Chocolate And Castles In Astorga, Spain

Like many girls, I am in a long-term love affair with chocolate, and have a weakness for fairytale castles. Imagine my delight when I happened across a small town which combined the two. Not so surprising, you might be thinking, if I were in Belgium, or Switzerland perhaps. In fact, I was in northwest Spain, in a town called Astorga.

Off-Season Magic in Lago di Garda, Italy

In mid-March, warming weather rouses the tiny castle town of Sirmione like a drowsy debutante. I’ve chosen to visit Sirmione of all the towns around Lago di Garda because I have, admittedly, a girlish fondness for castles. And all too fitting, my mom is with me on this trip to see a castle famously fit for a fairy-tale.

Munich Day Trip to Neuschwanstein Castle

“I want to see Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. You know, the one built by the crazy king.” I told my friend.

“You say that like there was only one crazy king in history,” was her reply. She had a point. Not knowing how to get remotely close to correctly pronouncing Neuschwanstein Castle, I thought I could explain it in Disney terms and references to mad kings to get my friend to understand me.