Marianne's roadtrips

The Cologne Cathedral was what inspired me to undertake this trip. It is one of the best examples of Gothic architecture in the world, in my opinion. The area around the cathedral is so built up that it was difficult to get it all in one shot, but it is a magnificent piece of artwork. The inside is even more spectacular.

This is the main aisle as you walk in. As you can tell, it is an immense space. There was no line to get in and even with many tourists inside, you could find a place to sit and spend some time to admire the majesty of it.

This is the main altar.

This is just one of the side altars.

This is just one of the side windows.

The Ludwig museum is right next to the Cathedral. It had a great exhibit of the artists that came after the Impressionists: Expressionists, Surrealists, Dadaists, Pointillists and Cubist. The exhibit was curated in a way that even I could understand how the art world moved from one style to the next. No huge crowds, so you could take your time and really grasp the different concepts.

Both the Cologne Cathedral and the Ludwig Museum are along the river and the park behind them offers a good view of the Hohenzollern bridge. The bridge was severely damaged during WWII and they have done a wonderful job of rebuilding it.

There are many restaurants along the river. They cater to the tourists that are disembarking from the many river cruise ships.

Just behind the restaurants you can see the spires of the Great St.. Martin Cathedral, shown better in the photo below.

The Rathaus, or town hall, was undergoing major renovations. I would love to see the building once renovations are completed.

Rathouse Square was a great stop for lunch, good site for people watching too.

Cologne is an interesting mix of old and new.

I stayed in an area called Media Park, away from the Old Town and tourist area. It was a modern office area but they made sure to add some nature to the area.

The Rhine has always been a way for transporting goods and some of the local architects have considered this history when designing their buildings.

These are the Kranehaus apartments along the river. They bring to mind the large cranes that were used to off load cargo from the ships. Although they look fascinating, there is no way you would get me to take an apartment without any visible means of support under it.

I took this photo from a bike path along the Rhine. I had found a bike rental office near the Cathedral, underneath the rail station. It was very inexpensive to rent a 7 speed bike and it gave me a different view of the city. I rode on the bike path along the river as I was not up to braving the traffic on the roads.

Within a few miles of the Cathedral you could find a beach club. The beach club doesn’t have access to any water but does have a great view of the river and sand in which to park you beach chair. I found these in Vienna and Florence as well, river view but no access. Very interesting.

I also rode past a nice campground a couple of miles away. Beautiful areas with lots of big shady trees and views of the river. May have to consider something like that for my next visit.

This may be hard to see but there is a flock of sheep grazing here. This is up river of the Cathedral about 3-4 miles. Wasn’t out in the countryside but gave me the feeling for what that might be like. They use the sheep as an ecological way of maintaining the greenway along the river.

Next stop Bruges, Belgium!

I have put Salzburg back on my bucket list as I’m already planning on going back.

How can you not fall in love with a place that looks like a fairy tale? This is the view of the Old Town and fortress from the bridge that leads to Schloss Mirabell.

Mirabell was the home of the Archibishop’s mistress and their 14 children. This is the main garden. A number of the scenes from the movie The Sound of Music were filmed here, incuding the Do Re Mi step scene. It’s impossible to take a decent photo of the steps as they are constantly filled with “Music” tourists creating their own scenes.

This is the side garden of Mirabell, it was usually pretty quite and calm. Throughout the main garden and the tree shaded allees you could find all sorts of musicians, from the guitarist playing with a hat out for donations, to the local community band that plays a regular Sunday morning concert, to a Mariachi band from Texas!

This is the Salzburg cathedral on the left and the white portion is the addition added by the archbishop. It was so he could walk from his residence on the right to the cathedral through the 2nd story walkway. This way he didn’t have to mingle with the common folk.

This is the Archibishops residence. Once the pope found out about his mistress and their 14 kids he called him to Rome. Pope was a bit put out as he himself only had 9 kids with his mistress!

I was here during the annual Mozart festival. Mozart square is right next to the Residence square. There was a piano in the square and anyone could and did play on it. I heard classical, jazz, blues and some modern music played on it. The other side of the Cathedral they have a giant screen set and they show past performance on it for free during the day and night. In front of the Cathedral is the main stage.

I attended an organ concert in the Cathedral and it was the perfect setting for it. It was kind of dark inside so the only photo that really came out was of the organ itself. The music was as beautiful as the instrument that created it.

