Villa Harteneck

As our stay in Berlin drew to a close, I found myself spending an unhealthy amount of time in KaDeWe, and was in danger of becoming a permanent fixture:

So I consulted the list I´d made before I left Australia of sights to see in Berlin, and noticed I´d been rather slack in writing just one - Villa Harteneck. The fact that some considerable time had elapsed, and I no longer knew to what these two words referred, prompted me to do an internet search. I then realised that I had read about Villa Harteneck back in early March in posts by two of my fellow bloggers - Suzy from Studio Annetta and Michelle from Just Imagine. Since I was so close, I decided to venture out to Grunewald on the outskirts of Berlin and, sure enough, found this beautiful building:


Villa Harteneck is a multi-purpose building which serves as a function centre, has design books for sale and sells furniture and other items, such as Fortuny lamps. I went inside, but didn´t think I should take photos, so you´ll have to be content with the outside, which is pretty stunning:


I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in interior design.

It´s Still About the Food....

I had thought that after the food in Spain, Italy and France, I would be ´fooded-out´. But that was before I found KaDeWe here in Berlin. This seven-storey department store is almost a century old and was originally called ´Kaufhaus Des Westens´:

After wandering around the baby clothes department, I found myself on the gourmet food floor, ordering a Currywurst, which a nice man recommended as the specialty of Berlin. It is, as one would imagine, a sausage with lots of ketchup and sprinkled with curry powder, and is absolutely delicious with a cold beer:

Then, I wandered around the rest of the vast floor. Forget Harrod´s Food Hall, Fortnum and Mason´s or any other foodie heaven of your acquaintance. This is huge. You could spend hours just wandering around looking, which I did. There´s an oyster bar, lobster bar, antipasto, pasta, Asian bars, schnitzel, and of course chocolate and desserts. Also, I´ve never seen so much meat of different kinds in one location, and all beautifully presented:

When I say serious food, I mean serious:

I can´t wait to go back there on Tuesday. Then, today I tried another Berlin specialty in a bar. Believe it or not, it´s raspberry flavoured beer, and once again, absolutely delicious:

Finally, for those of you who think I´m only here for the food, here´s some cool art. It´s called ´Molecule Man´ by Jonathon Borofsky, and is in the river near our apartment:

Swap 6 - Berlin

We´re very fortunate to be swapping for a week in a lovely apartment in the former East Berlin:


So far, this city is absolutely fascinating. The highlights for me, though, have tended to be not only thought-provoking, but somewhat sad, such as the ´Pieta´-like sculpture by Kathe Kollwitz of a dead soldier being cradled by his mother:

The rather controversial Memorial to the Jews:

And an intact section of the Berlin Wall:

Swap 5 - near Venice

We have just completed a two-day swap in Italy, near Venice:

We were only able to spend one day in Venice itself, which was not long enough:

One highlight for me was visiting the very modern villa which was once the home of art collector, Peggy Guggenheim. There were the most fantastic artworks by Picasso, Pollock (a roomful), Miro, Mondrian, Chagall, Ernst and others in an intimate, close setting:

I wuld also recommend the audio-guide tour of the Fenice (pronounced Fe-nee-chay) Opera House, appropriately named The Phoenix, as it has just been rebuilt after a fire in 1996. We got to sit in the Royal box and visit the Apollonian rooms, and were amazed at how everything has been faithfully restored:

We also took the ferry to Murano and saw a glass-blower making a horse:

Around Provence and the Cote D'Azur

As I said in the previous post, we used the house in Provence as a base to explore far and wide. One area I really loved was Cap D'Antibes, with the exclusive Hotel Du Cap - Eden Roc. Countless celebrities have stayed there and the hotel was fictionalised by F. Scott Fitgerald in 'Tender is the Night'. Needless to say, we only stopped the car long enough for me to take this photo and didn't even contemplate going inside:

We also went to the Musee Matisse in Nice. Not only was it a beautiful building, but there was some of Matisse's furniture inside, which he'd used as props in his paintings:

We also travelled north-west, passing the beautiful lakes near Verdon:

Here are some people playing petanque in Bonnieux, the village where the Ridley Scott film, 'A Good Year' was filmed. Peter Mayle, the author of that book and 'A Year in Provence', lives just down the road, and Ridley Scott apparently has a house (chateau?) nearby:

We also dipped our feet into the Mediterranean at St Tropez:

Swap Number 4 - Provence

We've just completed our 4th Swap - in a village inland from St Tropez. We had our own markets:

Atmospheric main square:

And a character-filled house:


The village was also a central base from which to explore Provence.

Swap No. 3 - near Barcelona

At the moment we´re staying at our shortest swap. It´s only for 3 days, whereas all the others are for a week to ten days. We´re at a very nice apartment in Vilanova i la Geltru, which is on the coast about 50km south of Barcelona. The apartment is very large, with four bedrooms, two bathrooms and two studies. The kitchen is well-equipped with appliances I don´t know how to operate:

I can never get over what an act of trust house-swapping is - the owners just walk out and leave all their books, CDs, photographs and personal items. There are thousands of books in this one:



There´s a really large sunny terrace as well:

The Paris Apartment

As promised, here are photos of the apartment in Paris where we are swapping for a week. Its very centrally located on the Left Bank, just a short busride away from Bvde St Germain, Luxembourg Gardens etc, and a short walk to the local Monoprix and markets. Here I am coming back after shopping:

Its bright and airy with pretty funky decor:




So far, I can thoroughly recommend the whole swapping scene.

Au Revoir

Yay! I'm flying out on my big trip tomorrow morning. I'll be in Thailand for a week, so probably won't have much access to a computer, but in a week's time I'll be in Paris. First up, I'll be visiting the flea markets at Clignancourt and Vanves, so hopefully I'll be able to post lots of photos of beautiful things I see there. Also, I'll include some pics of the house where I'll be swapping. Before I go, I'm just posting some last-minute images of picture frames I found at the op-shop recently:

My 100th Post

Well, I never thought I'd have enough to fill 100 posts, but it seems I've managed to do it, one way or another. My trips to the Op Shop have certainly been more frequent since I've become a blogger. Over the last two weeks, this is what a total of $20 has bought:

A pink Italian bedspread still in its wrapper and a previously unused afghan blanket:

A patchwork quilt and a green check travel rug:

A white marble vase and picture frame:

It's been fun collecting all these and other items since last October. Now, however, I'll be having a rest from Op Shops because on the 9th May, my husband and I are house-swapping in Europe for three months. We'll be swapping for a week in each location: Paris, the Costa del Sol, Barcelona, Provence, Umbria, Berlin, Copenhagen, Stockholm and London. I was originally planning to give my blog a rest while I'm gone, but I've decided to attempt to post from the cities I'll be in. Not too sure how easy this will be, but I'll give it a go. So, from May 9th till August 2nd, my posts may become a little infrequent.But hopefully, I'll be able to offer some insights into the world of house-swapping. Thanks to everyone who's been kind enough to read my blog so far. Some of you have been really regular with your lovely comments. Hopefully I'll find something interesting to say from May 9.