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I think it was Granada where our hotel said we needed to get a pass from them to enter the city to get to the parking area, so make sure to ask about parking when you book somewhere. We're getting a car because we just like road trip style holidays and this is kind of our anniversary thing now. Last year we drove from Switzerland down to Tuscany and it was fantastic. This year we're being extra fancy and flying with checked luggage on Swiss so I guess we're officially middle class now.
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Sep 18, 2018 23:33
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Saladman posted:Granada currently has an issue with the train station and is either not serviced at all by trains, or is serviced exceptionally rarely. Checking renfe it looks like there is one train per day (lol) between Granada and Cordoba and it takes a comical 3 hours. The bus system in Spain is OK but not great. For the other 3 cities you mentioned the trains will work very well; I don't know why Granada has such a garbage train station; even before they were doing whatever they're currently doing, it was awful. This is all really good advice; thank you! I definitely plan on trying to check out Italica specifically (gotta check out the birthplace of Trajan and Hadrian), but it sounds like you can get a taxi or bus from Seville. Beyond that, there aren't really other places that stand out to us right now but it sounds like there are plenty of smaller, amazing possible destinations in Andalucia if we look a little. What you say about Granada train station is rough. I guess it will probably be easy to figure out a bus, or honestly perhaps just renting a car for one brief leg of the trip between somewhere and Granada if there's no easy train stuff. Thank you for the heads up! I think the appeal of Malaga for us is mostly the art museums. There's a bunch of stuff there that looks cool and fun, but perhaps I won't plan more than 2 days there since it's easy to hit a museum or two, have a couple of decent meals, stroll around and take in the city for a few hours, rinse and repeat the next day, and then head on to the next location (or most likely, head home if I put Malaga at the end of the trip).
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Sep 18, 2018 23:51
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Granada is indeed a massive rear end-pain to get to. I guess they're thinking "ah gently caress it, people will put up with anything to come see the Alhambra" and to a point they appear to be 100% correct. I'm the big Jerez-booster around these parts, I think it's well worth at least one night if you're already in Sevilla and travelling light -- the train is fast, and Jerez is super in terms of food, architecture, wine, culture, the whole bit. Very inexpensive too, compared to some of the more popular destinations. A buddy of mine is getting back from Spain soon, having been to Sevilla and Jerez, I'll ask him what he thought or if I'm just a lunatic.
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Sep 19, 2018 03:51
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I was a big fan of Segovia
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Sep 19, 2018 05:12
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Rashomon posted:This is all really good advice; thank you! I definitely plan on trying to check out Italica specifically (gotta check out the birthplace of Trajan and Hadrian), but it sounds like you can get a taxi or bus from Seville. Beyond that, there aren't really other places that stand out to us right now but it sounds like there are plenty of smaller, amazing possible destinations in Andalucia if we look a little. Yeah Italica is on a direct bus line like once per hour from the central Seville bus station and it's usually the last stop so it's hard to screw it up if you're going at normal opening hours. We went on a Sunday and hosed it up and got out in Santiponce, but even then it was only like a 15 minute walk. It's a bit nicer with a car since you can do the whole thing in like 30 minutes and not have to time the once-per-hour bus, but it's not a big deal. Italica is pretty much non-existent today except for the amphitheater and the foundations of a couple dozen buildings, but it might be interesting anyway especially if you haven't been to Rome or Naples. IIRC it was way closer to the Guadalquivir 2000 years ago but silting plus the chaos of the collapse of the Roman empire turned it into an abandoned backwater. Renfe sells bus tickets for the Granada–wherever connections, which is weird, so maybe they have a decent replacement system? YMMV. Try to buy your tickets in advance because the buses are small and do sell out. They have many per day, but you might have to wait around a couple hours for the next one... or do what we did, and pay €160 for a taxi from Granada to Malaga because we had a flight to catch; fortunately we found 3 other people in the same situation as us. If you want relaxation then Malaga is definitely a nice spot at the end of your trip. It doesn't have any like "must see" sites so you don't have to be stressed out about rushing around all day to see stuff, which might be especially nice if you or your wife have that "gotta see all the highlights while I'm here" traveling personality. Finding a good restaurant and a fun outdoors bar can be at least as interesting as seeing Roman ruins and baubles pillaged from the Incas.