I took the Fraulein Maria Sound of Music Bike Tour. We got to see the buildings they used for the movies. Some were in town and some were out a ways, great way to see the area, on a cruise bike! We even had the sound track playing as we were out riding down a country lane. We were a group of about 8 and with everyone singing along it was it was just like the scene from the movie. Totally corny and I would do it again in a heartbeat!

This was the house they used for filming the front of the Von Trapp house.

Salzburg’s Old Town is very walkable so I spent a number of hours just wandering around enjoying the views.

There are hillsides surrounding Salzburg. There is a great hiking trail just opposite of Old Town.

This is the start of the hike, pretty steep at the start.

Part of the trail is paved, some is steps and some is dirt.

This is the end of one of the trails, Franziskischloss.

The views from the trail were great!

The mountains in the distance reminded me of home, might be why I felt so comfortable there. I found Salzburgers to be willing to help you see the best of it. I got great advise from folks on park benches, beer gardens and anywhere else that I pulled out my map to decide where to go next.

Apparently the internet connection at my hotel is less than stellar as I am unable to upload any photos. Will be returning to the states on Wednesday, August 28th and will get caught up as soon as possible once there.

Thanks for all your wonderful comments, I really appreciate them!

Capital of Austria and summer home of the Hapsburgs. If fancy buildings and works of art are your thing, this is the place.

Belvedere Schloss or Palace was the summer home of Prince Eugene of Savoy. It is actually two palaces, the Upper Belvedere (shown above) and the Lower Belvedere. The upper house is now a museum with a great art collection. If nothing else see Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss” . They have a replica copy in the marble room. This is so people can take their selfies without blocking traffic in front of the original. Much need as the original is mesmerizing. Took me about 20 minutes to realize I needed to move on and let others take my spot.

The marble room itself is a masterpiece. This is the ceiling of the marble room. You can go up to the next floor and look through those windows to see some of the detail on the fresco.

The gardens and fountains in between the Upper and Lower Belvedere’s are simply a different canvas.

As with most grand buildings, restoration is an ongoing necessity. Vienna has found an innovative way to help defray some of the costs.

This is the Cathedral of Vienna, undergoing a massive re do. That is a beer ad on the side scaffolding. Makes sense as it was the friars that started the brewing tradition in Europe.

The Opera house is in the middle of town. It is a regular meeting place for a lot of the tour groups in Vienna. Right behind it is the Sacher Hotel, known for their delicious Sacher Torte. Nearby is the Albertina, another must see museum. I was there for their exhibit “From Monet to Picasso”. The audio tour really helped explain the monumental changes in the art world from the end of World War One forward. I’ve run out of words to describe the artwork itself, just ecstatic that I got to see it.

This is the Franz von Assisi church, just another building that I liked.

This is the other palace I saw, Schonbrunn Schloss. A little further from the center of the city, this was the summer palace for the last of the Hapsburg dynasty.

The gardens and fountains outside are wonderful. Best thing is that most of it is free and open to the public.

You can spend hours wandering around the grounds.

The fountains each have their own appeal. Not sure I understood this one, but I liked it.

Next to the palace is the Privvy Garden. Gives me ideas for my own garden, once I hit the lottery.

The Orangery is actually the building where they stored all the citrus and tropical plants. All the plants in the gardens outside the orangery are potted and moved in for the winter.

There is a cafe at the front that is perfect for enjoying a beer and some sausage after a days sightseeing. Also great for people watching. There was a trio of noisy guests that showed up. Just sitting there people watching, hearing sirens getting closer and closer.

Then all of a sudden 3 firetrucks come racing in and around towards the back, followed by 4-5 other police and fire vehicles. Never heard what it was all about and did check the news for the next couple of days. Talked to a local and we decided it must have just been a tourist stuck up a tree.

I’m trying my best not to be “that American tourist”. So far so good.

See you in Salzburg!

Budapest is actually two cities. Buda and Pest. The Danube runs between them. Buda is to the west on the hill and Pest is on the flat land east of the river. I was staying in Pest and started my explorations by taking the metro to Deak Ferenc Ter

This is a building you first see when you come up from the Metro in Deak Ferenc ter. (I believe ter means square or plaza.) I have no idea if it has a name, just thought it was worth a photo.

