A Day at Steininger Winery

The Loisium Hotel is quite beautiful.

The hotel is located on Steininger property.

We will spend the day at Steininger Winery.

Klaus gets us started.

We begin with wine tasting. The matriarch of the vineyard, Brigitta, is conducting this event.

Following the tasting Klaus and Eva, the Steininger daughter shuttle the group to the top of the vineyards for a picnic lunch among the vines.

We sample more Steininger products during lunch.

Klaus is not only shuttling the group up the mountain but wines to the tables.

Later in the day we return to the wine museum for a winery tour. We're met by the genius behind this wealth of superb and creative marketing, Karl Steininger.

Eva and Klaus have been serving fortified products to early arrivals.

Eva with her eldest son. He helped with dinner in the kitchen last evening. He wishes to become a chef.

The tour begins with a return walk to the winery.

I could do an entire blog on the winery tour. It is part winery tour, part wine making history tour, and part Disney with animated displays and an introductory 360-degree waterfall and video presentation of the process of winemaking. This place is a tribute to Karl's creative mind and vision.

This is the waterfall and video room.

We pop out of the cellars to a preserved part of the winery as it was in 1924. 

In the shoemaker's residence, we're treated to "dancing" shoes, where some of these shoes go up and down to music.

These are two of the three panels of the Steininger family. They represent the seven members of the family we met. 

Following dinner Klaus and Eva shuttle us to the edge of the village to a restaurant for a traditional Austrian dinner.

Tafelspitz is the national dinner dish of Vienna and most of Australia. It was the favorite meal of Emporer Franz Joseph I. On our last trip it was served family style. This evening individual servings. This is much better although it is missing the ingredient CJ likes the most: marrow bones.

A traditional Viennese starter, potato dumpling and sauerkraut.

The village of Langenlois below and beyond.

 After dinner outdoors, we move indoors for dessert. 

Brittany - The Lazy Day and Super Restaurant

We do not feel like doing anything. We spend a lazy day at home in Plougonvelin. For lunch tiny langoustines.

When all else fails, buy your delicious French bread from a vending machine. Who'd a thunk it?

It is a beautiful day, great visibility. Boats riding at anchorage.

We can see completely across the wide entrance to the Bay of Brest.

Next door, a modern home built in the traditional Bretton style is being expanded with another room and rooftop balcony.

On the way to dinner, we pass the Nazi command bunker that controlled the big guns of the Brest section of Hitler's Atlantic Wall. It is now a small but well designed and organized museum.

There are two restaurants at Pointe Saint Mathieu. Tonight we dine at the formal restaurant.

Since the 'pre-appetizer' arrives and none of us has had such a thing unless it substitutes as the amuse busch, we are in for a crazy evening. This sommelier is top shelf.

They serve this as the "pre-appetizer".

The first course is Les Galitis. It is a fish and crustacean mixture.

This fellow spends forever at the table serving each of us four boules of butter. It's a big production show.

Le Lieu Jaune de Ligne is a serving of fish with asperagus, carrots, and wild carrots.

The Le Bouillon Nevez course is the restaurant's take on Pot au feu.

We have a different waiter dispense the cheese. This guy is entertaining. The selection of cheeses shockingly large.

This course is Le Fenouil. This is fish, fennel, and honey mixture

The final course is Les Fraises de Ty Gwenn. There is an aloe vera embedded in one of the gelatins. 

The final course wasn't. This is the post desert.

Departing the restaurant, we pass the wine cellar.