our trip and absolutely love. It came with a truffle as well, and we chose a Bailey’s dark chocolate. Next we stumbled upon the crêpe shop I had wanted to go to, without even trying, so decided we may as well stop and eat a late lunch here. He had a Grand Marnier chocolate Nutella crêpe, and I had a Bailey’s Nutella Banana Ice Waffle. Both were made fresh to order right in front of us, were chocolaty, sweet, and absolutely divine. We moved on to some more city sights and exploring a shopping center, then eventually found the gelato place I had on my list, after a bit of trouble with locating the street. (Later we more easily stumbled upon two more of their locations). This place had tons of decadent gelato flavors, and crêpes as well. We discovered that a “take-home” container of gelato would be cheaper than us each getting two scoops, and the portion size turned out to be much bigger as well. The employee also let us choose four different flavors, so my boyfriend chose lemon sorbet and pineapple sorbet, and I chose Belgian chocolate gelato and Nutella gelato. I can never get enough Nutella. He gave us a ton of spoons, and we walked over to the park to sit, watch the ducks on the water, and eat gelato for supper. The fruit ones were refreshing, but of course I much preferred my chocolate gelatos. So very yummy! 

gelato

We started making our way back to the way we had came, only to discover a lot of things were closed by now, including the castle, wax museum, and the bakeries we had spotted on the way to the hostel. We figured we might as well turn in early, then wake up early when these places would hopefully be open again. We had been afraid less than twenty-four hours in this city would not be enough, but with just wandering around and not having any solid plans to visit museums or go on tours, wandering around allowed us to see a lot of the city in a short amount of time, pick and choose where we stopped, and was just plain fun! After discovering the wifi at the hostel was not working, we went to the city square to look up a few things and contact home. We didn’t visit any pubs or bars but enjoyed the warm city air. Back at the hostel, wifi was now working, so we watched another cooking show episode, though it was mostly my boyfriend interested this time as I was falling asleep. This hostel bunk was actually comfier than my bunk back in staff accommodations.