Just a block down the street is St. Elizabeths. It has been built up around it, making it difficult to get a better shot.

From here you take a bus across the Elizabeth bridge.

From up on the hill you can get a better photo of the bridge and church. As you can tell by the cruise ships, this is a pretty popular stop.

Once you are on the Buda side you can take the castle bus to see the sights. The “bus” it is like a golf cart on steroids. It has about 8 bench seats that can hold 3 people each. It doesn’t have a great deal of speed going up but our driver was doing his Indy 500 impression coming down. With all the hairpin turns you really get to know the person sitting next to you.

The castle complex is fairly large and now houses the Prime Minister’s office as well as the National Gallery, National History Museum, National Archives, City Hall and St. Matthias church.

This is the former Royal Palace, now the home of the National Gallery. They have a good collection of art from the 1800’s forward, Monet, Gauguin and Toulouse Lautrec as well as others, well worth visit.

These guys were hanging out in front of the Museum. Officially Palace Guards but a great photo opp for tourists.

St. Matthias church is beautiful, another building with incredible tile roof.

It was too big to get all in one photo!

At the far end of the complex is the Buda Tower. It dates back to the 1200’s and is the only original building that survived intact throughout time. The church that was attached to it, is long gone, with only the foundation remaining. At one time the church had a wooden wall down the middle so that it could be shared, Protestant on one side, Catholics on the other. The tower made it through both world wars and then was forgotten during the Communist reign. It was brought back to life just in the last 5 years. It has a staircase up the middle and gives great views of the surrounding buildings as well as the city.

This is the view of Hungarian National Archives from the top of the Buda Tower. Just another gorgeous building.

One of the reasons I wanted to go to Budapest was to see their thermal baths. There are 3 main baths, they are all beautiful and very well known. I decided to visit the Gellert baths as they were smaller and would be less crowded.

This is the lobby as you enter the spa.

This is the indoor pool.

This is the outdoor complex. The main pool also now has a wave action. They run the waves every hour for about 15 minutes. I was surprised to see how excited everyone got about it. Then I realized that a beach with surf action isn’t that common in this area of the world.

The hot pool is on the left. I got here about 9:30 in the morning so it was just me and a couple dozen seniors in the whole place. After all the walking I’ve been doing a soak in the hot pool was just what I needed. Later in the day as the sun got hotter the cooler wave pool was a big draw. Starting about noon I kept saying, just another 30 minutes. I left about 2:30. Good thing about coming early is you got your pick of chairs and umbrellas, no sunburn for this kid!

I was a little worried before I got to Budapest as I had started reading the reviews of my hotel. Most were pretty good but one guy just hated it, said the AC didn’t work, there were bugs and it wasn’t clean. Once I got there I realized you can’t believe everything you hear. No bugs, AC was fine and my room was spotless. The building was a former apartment building, definitely Soviet era. Concrete square, with central courtyard. They had modernized it by putting elevators in the courtyard, thankfully. Breakfast was served on the top floor with a great terrace.

This was my view in the morning.

There was a great farmers market here one morning. Another morning I heard folk music and went exploring. It was a group of seniors, mostly women, that were learning dance steps on the basketball court. Sat with a couple of older women on the sidelines and watched. We smiled at each other and enjoyed the show.

For all the different neighborhoods I have stayed in, I have never once felt that I wasn’t welcomed. Most of them I have felt like everyone’s odd cousin from American. Oh yeah, that’s Marianne, she doesn’t speak the language but she’s ok. Not sure I would get this feeling everywhere in the States.

Venice is such a feast for the eyes, you could get lost in it’s beauty. I did, twice. I thought I was a pretty good map reader, but if I didn’t have google maps tracking me I would still be trying to find my way home.

Gondola’s on the Grand Canal are one of the first sights you’ll see when you come out of the train station. According to my map I should have had a 10 minute walk to my hotel. Problem was it wasn’t a hotel, it was a condo. There was no sign out front and after walking around the block a few times I started reading mailbox names and found it. My confirmation did not mention that I would need to let them know when I would be arriving so they could meet me. Fortunately, Saint Marta was living on the 3rd floor and called them and then let me wait in the lobby out of the heat. It only took them about an hour to get there.

For 3 days all I did was wander around.

Each new turn brought another photo opportunity.

