Thursday 25 April 2013

Vienna Part 1 - Sightseeing

I've been terrible at finding time to do my holiday posts but finally I've found time, lucky you!

A couple of weeks ago I travelled to Vienna with my Mum, sister and grandparents on our yearly Easter break city trip. I'd never been to Vienna before but had heard it was a great city for music and art lovers.


{Clearly I was pretty happy to be in Vienna}

As soon as we stepped off the plane you got a fresh intake of cold, crisp air, the kind of air you only get when you're on the top of a mountain it's such a heavenly feeling. Our taxi took us into the centre of Vienna but you can easily get a train straight from the airport into the tube system of the city (we did this on our way back as it's SO much cheaper!). However as you travel along the roads, the pavements are lined with trees in the shape of bulbs, on closer looking and our taxi driver explaining to us, they were all huge balls of mistletoe. Obviously during the wintery months most of the trees are bare but you can still see bulbs in full bloom, it was a really beautiful sight.

We stayed in the Hotel Royal and it was right next to the main square with their incredibly beautiful cathedral, it couldn't have been better placed, and whats better? There was a late night McDonalds opposite! Oh and also the whole of Vienna on your doorstep, but mainly McDonalds…


{I'm not going to say what all of these buildings are as I will inevitably get it all wrong!}


We had a couple of days where we did a lot of sightseeing, as we were with our grandparents we used their sightseeing tours and to be honest we probably saw more of Vienna in the 4 days than we ever would have on foot.





Vienna is a truly stunning place for architecture, so many buildings take you by surprise with it's incredibly delicate work and it was interesting to see the different artistic styles which have influenced the city throughout history. During the war many buildings were bombed so a lot of the beautiful buildings are sandwiched by odd grey buildings which almost create more attention for the historical buildings in contrast.

















{They love a good bit of gold leaf in Vienna, who can blame them?}



The city is buzzing full of city people shopping in the square but I would also say that it is primarily a city to sit and watch the world go by with a coffee and an apfel strudel, a perfect relaxing holiday for all ages. We did some lovely arty and musical things on the trip but you'll have to wait until Part 2 for that!





Friday 12 April 2013

Joules Big Sale in Suffolk

This weekend I'm doing another one of those Joules Big Sales where we sell a lot of our old season clothes for some great prices, come along this weekend if you're in the area to grab a bargain!

This is the address and the Big Sale details:


Trinity Park Conference & Events Centre, Felixstowe Road, Ipswich IP3 8UH

Check out the Joules blog to keep up to date with when their events are near you! 



Oh and Joules are doing a competition to win a flowery Mini, who wouldn't want that?! Head over to their competition page to enter, it'll be parked outside the show this weekend for anyone wanting a peek! Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Thursday 11 April 2013

The Piccadilly Institute

I realise I often only post about the lovely days I've had, hence why the blog is called Favourite Days, however I never write a bad review, until today.

We planned a night out with very little plan, we just went into Leicester Square hoping to find something that took our fancy, unfortunately we ended up in Piccadilly Institute in the middle of Piccadilly Square.

I'll be honest with you, this just isn't my kind of club. It has SO MANY rooms and it's CRAMMED full of people playing awful chart club dance music that's been played millions of times before. Just not my cup of chai.

However, not one to let a good night go to waste, I found my salvation, the Cheese Room! Full of my favourite songs from the 90s where I could pretend to be Beyonce and not be judged for it. 



Odd hanging men in the 'Medicine Room'


Things invariably got messy and blurry



The night was salvaged but I honestly wouldn't recommend going to this club if you have ANY fore-sight. In the end we all had a fun night but probably not because of the venue! 

Wednesday 10 April 2013

Zoo Portraits

I recently found this blog and I'm in love. Zoo Portraits is the brain child of Yago Partal, he creates passport 'mug shots' with a twist, the body is human and the head is an animal. It's executed so well and I love that each animal's personality is represented in the human clothes.

You can buy each of these pictures in a postcard or print form, it has such a cute difference to it that I think it would look great framed and propped up with other bits and bobs. There's a relatively pricey postage charge but I think it's worth it if you're doing up any room in the house.











Wednesday 3 April 2013

Antique Goodies

I've been holding out on you guys, yesterday I told you about antiques shopping in Lewes but we went and shopped and came home with a few goodies.

We found a gorgeous shoe box of old postcards, some with blank sides but some with sweet messages, sending general Christmas and birthday messages, some informing their loved ones had arrived safely at a new destination or some P.Cs as they call them, just sent general chatter about a life lived over 80 years ago, it was truly inspiring and we nabbed a few of these to take home.





Lucy came home with a gorgeous glass bowl to display her statement jewellery on her dressing table and a small dish to hold her watch at night.







I came away with an old 'Coffee candies' tin from Holland, I can't wait to have it storing something in my kitchen cupboard, I feel like these small things make all of the difference. 

I also bought a gorgeous old pink vase with intricate roses in the glass, at first I thought it was a sundae glass so a multi purpose vase, what more could a girl need?





Tuesday 2 April 2013

Can I stay here with you, til the day breaks?

Lucy and I wanted to make Good Friday an exciting 'spontaneous' day so we took ourselves to Lewes simply because I had a craving for tea in a teapot in a nice quaint cafe, apparently there can't be any nearer than that!

I'm so glad that my tea cravings took us here, I'd been a couple of times for dinner while working on a Joules sale but never properly looked around. The cobble street is surrounded by small white cottages with colourful doors, people milling around looking at the river and admiring the huge, still in production, Harvey's brewery.


While walking along this is when we discovered the Lewes Antiques Centre, a treasure trove of anything you could think of in 4 huge floors, it went on forever despite having a shop front on a small cobbled high street. This place is where the blog's title was inspired, Lucy and I settled in and both uttered that we could stay here all day, never getting bored.



There were 50's fashion, re-upholstered furniture, tins, vases, kitchen ware, honestly anything you could think of! This is their website if you fancy giving them a visit.











My initials were obviously the best looking letters

After wandering for what felt like hours we trundled over to Bill's tired and in need of tea. The Bill's in Lewes is the original and first Bill's, I have recently found a love for Bill's and we've even bought the recipe book for our Mum. 

I went for a big enamel teapot of assam tea alongside some heart warming mac and cheese laced with wild mushrooms and creamy leeks with a delicious breaded crunchy topping, it was devoured in minutes!




Lucy went for a classic fish finger sandwich with fries, ever so healthy on her health kick at the moment!



What a difference a 4 day weekend at home makes, I think I've gained a stone just from my Mum's amazing cooking!