The second leg of our adventure saw us heading to Lake Hallstatt in Austria. We showed you the pictures before we left so you can only imagine how excited we were to see the beautiful scenery.
Whenever we do these European road trips, we always just pick a nice sounding town from the motorway signs and stop there for lunches. So we chose Kitzingen for a petrol and food stop. It was a fairly long drive so in the end we had a cheeky McDonalds for lunch and got back on the road. I ordered a box of 9 nuggets and they only gave me 8 so when I went back to let them know, they gave me 2 more…bonus nugget!
As we got closer to Austria we started to see signs for toll roads. I thought I would have a quick look online to check if you have to pay with cash/card and thank goodness I did. It turns out that they recently introduced a sticker system called a “vignette”. You have to buy and display the sticker in your car which cost us 14 Euros. It’s a good thing we found out about it early enough because if you get to a toll without a sticker, they can fine you up to 400 Euros!
Having checked the weather forecast, we were disappointed to find out that it was going to be cloudy and raining at the lake. Unfortunately that’s exactly what we found when we arrived there. This didn’t stop the lake from being so beautiful. We drove along long windy mountain roads – I was driving so you can imagine how calm Ads was as the passenger 😉
We arrived at our little guesthouse around 7pm and were incredibly disappointed by the look of it from the outside. It was a bit shabby and I was so worried that I had messed up as I booked all of the accommodation. We went inside and everything changed. The owner was a lovely lady who spoke English and checked us in. Our room was absolutely stunning with a lovely bed and gorgeous shower, and everything was purple! The owner asked us what time we would like breakfast so we arranged that for 9am and headed out to a local restaurant that she recommended. We had the most amazing dinner in this super cute Austrian restaurant which included goulash, shnizel and apple strudel.
We headed back to the hotel and watched the Barcelona game on my laptop. In the morning, we came downstairs for breakfast to find that the owner had laid out an entire buffet at our own private table. There was juice, fruit, different types of bread, meats and cheeses, yoghurts, pastries and cereals. I’ve never seen anything like it, and all just for us. She made us a cup of tea and coffee each and a boiled egg. We knew we had a long journey to Zagreb so Ads made a genius decision to make a ham and cheese sandwich and wrap it in a napkin to take for lunch in the car.
We walked across the road to the side of the lake to film a video and get some cool pictures. Even though it was cold and cloudy, it was still so lovely to see. We are planning to stop there on the way home as it will be sunny and even more beautiful. We checked out from our lovely little hotel and as we were packing up the car, we noticed that they were hanging wooden boards and cladding all round the outer pagoda. They were obviously mid-renovation which is why it looked so shabby when we arrived.
We checked our route which was taking us through Slovenia and it turned out that we needed another toll vignette sticker for Slovenia so we found a petrol station where we could buy one and set off on the road to Zagreb.
At 6.30am on Thursday 7th April, our alarm woke us up and I’ve never been so glad to get up that early. I felt a rush of excitement and nerves as we triple checked our packing and, after an obligatory cup of tea, set off for Dover. Quite early into our journey, Google Maps kindly let me know that there was a 1hr delay on the M20 so we quickly took another route and made it to the ferry with plenty of time to spare. The crossing was quite choppy which, combined with my half asleep eyes, made me look like a drunken hobo when I tried to walk to the duty free shop; but we made it to Dunkirk safe and sound.
Ghent city centre
I drove us off the ferry and, having checked our route to Frankfurt, we decided to stop an hour later in Ghent (Belgium) for some lunch, as we recognised the name from the Champions League. It turns out we had forgotten, you can’t really stop for lunch in Europe from 2pm onwards. The city centre was beautiful with a lovely river but the restaurants were either closed or mega money. We sucked it up and bought some pasta pots from the local Spar, which turned out to be a winner because the cashier gave us free chocolate biscuits! Ads didn’t realise she had given them to us on purpose so when he saw them on top of our shopping at the till, he sneakily covered them with one of the pasta pots. It was only once we were out of the shop that he proudly proclaimed he had snagged us some free biscuits and I had to burst his bubble 🙂 We happily munched our pasta, biscuits and the malt loaf I had packed along the rest of our route.
Our apartment in Hochheim. If you look closely enough, you can see me looking very happy with some wine and very think thanks to the pano effect!
We arrived at our apartment in Hochheim am Main (a town just outside of Frankfurt) at around 8pm and were greeted by the owner’s daughter and her partner who helped us with our luggage and checked us in. We were both very tired so I made some chicken for dinner and then we went to sleep.
Euro Bank HQ
The next day, we drove into Frankfurt and went straight to the nearest Vapiano for lunch…yum! We then found a lovely spot for a video, right next to the headquarters of the Euro bank, so we got set up and recorded the first video of the trip.
