The Amazing Pasta Dinner in Venice and The Saga of the Apples!

One of our optional extras on tour was a dinner in Venice. I don't think any of us were fully prepared for the pasta epic we would be served ...

The first course was a plate of meat, a plate of veg and a plate of crispy, deep fried seafood.

First Course

 Then they turned of the lights and presented us with a plate of risotto with a shell that was on fire. There was a carbonara as well, but I didn't get a picture of it. It was the nicest dish of the whole meal.

Second Course

 At this point they realised that I really shouldn't have been eating any of the food because it all had wheat and milk so they started bringing me my own plates of pasta. When they brought the plate for the rest of the table the waiter would say to me, "Not for you, not for you."

Fourth Course

They brought me a plate of (I assume) gluten free pasta as well, but I'd been eating all the food anyway because it was so tasty.
A few days earlier, in the Rhine Valley, all the gluten and lactose free people had been given an apple for dessert instead of the cake or whatever everyone else had. I can't eat apples because they're high in fructose, so I'd felt a little bad. It had become a bit of a running joke with the group that they hadn't known what to give the special diet people, so they ran into the garden and pulled some apples off the tree (that's the story someone made up, anyway).
Back in Venice, after all our plates were cleared we were speculating on what might be for dessert. I made a comment that I hoped I didn't get an apple again because I'd feel bad not being able to eat it.
About a minute later the waiter brought this out ...

Dessert (for me, anyway!)

Us Special Diet people got apple desserts a couple more times on the trip. I was very excited in Florence to get an orange! It didn't taste great, but it wasn't an apple!!

A New Post: Now With Pictures

So I must be going to blog around about once a month. Okay then.

I found some photos on my phone and camera that I thought you all might be interested in. So ... Pictures:

This is a Robin I made friends with at Pitlochry station one day while I was waiting for a train. I couldn't work out if the thing it's standing on was a rock or a very rotten sandwich ...

I went to Edinburgh with Ralph a while ago. He had some meeting or something, so I just wandered around. I was walking down one of the main streets and from a few blocks away I saw a shop that could have been a Build-a-Bear Workshop, but just as easily might not have been. Sure enough, when I got closer, it was. I swear I wasn't looking for it! It found me!! So I bought Monkey-Moo a UK-themed outfit to add to her collection of clothes from around the world.

This is the main road where almost all the shops are found (along only four or five blocks).
I live just a little bit further up from where this was taken.

Here is one of the MANY gift shops on the main road. They are all full of over priced souvenirs and pretty things.

I'd really like to go to this cafe one day. It looks tasty!! Here is the website: http://www.hetties-tearooms.com/










I found these matches in a drawer in the staff kitchen. They freaked me out because I've only ever seen red matches. They really don't look right!!!

This is the kitchen in the restaurant (part of it, anyway). There are a few other rooms through the doorways at the back there. Because this place has been running for over 50 years (and it's Britain so all the buildings are ridiculously old, anyway), there's lots of bits that have been added at different times and squeezed into odd places so everything on the property is a bit of a maze.
In the B&B there's a corridor that is less than a metre long, separated by two insanely heavy fire doors (there are really heavy doors everywhere, it's really annoying!!). The corridor could be something to do with fire prevention or maybe it's a teleport to an alien city on Pluto, I don't really know what it's for other than to be weird.


Anyway, that's all the photos I have at the moment, but I will try to take more soon.
If you have any questions or suggestions of posts, leave them in the comments!! I will try to post again soon!!
xoxo