I was staying on the North end of the island. The Ponte di Rialto or Rialto bridge is about half way down the island. Like the Ponte Vecchio in Florence it is full of shops and tourists.

This is coming down the steps of the Rialto. I think know that I got lost on purpose, trying to avoid the crowds. Much better to get an early start to avoid some of them.

St. Mark’s Cathedral is at the South end of the island and worth the walk!

The Doges’s palace is right next to St. Marks.

When you get tired of walking around, buy an all day ticket for the vaporetto or water bus. You can get off and on all day and the views from the water are amazing too.

No idea what this building is but it sure caught my eye!

This church shall remain nameless too, should have taken pen and paper with me.

The vaporetto goes all around Venice and out to the outer islands of Murano, Burano and Lido. I went out to Murano as I heard it was pretty and it is well known for it’s glass blowers.

This is the church on Murano, smaller than St. Marks but it has it’s own beauty.

Murano only has 2 canals running through it, giving everyone a little more breathing room.

Your are also exposed to the ocean, so temperature is a bit cooler, only in the 80’s. However, humidity was 257%.

Found a little place I liked, unfortunately it wasn’t for sale. Course I would need a boat to get over there too.

This wasn’t for sale either.

This was in my neighborhood after it rained all night and most of a day. High tide meant you got your feet wet. If you are planning a trip to Venice a few years out, you may want to pack your snorkel.

Another shot of the Grand Canal. The bridge in the distance is always full of people, which makes sitting at a cafe or bar nearby great for people watching. I hung out for a couple of hours doing that my last night here. Time well spent.

There were 2 things I wanted to see in Milan, the Cathedral of Milan and the La Scala, the opera house.

La Scala was open for tours but not performances as they were renovating. They were nice enough to put a photo of the restoration by the ticket box. The entire middle of the theater is covered in scaffolding and you can only get view from the third floor boxes. So any view would include the scaffolding. Guess I’ll have to make plans to come back.

All was not lost as the Duomo or Cathedral of Milan was worth the trip alone.

The Cathedral is located on the Piazza del Duomo. This view is from the steps in front of the Cathedral.

This is the Galleria de Vittorio Emanuele II. It is also on the Piazza.

Let’s start with the Galleria.

There are 4 wings and the center dome. There are huge frescoes around the dome.

There are high end shops and restaurants all through the Galleria. I’m not sure if it’s office space or apartments and hotels up above. There is also a great book shop with a good selection of English language books. Guess where I shopped?

It’s very hard to get a good photo of the Cathedral because of the amount of people in the Piazza in front. People and pigeons. There is actually someone selling bird food so you can pose for pictures with pigeons all over you. The idea gave me the willies. The kids in the Piazza are either terrified of the pigeons and running away from them or trying to catch them and running at them. Either option guarantees a sudden takeoff just as you walk by,

This is one of the many front doors of the Cathedral

This gives you an idea of the detail work on the front. The whole of the Cathedral is covered in this type of detail, just amazing craftsmanship.

This is one of the main aisles, it gives you an idea of the size of the Cathedral.

This is the main altar, the area down front and behind it are roped off with only those attending sercices allowed through. There was an 8 am service while I was there so I got to hear the organ. Going early means you get to avoid the larger crowds and later heat. The back of the Cathedral faces East so the early morning sun really lights up the stained glass.

The side altars are beautiful as well.

You can take either the stairs or the elevator to the roof top. I chose the 251 stairs. Have to work off that gelato and pasta somehow!

I walked around the back of the church to get to the stairs. This view shows the amount of detail on the building.

This is my second favorite gargoyle.

This is one of the views from and of the top of the cathedral.

This is one of the stonemason’s working on a replacement piece. I only got 2 photos before I was shooed away. I did talk to another mason. The blocks these are carved from weigh about 250 kilograms, about 500 pounds, crazy.

This is a view of the side of the cathedral from the roof gallery, they were working on the very top so couldn’t get up there.

This was my favorite gargoyle. Looks like something out of Harry Potter!I spent a couple of days just wandering around the cathedral area and my own little neighborhood. I wasn’t staying in an area with a lot of tourists. None of the restaurants had English translations of the menu, but I could figure quite a bit out and had some great dinners.

Hope you enjoyed the photos, on to Venice!