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Sep 19, 2018 17:20
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armorer posted:Will I have trouble watching netflix, listening to spotify, or playing games on steam in Warsaw, PL (since normally I'm in the US)? I can set steam to offline mode easily enough, and I can download some playlists on Spotify. I know all of these companies have a global presence but I don't know if they'll take issue with my drastically different location and think I've been hacked or something. The Netflix lineup is fine in Poland, though there isn't a 100% overlap. Check https://unogs.com/ I guess if you absolutely must know if a show is available here. And Netflix/Spotify don't seem to care when I'm teleporting around the world behind a VPN, so it seems to me like actual travel will be ignored with even more prejudice.
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Sep 19, 2018 22:16
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mmkay posted:The Netflix lineup is fine in Poland, though there isn't a 100% overlap. Check https://unogs.com/ I guess if you absolutely must know if a show is available here. And Netflix/Spotify don't seem to care when I'm teleporting around the world behind a VPN, so it seems to me like actual travel will be ignored with even more prejudice. Spotify doesn't seem to care much even without hiding behind a VPN as far as I can tell. The only time I ever had trouble is when I first set up premium with a US credit card but being outside of the US. I've used Spotify premium for years and have never even a single time noticed a difference when traveling to different countries, and I travel a lot. Spotify even works fine in countries where it's not supported, like I can access everything just fine in Egypt despite there being no Spotify here. Since I have never even a single time noticed a "song not available" from a playlist, I guess that it just always gives you access to your billing location's music rather than your geolocation/IP location's music. I would check but I couldn't easily figure out catalogue differences between countries. If you happen to know of any that are available in the US but not elsewhere I can check. Edit: Checking the spotify forums it seems this is indeed the case; the music availability is exclusively based on your billing address and has nothing to do with your physical location. Netflix looks like it is still physical location based so you'd have to VPN it or enjoy the Polish catalogue. Saladman fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Sep 19, 2018 |
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Sep 19, 2018 22:59
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Rashomon posted:I think the appeal of Malaga for us is mostly the art museums. There's a bunch of stuff there that looks cool and fun, but perhaps I won't plan more than 2 days there since it's easy to hit a museum or two, have a couple of decent meals, stroll around and take in the city for a few hours, rinse and repeat the next day, and then head on to the next location (or most likely, head home if I put Malaga at the end of the trip). This sounds like a good plan to me. The Picasso museum in Málaga was wonderful, and I sort of had to talk my not-arty husband into it. I actually ended up using their English language "top ten" guide at the desk to see the most important works and it was really well done. Their audio guide is also great. For what it's worth, I though Málaga was cool, but it's kind of resort-like to spend more than two days there. After a day of seeing the cathedral and the Picasso museum, I didn't really need more drunk tourists or beach time. We also spent one full day in El Chorro like I mentioned. If you're the kind of tourist who enjoys pure relaxation and shopping, it's very pretty. But there's not as much to *do*. Best meal we had in Málaga: Taberna de Cervantes. Get the tuna with cauliflower and pumpkin. Best beers: Central Beers Málaga. Amazing staff. Best tapas: La Tranca, holy poo poo, the Trip Advisor reviews are accurate. Get the chori-tori tortilla and thank me later. The bartender was singing, the drunks were grooving, and the food was incredible. Betazoid fucked around with this message at 04:38 on Sep 20, 2018 |
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Sep 20, 2018 04:34
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Betazoid posted:This sounds like a good plan to me. The Picasso museum in Málaga was wonderful, and I sort of had to talk my not-arty husband into it. I actually ended up using their English language "top ten" guide at the desk to see the most important works and it was really well done. Their audio guide is also great. These are great recommendations, thank you! Love having a specific place or two to look for.
