peacock + chocolate = peachoc!

A few years ago I spent a couple of days in the state of Tyrol, Western Austria, in a city called Innsbruck. Located in a valley with mountains surrounding it, Innsbruck is the perfect destination for winter sports enthusiasts. It was not for that reason that I was there, however: Innsbruck is pretty much half way between Verona and Munich, one of which I had just come from, the other I was travelling to. It made sense to split up the journey, and Innsbruck seemed like the perfect place...

Ah, beautiful Innsbruck! I often think about the fun I had when I was visiting you, for it was within your city walls that I made one of my favourite discoveries ever: peacocks LOVE chocolate! Now, it could just be Austrian peacocks, or perhaps it could have been just that particular peacock, but I'd like to think it applies to all peacocks.

Let me tell you how the discovery was made:

Unable as I am to resist European castles, one of the days I was in Innsbruck was spent at Schloss Ambras, the castle just outside the city. In the grounds of the castle I witnessed a peacock eat an entire lawn of buttercups, saw a goose chalet, met a hyper-intelligent duck with an enormous head, cheered on a duck dance-off, saw a tiny woodpecker and fed a duckling.

After feeding a couple of dancing geese, I sat down on a nearby bench to have a square or two of chocolate and take in my beautiful surroundings. A squawking sound stopped me mid-bite and I looked around to see another peacock marching towards me. I think he must have been annoyed about not being given any seeds, as he came over and snatched the chocolate out of my hand with his beak! Luckily, it was only a couple of squares, but he swallowed it in one go and then ran off! Hurriedly I gobbled up the remaining chocolate, but on the last piece he came back and tried it on again, the cheeky scamp!

Austrian peacocks are rascals!

As I was reminiscing about this little adventure of mine, I decided to make a treasury all about peacocks and chocolate. That's a normal thing to do, right?

{peacocks love chocolate}

You may have won this time, but I'll be back!