Hotel review - Grand Hotel Vanvitelli, Caserta, Italy

This one should be closed and reconditioned, or better just closed.

We changed 3 rooms until we found one acceptable. In the rooms you can feel the smell from the carpets, the old furniture and the mold. The rooms have no soundproofing whatsoever.

The breakfast - you'd better skip it. The croissants were at least one day old and the flies were all over the place.

Don´t let the pictures fool you.

Trip to Osterode am Harz, Germany

A small city center with a lively market place.

Eating out - Restaurant La Fontaine, Den Haag, The Netherlands

The food was a bit too salty for our taste. Really not good value for money.

Christmas dinner - Hotel Leitner, Rio di Pusteria, Italy

The dinner was delicious. Portions seemed a bit too small for most quests, but for us it was OK.

Quince and apple mousse cake - recipe with step-by-step photos

Ingredients for the dough layers:

• 3 eggs
• 130 grams of flour
• 2 spoons with water
• 2 spoons with sugar
• 2 spoons with sunflower oil
• salt

Ingredients for the quince jelly:

• 1 quince
• 100 milliliters of water
• 30 grams of sugar
• 1-2 grams of gelatin

Ingredients for the caramelized apple mousse:

• 4 apples
• 300 grams of fresh cream
• 100 grams of sugar
• juice from half a lemon
• 10 grams of butter
• 2-4 grams of gelatin
• 1 spoon with water

Prepare the quince jelly:

Clean and cut the quince in small cubes. Add the sugar and the water and let it simmer until tender.

When ready, mash it and while still warm add the hydrated gelatin and mix until well dissolved.

Put it in a round shape (15 cm) and when cold put it in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Prepare the dough layers:

Separate the egg yolks from the whites.

Beat the egg whites with the sugar.

Add the egg yolks, the flour, the salt, the sunflower oil and the cold water and mix slowly until well incorporated.

Put the composition in the oven at 180 Celsius degrees for 25 minutes or until done.
Let it cool!

When cooled, slice the cake in two layers.

Prepare the apple mousse:

Clean and cut the apples in small cubes. Add the lemon juice above the apple cubes.

In a pot add the sugar mixed with 1 spoon with water and let it caramelize.

When ready, add the apples and 10 grams of butter and let it simmer until tender mixing from time to time.

Strain the apples from the syrup and keep the syrup separately for later. 

Mix the composition with a blender, but not too well. Keep aside some apple cubes.

Let the composition cool. While still warm incorporate the hydrated gelatin and mix until dissolved. Let it cool!

Meanwhile beat the fresh cream until stiff peacks.
Mix the cold apples with the fresh cream and put it aside for later.

Assembling the cake:
On a plate, in a round, detachable circle, add one dough layer then half of the apple syrup, then half of the apple mousse.

Above add the quince jelly and again cover with the remaining apple mousse.
Finish with the second dough layer and the apple syrup on top.

Let it rest overnight in the fridge.

The next day, take out the circle and cover the cake in cream.

You can add some stripes of caramel and slices of apple to make it presentable :)for your guests.

Enjoy!

Eating out - Oceana Restaurant, Hilton Malta

The hotel´s restaurant offers a large range of food specialties part of their dinner buffet.

Every night they have a different theme and the food is way too much, so all you can do is to taste a little bit of everything...if you can :). We couldn´t taste everything.

Everything was really good, especially the fish which was delicious.

And here are only half of the sweets...

Trip to Kinderdijk, The Netherlands

It was wonderful.

It only costs if you want to visit inside two of the windmills. Otherwise it's free.

It´s a unforgettable experience. You should try it.

The Blue Lagoon, Comino Island, Malta

It´s just wonderful.