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Sep 20, 2018 23:25
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What's the best way to see the battlefields of World War 2 in and around Normandy? Bus/own car/guided tour etc. I was thinking of catching the Eurostar to Calais from London and starting from there. Also will I see a lot of Poodles in France? I love poodles.
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Sep 21, 2018 03:37
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I would blow Dane Cook posted:What's the best way to see the battlefields of World War 2 in and around Normandy? Bus/own car/guided tour etc. I was thinking of catching the Eurostar to Calais from London and starting from there. I took a bus tour from Overlord Tours out of Bayeux. One of the better tours I’d ever been on (did the basic American one) with a stop over in Saint Mere Englis and the amazing D-day museum they have there. I highly recommend. It was really heart warming and the tour guide was amazing. It wasn’t “rawr rawr USA best!!” at all, it was very somber. Got to see a random church too, with blood stains still there, that was used as a makeshift hospital by both German and American medics who treated wounded from both sides as fighting raged outside. Do get to Bayeux a day early and check out the town. It is a beautiful medieval town, and see the tapestry at the Cathedral! Unfortunately for me I landed in Paris and attempted to take a train to Bayeux the same day. Unfortunately the rail workers were on strike (they are always on strike) so I ended up stuck in Caen for 6 hours. By the time I got to Bayeux it was 10pm so found my hotel and crashed. The next day did the tour (full day) but it was Sunday so once back in Bayeux everything was closed. Never got to see the Tapestry. 
Solaris 2.0 fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Sep 21, 2018 |
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Sep 21, 2018 04:03
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Speaking of World War 2, one of the most striking things I've ever seen anywhere in Europe were the museum-fied nazi camps. I've only seen Westerbork and Vught in the Netherlands, which were mostly transfer camps instead of murder camps, but Jews still were made to live in terrible conditions, were randomly killed when the nazis felt like it, and so on. They're quiet, somber places and the mood you get there is quite indescribable.
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Sep 21, 2018 06:49
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I would blow Dane Cook posted:What's the best way to see the battlefields of World War 2 in and around Normandy? Bus/own car/guided tour etc. I was thinking of catching the Eurostar to Calais from London and starting from there. Hire a car. Guided tours can be OK but they vary considerably, and personally I like the freedom to look at what I want to look at for as long as I want, rather than having to stick to a fixed schedule. You'll also be able to explore the area more since local public transport is semi-reliable at best. Also if you can look into getting a ferry to Cherbourg or St-Malo, Calais down into Normandy is going to take you 6 hours by public transport at least.
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Sep 22, 2018 04:56
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Probably is I want to go to Dunkirk too (stupid movie). But I see Dunkirk to Dieppe is a two and a half hour drive so I won't be so bad. Is driving in the French countryside difficult? I am not brave enough to drive in Paris haha.
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Sep 22, 2018 07:52
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I would blow Dane Cook posted:What's the best way to see the battlefields of World War 2 in and around Normandy? Bus/own car/guided tour etc. I was thinking of catching the Eurostar to Calais from London and starting from there. No-one has answered the most important question - will there be poodles? It's not 100% guaranteed you'll see poodles, but there is a decent chance you'll see one or two - French people genuinely do still like to keep poodles. They are right to, poodles are great dogs.
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Sep 22, 2018 08:45
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Pookah posted:No-one has answered the most important question - will there be poodles? Wish I could take mine with me 
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Sep 22, 2018 10:25
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I would blow Dane Cook posted:Wish I could take mine with me FYI I just asked my mother, (who spends a month every year in Brittany and down the west coast) to confirm the popularity of poodles in France and she said 'yes, loads of them, all over the place especially golden brown ones', so I showed her yours and she says he's exactly like the ones in France, so bring pictures to show to fellow poodle fans 
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Sep 22, 2018 10:49
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I would blow Dane Cook posted:Is driving in the French countryside difficult? I am not brave enough to drive in Paris haha. It's pretty easy to be honest - the roads can be narrow particularly in towns, but not as bad as Spain/Italy/Greece. If you're on a tight budget, be aware that the freeway tolls in France are everywhere and stack up pretty quickly. It's usually about 1 euro/10km as a rough estimate. Fuel is pricey too, about 1.50 - 1.60 euros per litre depending on where you are.