We then decided to drive over to the venue where we would be partying that night, to see where it was and where we could park. It turned out to be right next to a shopping mall which had a lovely roof top cafe, so we had a drink up there and wandered around the shops searching for face moisturiser because I somehow forgot to pack mine 🙁
We stopped down the road from our apartment for a latte, spent some time chilling and eating dinner, then we got ready and headed back into the city. The venue for the show was quite small and completely packed. We made our way right into the middle of the crowd and soaked up the atmosphere as Axwell /\ Ingrosso started playing. Unfortunately the atmosphere wasn’t the only thing we soaked up, as the tall sweaty Germans were dancing with their arms in the air (like they just didn’t care), so we decided to escape BO central and head to the back of the room where there was much more space and a better view.
The show was spectacular and well worth the wait since Christmas! We left the venue around 3am and Ads decided it would be a brilliant idea to shoot a night video, so we drove to one of the pretty bridges over the river and set everything up with the light. It was freezing cold at this point but it was such a cool view, we had to do it. Ads was doing an amazing job of speaking as usual when a homeless man decided to wander over and ask if we had any cigarettes. I don’t remember advertising for extras! Ads handled it like a champ and we kept it in the video for entertainment value.
We then slept for a few hours then packed up all of our things and hit the road again, heading for Lake Hallstatt in Austria.
Ingredients for buttercream filling (double the recipe if you want to cover the cake as well)
75g unsalted butter at room temperature – it should be soft
170g icing sugar
2 tbsp milk
Drop of vanilla extract (optional)
Strawberry jam
Ingredients for fresh strawberries and cream filling
300ml double cream
3 tsp caster sugar
Fresh strawberries
Method
Cake
Heat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas Mark 5
Grease the base and sides of your tins with butter and then line the base with baking paper.
Crack the eggs into a large bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and use an electric hand mixer to mix until smooth. You can also use a wooden spoon for this.
Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake for about 25mins or until the cakes are golden – check them after 20mins.
Buttercream
First, beat the butter in a bowl for about 5 minutes until it’s really smooth and lighter in colour.
Add half of the icing sugar and beat again, then add the rest and keep beating until it’s all mixed.
Add the milk (and vanilla if using) and beat some more until it’s a smooth almost white paste.
Cream
Pour the cream and sugar into a mixing bowl and use a whisk or electric mixer to beat them until it thickens into a paste.
Slice the strawberries.
Cake assembly
Once the cakes have cooled down, use a bread knife or cake wire to level them out.
Use a piping bag or icing gun to cover the top of one cake with buttercream or cream mixture. Top that with a layer of jam or make a nice pattern with the strawberries.
Place the second cake on top and dust with icing sugar.
Bring the cream to boiling point, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for five minutes.
Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, beat the sugar, vanilla and egg yolks together in a large heatproof bowl until fluffy.
Bring the cream back to boiling point, then pour it over the egg mixture, whisking continuously until thickened.
Fill the six ramekins with a layer of pureed mango on the bottom, then fill them to about two-thirds full with the mixture.
Place the ramekins into a large roasting tray and fill with enough hot water to come halfway up their outsides (a bain-marie).
Place the bain-marie onto the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the custards are just set but still a bit wobbly in the middle.
Remove the ramekins from the water and set aside to cool to room temperature.
When ready to serve, sprinkle one level teaspoon of caster sugar evenly over the surface of each crème brûlée, then caramelise with a chefs’ blowtorch.
To test the heat of the oil, drop a few fennel seeds in. They should float and sizzle but not too quickly.
When hot add fennel seeds and dry red chillies.
Add the onions straight away and brown for about 30mins. They should be soft and starting to brown.
If you find that the oil is bubbling away, turn it down at touch.
Add the garlic/ginger paste and stir.
Add the turmeric, chilli powder and coriander powder which should make a nice paste. Cook for a few minutes while stirring.
Add tomatoes and salt.
Turn the heat down and simmer with a lid on until the mixture thickens (around 10-15mins).
At this point you can use a stick blender or masher to create your desired consistency.
Add the chicken and stir. Cook with the lid on for at least 30mins. Keep stirring it and making sure it’s still simmering away.
At this point, you can just leave it simmering for another 15-30mins as the chicken will become nice and soft.
If using cashews: Wash the cashew nuts and mix in a blender with about 100-150ml water, until it becomes a nice thick paste. It shouldn’t be too liquidy.
If using ground almonds: simply add water to 50g ground almonds until it becomes a nice paste. It shouldn’t be too liquidy but make sure all the almonds are mixed in.
Add this to the curry and stir in.
Add the chopped coriander right before dishing up.
