German ways

Arrival at Farnkfurt

Our first week almost behind us it has brought family reunions, celebration of my parents 50th wedding anniversary and a landscape which is summer warm and absolutely wonderful.

Volkach on Main

It was wonderful to be reunited with my second oldest son, my parents, sisters and all their families! We talked and laughed together until the sun came up in the morning...



Hotel Four Seasons, Volkach

Brothers reunited...

Me and my sisters...


The region of Franconia in northern Bavaria filled with vineyards and soft rolling hills along the Main river! The food is excellent and the wine even better!




We visited Wuerzburg, the next big city and attractive university town with a most impressive former prince bishop residence.




Horsebackriding in the country side...



Today we left the area to drive towards Munich to visit old friends and here we are now, me just now squeezing a few minutes to tell a little about it!
Via a small thermal bath town south of Munich, where we spend one day, we will go on route to Italy!

So, dear readers, I will report back in a few days, when we reach Venice...


XX
Victoria




All pictures by V.Zlotkowski

Great site

Every ones in a while a site comes to my attention which is wonderful and worth sharing with you all. The friendly Marieke from Liever contacted me and put my blog on their blog list - thank you, guys, I am honored - and I wanted to use this opportunity to introduce you to this lovely site.
You will find Liever loves design irresistible.
They have endless interiors, hotels to drool over and wonderful design ideas to look for as an inspiration. The site mixes Dutch and English, so you will always find what you are looking for. The images speak for themselves.
What better way to get inspired for vacation times to come?

Citizen M hotel, Amsterdam, Netherlands

The Caravan Serai, Marrakech, Morocco

Hotel Traeumerei(Dream)Michelstadt im Odenwald, Germany

Asarte Suite, Santorini, Greece

Ace Hotel, New York


These are just a few of their gorgeous images from hotels around the world, they have great interiors for every room you desire and keep up with the latest in interior design. Go and have a look! It's great!



XX
Victoria




All images courtesy of Liever.com

Out of Africa

"In the daytime you felt that you had got high up,
near to the sun, but the early mornings and evenings
were limpid and restful, and the nights were cold."
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)

image


Her story is in my mind forever interwoven with the movie...


There are movies I watch every year, like visiting old friends... Out of Africa is such a movie. Karen Blixen wrote under the pen name Isak Dinesen and so essentially captured the spirit and times of colonial Africa wrapped in a timeless love story. Her story.

Blixen 1922 in Nairobi.

I’m sure I’m in good company when I say that I love that movie beyond reason. It’s three hours of yearning and passion and hardship and loss. My kind of film.
Meryl Streep and Robert Redford and are wonderful together...


The incredible designs - fashion and interiors have influenced me since I saw the movie the first time, many years ago. Since then I love the classic British colonial look. I really adore most of her dresses in this movie, especially the delicate dressing gowns and lace shawl things she wears while storytelling. The veils, gloves, khaki riding pants and dark leather boots.


And then there are of course the exteriors...and interiors! Not from the movie, but inspired by it and African colonial design. Images from here.

Seen at vignettedesign.blogspot.com

Seen at designspongeonline.com.
Around the world bed from here.

The following images are designs by the South African designer John Jacob. They are perfect modern interpretations of colonial design.





And while wandering through many sites probing Out of Africa interiors I stumbled upon this amazing place in ...Africa, the Royal Malewane & Africa House. A hotel which made my heart skip a beat...




Found here.

All interiors by Liz Biden.
image

It's hot and I dream of Africa!


XX
Victoria



All pictures as indicated.

April 1ST

The next few days we will be travelling, just for the remainders of the spring break. We are flying to Koh Samui, exploring Anchor for a few days and we will be staying at the Four Seasons.


This trip was a promotional gift after I wrote a very favorable post about this amazing hotel resort a couple of months ago.




On route my husband surprised me with a stay at the Verhaegen Hotel in Ghent, Belgium. A place simply not to be missed. Just have a look:



The garden view, I hope we can dine outside, since the weather promises to be wonderful!

I love the dining room with it's painted chair rail and happy colours.


Our dreamy suite!

I will post all about my experiences when I am back in a couple of days!

XX
Victoria

PS: I think Happy Fools Day is a day to dream up!



Pictures via Architectural Digest, May edition.