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Sep 22, 2018 13:17
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Pookah posted:It's not 100% guaranteed you'll see poodles, but there is a decent chance you'll see one or two - French people genuinely do still like to keep poodles. They are right to, poodles are great dogs. Poodles are indeed great dogs, they probably suffer because weirdos in North America buy the tiny ones and then prune them like shrubs, which is weird. EDIT: Huh, apparently weirdos in Europe do that too. Never mind, it's apparently a problem with weirdos and not geographically specific. PT6A fucked around with this message at 13:29 on Sep 22, 2018 |
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Sep 22, 2018 13:24
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Please take me to France, I promise I won't mess up the rental car
I would blow Dane Cook fucked around with this message at 04:27 on Sep 23, 2018 |
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Sep 22, 2018 14:39
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Why is your dog standing on the wall
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Sep 22, 2018 16:25
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I would blow Dane Cook posted:Please take me to France, I promise I won't mess up the rental car A+++ non-shrubbery poodle, would take to Europe IMHO.
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Sep 22, 2018 20:39
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webmeister posted:Why is your dog standing on the wall We taught her to levitate.
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Sep 23, 2018 04:28
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I would blow Dane Cook posted:Is driving in the French countryside difficult? I am not brave enough to drive in Paris haha. Give driving in Paris a try! You probably won't end up like this guy! Speaking of Paris, is it a thing for dudes to hang out at metro stations telling you "this area is closed" even though it isn't and then they try to "help" you at the machine to buy more expensive tickets than you need?
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Sep 26, 2018 06:54
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Paris and a bunch of other places. Be careful when that happens, because often while they’re trying to “help” they’re actually distracting you while their mate swipes your valuables.
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Sep 26, 2018 15:41
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Omg, someone tell me which swiss chocolate I should bring pounds of home.
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Sep 26, 2018 23:24
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Depends on where you are, in Bern I like Läderach but hell I haven't really been to a chocolatier that I didn't love. This advice is for any place that does their own chocolate: I usually get some gift bags with like 10 different kinds of chocolate for people then a box of pralinés for me and maybe someone I really like. Make sure to play a little dumb and hesitate a lot about your choices, they'll give you plenty of samples. If you're looking for store chocolate, look for a CoopCity where you are, they'll have a big selection of Lindt and Villars and Cailler (Nestlé) as well as some other stuff you haven't heard of. Your money will go farther here, but it won't be as original. One treat you should try to find is Sprüngli Luxemburgerli. They're these amazing cookies/biscuits that are just superb. They also don't travel well so forget about your friends and just buy them for yourself.
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Sep 26, 2018 23:39
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greazeball posted:
I must look really poor, because I wasn't offered a sample at any of the chocolate shops. If only they knew my discretionary chocolate budget... As far as store brands, I like Frey a lot, but Coop store brand is pretty good too. I have fallen madly in love with Ovaltino Crunch, and will be taking a few lbs back with me. Lindt isnt any better than it is in the states, and Cailler was...ok.
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Sep 27, 2018 16:00
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Beachcomber posted:Omg, someone tell me which swiss chocolate I should bring pounds of home. We brought mostly Frey which is national and Bachmann which is in Lucerne. We did get some of the Sprungli stuff as well but drat that poo poo was expensive. I think 3 or 4 truffles were like 10 Fr.