There are many museums to visit in Florence with the two biggest being the Uffizi and the Pitti Palace. They are both listed under the Uffizi galleries, along with the Boboli gardens. There are the 3 that I chose to look into.

The Uffizi has Michaelangelo’s David, a well known masterpiece. However, after passing a multitude of souvenir vendors with neon colored David replicas and soccer shorts with pictures of David’s family jewels, I was pretty much over him.

Botticelli’s Birth of Venus was worth the price of admission all on her own. It is just amazing, another one of those times I had to pick my jaw up off the floor.

There was another artist’s version of Venus and I wish I had written his name down. It is remarkable as it is just Venus lying down, nothing to distract, no hidden meaning, no inferences to be made. It’s just beautiful in it’s simplicity.

Nothing else at the Uffizi really rocked my socks. However, the Pitti Palace was another story. On the main floor are the public rooms where the royals would hold court with the public. The first one has a fresco on the ceiling that details their marriage. It is just gorgeous. There are two long benches so you can sit back and just gaze upward. The walls of two of the rooms are painted to look like the rooms extends much further on. Took me awhile to figure out what was real and what wasn’t, they were that well done! There are all these characters sitting up on the walls too, one of the artists even inserted himself up there.

Also on the ground floor were some of the treasures of the Grand Dukes. There was this large music box/clock that would play different songs at different hours of the day. The fact that it was created over 500 years ago blows me away.

Next floor up was the modern art gallery with works from the late 1800’s to the 1930’s. The range of artists is amazing. You could also go from gallery to gallery with just a few people around you.

Behind the palace are the Boboli Gardens, a different type of artwork

When I walked up to the grotto in the garden, the gate was open and a man was inside talking on the phone. I walked past him and looked around taking pictures. After I left he did too, and locked the gate. I guess timing is everything, just act like you should be there!

There were statues on the wall as well as frescoes and everything had a little bit of growth on it, am guessing limestone from the moisture. I think you should be able to make out the frescoes:

There were actually two rooms, front and back. The above one is from the back.

The outside didn’t lack for decoration either:

I enjoyed the rest of the garden as well. It goes up and down a hill, of course. It has new art mixed in with the ancient works:

This is the Neptune statute. You an see an example of the modern art behind him.

Above is the central path that runs down the middle of the garden, following are various side paths, fountains and specialty gardens.

I spent one day just wandering around and taking photos. Some of them you saw in Part I, here are some more:

As you walk along the Uffizi side of the river you can see the promontory up on the hill. This is the Piazelle Michaelangelo. It is a pretty walk to get up there and from there you get a great view of the city.

This shows you the scale of the Duomo.

This is another view of the city with the St. Croce across the river. The Porto St Niccolo is the tower on the right, it is one of the remaining towers of the Roman wall that encircled Florence in Roman times]

This shows some of the remaining wall on the hillside.

This is just a view of some of the homes on the hillside, they have a great view of the city!

Finally, a better shot of St. Croce. Didn’t get a chance to visit it but I like the way it looks.

Next stop, Milan.

Florence was so nice I’m going to write about it twice.

I loved Florence. It is a beautiful city, very easy to get around and the people were kind and so easy going.

The bus to the hotel was pretty easy to figure out and confirmed by the folks at the information center. You have to buy your ticket before you get on the bus but you can get them at about any store. On the way to the hotel an older woman was watching me as I was checking my map and watching for my stop. When I got off she did too and asked where I was going. I showed her my hotel name and she pointed it out to me, said it was very nice and had beautiful frescoes, said I would enjoy it.

The hotel was a former convent, built around a large courtyard that was shaded for most of the morning and again in the late afternoon. Perfect spot for reading, writing or just hanging out after a long day of sightseeing. The hotel was quiet except for one party held by a German group, complete with techno dance DJ! However, they shut down by 11:30 and only issue I had was that I didn’t get an invite, sounded like a great party!

The neighborhood was complete with supermarket, small fruit and vegetable shops and a local bar. I took advantage of them all. After a couple of weeks, eating out for lunch and dinner everyday got old. Fresh fruit, ripe tomatoes, bread and Parma ham or prosciutto made an easy lunch. Also found a great little restaurant that did food to go as well.

There was also a little square nearby, with about 8 restaurants. Two nights there was a violinist serenading the square and the other night it was a small trio playing. In the morning there were clothing and produce vendors set up. The center of the square had a raised area with lots of trees, a fountain and plenty of benches for socializing.