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Sep 29, 2018 00:09
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Hi friends, I'm travelling to Europe from Australia with my younger brother in late November. We arrive in Berlin on 26 November and fly out of Munich on 23 December, so roughly 4 weeks all up. I have been to Europe for 4 weeks previously (and actually got some good advice for that trip in this thread), but my brother has not. I'm 31 and he is 26, we both love history, food, and beer. Our current rough itinerary is something along the lines of: Berlin (4 nights) Dresden (4 nights) Krakow (5 nights) Vienna (4 nights) Prague (3 nights) Nuremberg (3 nights) Munich (4 nights) But, these locations and time frames are still tentative. I have been to Berlin and Prague previously. I'm very keen for advice on: - the amount of time in each location - whether there are more interesting locations we should spend our time in, given the rough geographic theme of the trip - general thoughts/advice/tips about any of the places we're planning on visiting Open to any and all feedback!
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Sep 29, 2018 00:26
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I reckon you could spend less time in nuremburg. You can see the nazi rally grounds in less than a day, and the old town isn't THAT interesting that you need 2 days to see it. Sure, it has the wall, but the wall is very uniform the whole way round. The churches are just churches, and the castle is kinda small despite being the seat of the holy roman empire. Personally I found the rally grounds to be the best bit by far, if you go to the chancellory, you can walk around the bottom of the building and go inside and stand where Hitlers podium would have been. Its actually encouraged despite not being a part of the museum, there's a full walking track and its one of the stops. I always kinda thought that hitler wasn't as self involved and narcisistic as history says he was. I thought it was an act he put on to cultivate his cult. But man, standing there, it clicked, you feel huge, you feel powerful. I definitely see it as a monument to his own megalomania. The building itself is a good example of nazi architecture too, it's so big and powerful and imposing and it's only half as big as what it would have been had WW2 started a few years later. I definitely think its worth seeing nuremburg to see its nazi history. The castle and old town, less so. I reckon its doable in a day if you arrived in the early evening, got up early the next day, and got a night train somewhere else. See the nazi museum in the morning, wonder around the parade grounds walking route, get a train or tram back to the city center and look at the castle and old town, then hang out near the bridges until sunset. It's definitely worth seeing but its not worth staying there I think. The reason I found the old town kinda boring was that it was the second last stop on a month long trip very similar to your own, and nuremburgs old town is rather small. Its also nuremburgs high end retail district and that kinda dominates the area. If you get away from the shops, the old buildings near the water are lovely to look at, but thats an experience you get anywhere in europe. By that point you'll probably be hitting maximum old town enrichment and getting kinda sick of it, especially after a few days in prague and krakow, both of which have bigger and much more interesting old towns imo. Especially prague. I would say that 5 nights in krakow is a lot, seeing as you are there that long, I strongly recomend you go to the salt mine. Aushwitz is there and definitely worth visiting too. Are you just staying in the cities too? Personally I think munich for 4 days will be boring, especially at the end of the trip, unless you get out of the city.
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Sep 29, 2018 06:13
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Agreed with the above post. I'd add that 4 nights in Dresden is a lot too. Basically, you have 3 gigantic cities on your list that are different than the rest: Berlin, Prague and Vienna. I'd focus on those when it comes to time spent. The second tier would be Krakow and Munich both of which have interesting day trip destinations in the vicinity (Auschwitz and Wieliczka for Krakow, Neuschwanstein for Munich). The third tier is Dresden and Nuremberg both of which could have strong 1 day history programs but then their charm fades compared to the other heavy-hitters on the list. Cities that are also interesting in the vicinity of your trip: Bratislava, Lepizig, Stuttgart.