Florence is divided by the Arno river. I would walk down the hill in the morning, past the Pitti Palace and over the Ponte Vecchi and into the Old Town portion of Florence.

Here are a just a few of the views of the Ponte Vecchio, the Vecchio bridge. It initially had all sorts of tradesmen shops on it, now it is mostly high end stores for the tourists. It’s beauty hasn’t changed though.

In the morning, there both fisherman and recreational boaters on the river.

Once you are on the other side of the river you turn right along the river and soon come to the Uffizi main gallery. From the Pitti to the Uffizi there are artists set up everywhere with their easels. They have their artwork displayed for sale as well.

The other bridge that I used to go into the old town was the Gazie bridge.

Beyond the Uffizzi is the Duomo, the main cathedral of Florence. It is made of white and red marble and is itself a piece of art.

There are huge crowds around the front of the Duomo, tourists taking photos, tourists standing in line to get in and vendors selling anything and everything. This included an artist who had his painting on the ground so you could see it. Unfortunately, a cyclist didn’t see it and added his own embellishment, a tire track across one corner! The Duomo is so big it is impossible to get a complete photo of it up close.

There are a bunch of churches all over Florence and I preferred checking out some of the smaller ones. They each are their own works of art and the smaller ones don’t have as many tourists.

I didn’t get the name of this small church but it was such a nice respite to just sit inside and enjoy the artwork that went into creating it.

Florence itself is just like a giant art gallery:

Although everyone has their own opinion of what is art and what isn’t:

Sometimes the act of making art can be considered are itself:

It took me a while to get this shot of a statuary studio. The couple that were on the outside looking in, decided to go inside for a little tour. Good thing they did, I wandered around waiting for them to leave and found a bookstore with all the books in English!

Cinqe Terre is Italian for 5 lands, in this case 5 towns along the Italian Riviera. I stayed in Riomaggiore the southern most of the 5 towns. It is also one of the smallest of the towns, which makes it easy to get to know. You could say it is easy to get around, you either go up or down.

This is the view of part of the harbor. The train station is at the bottom of the hill,. Once you get off you walk through a long tunnel to get to the street that goes up the middle of the town. This is the main road and there only a few others. It is closed to automobiles most of the day, but early in the morning it is filed with delivery trucks bringing in supplies.

This photo shows a bit of the road as it winds through town. My room is in the building on the right just past where the road is hidden. The hotel office was across the way and the breakfast room was down a side passage and up another walkway. Doesn’t make any sense until you realize these buildings have been here forever and hotels often have rooms more than one building. There were 8 in my building but there were also apartments mixed in as well. You do get to know your neighbors a bit, at least enough to say “buon giorno” in the morning and “buona sera” in the evening.

Behind me in this photo is the castle. It’s mostly a tower with a clock but has a great view of the ocean. The walk up there is pretty too. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good photos of a sunset.

If you don’t walk through the tunnel you come out on the North side of Riomaggiore. More vineyards than homes and you can see a portion of the Cinque Terre trail, on the cliff just above the ocean. Unfortunately the trail was closed from Riomaggiore through Manarola to Corniglia.

I did hike the trail from Monterossa to Vernazza. Stopped to take a lot of photos and with the heat and humidity I was extremely glad I had brought along 2 bottles of water. The first part of the trail is a long staircase carved out of the rocks. Carved by someone with longer legs than mine! Good news is now I know I can handle the stairmaster at the gym no problem. Bad news, I leak like a sieve in the humidity, had to put a hat on to keep the sweat out of my eyes. The views were all worth it. You are hiking through lemon and olive groves and vineyards. Every now and then you come across a home.

This is a view of the trail looking up hill.

This Monterossa after you have gone over the first ridge.

This is a house and vineyards going up to the first ridge.

These are vineyards and homes above Vernazza, as you are coming down from the second ridge.

This is Vernazza as you are arriving on the trail.

For as small as it was Riomaggiore has a lot of good restaurants, didn’t eat at the same one twice. They also have a lot of small markets that I raided daily for the fresh fruit. I have a new breakfast favorite, melon with Parma ham. Also found out that they like to serve dessert with breakfast, usually a fruit tart but sometimes a chocolate tart. Have definitely decided to go native!