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Sep 29, 2018 06:48
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Dresden Krakow Nuremberg Munich can all be cut to two days easily. Use the freed up time to hit Budapest or get out into the countryside. Add a day trip to würzburg, see the high tatras en route to Poland. Also the mountains in Austria are worth visiting. Saros fucked around with this message at 11:01 on Sep 29, 2018 |
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Sep 29, 2018 10:55
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I'd definitely shift some of those Krakow nights over to Berlin. Krakow rules but 3 nights is enough for a visitor. Have you considered some other Polish cities, like Wrocslav or Gdansk? I particularly liked Gdansk. There are some other smaller places you could visit on your way too, like Marianske Lazse (from the movie Last Year in Marienbad), Bratislava, Salzburg maybe? I found Budapest more enjoyable than Prague. Budapest is a lot like Prague but with fewer tourists and more affordable, and Prague doesn't have the coffee houses. If you're on a budget Poland has excellent long range bus services, I forgot what the company was called (it has a cartoon bird for a logo) but you had wifi on board, decent chairs, a lady served us coffee and a small snack, nobody was rude, and we paid something like 10 euros for a trip across the country. Trains are faster and probably more comfortable though. Eating in Poland is all about milk bars, there's a few in Krakow, one was part of the university and aimed at students, you could get steak tartare and plum vodka for very little money. There was a great bagel restaurant in the Jewish quarter. Shibawanko fucked around with this message at 12:13 on Sep 29, 2018 |
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Sep 29, 2018 12:01
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Wroclaw and Gdansk are great but for a first time visitor to Poland I’d recommend Kraków first every time. Though I’d second what others said about too much time in Dresden and Nuremberg which would be better spent elsewhere.
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Sep 29, 2018 12:46
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I think it's good that someone plans in plenty of days for a change, it should be encouraged. There's plenty of ways to enjoy yourself in a place even after you exhausted the Tripadvisor top 10 things to do: - Wander around aimlessly - Talk to local people in a cafe - Go to a random residential neighbourhood and see how people live - Go for a walk in the nearest forest/national park/river valley - Sleep the whole day because you're tired of rushing around for a month - Spend a whole day trying various local foods and beers and taking your time with them - Go to some local concert or festival that you find on Google that happens to be going on when you're there - Visit a small local museum about some random specialized topic and listen to the owner's enthusiasm about his collection and the fact that a foreigner came to visit it It might be more memorable than visiting the 12th neo-gothic church or city hall of the trip.
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Sep 29, 2018 14:44
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Entropist posted:I think it's good that someone plans in plenty of days for a change, it should be encouraged. There's plenty of ways to enjoy yourself in a place even after you exhausted the Tripadvisor top 10 things to do: Sure, but it's nice to do those things when you feel like it rather than out of necessity because you've done everything else.
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Sep 29, 2018 18:50
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All the best vacations are about checking off the most boxes in a list of historical sites in the least amount of time possible. I'm used to building in enough downtime for my wife to function, but some of my best days this past trip were just parking myself at an outdoor table at a bierhall in the altstadt and just practicing my hs German to whoever came by. I expected to be bored out of my mind in Dusseldorf, because there's not really anything to do, but the stuff you find for yourself to do is quite often the best stuff. To do. Sorry, just slept for 14 hours after finally getting home. Anyway, downtime is really underrated.
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Sep 29, 2018 19:18
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Fat Albert posted:I'm 31 and he is 26, we both love history, food, and beer. You say you've been before so I don't know what you got up to, but exploring Teufelsberg was a real highlight of my trip to Berlin and if you like walking, forests, views, graffiti, and history then it ticks every single box. Even if you've been before I think it's worth a second visit and showing someone who hasn't been. I'd allow half a day for this, and can recommend Scheune restaurant for a very hearty meal after your walk up to the site. We had lunch there and the pork knuckle (grillhaxe) - €15 - was amazing and super filling. I didn't need to eat until gone 9pm. Berlin has a bunch of museums dedicated to ancient history, art, that sort of thing, that I didn't bother with during my limited time there because I felt time was better spent on more unique sites. Berliner Dom is really impressive and the audio tour was fairly interesting. If you've never seen one before, the Body Worlds exhibition is worth a go, though I could be biased because I met Gunther von Hagens when I was a kid and he really inspired my biology/anatomy nerd side.
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Sep 30, 2018 17:44
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Not to be confused with Berliner Domme.
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Sep 30, 2018 23:52
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