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Jan posted:Dumb question, I'm staying at an Airbnb room in Freiburg for 2 more days and I'm looking for basic stuff: some powdered laundry soap for handwashing stuff when I'll be in our Ferienhaus in the Black Forest (with no laundry room), and some basic breakfast supplies like peanut butter. I'm used to getting all that stuff from big surface grocery stores back home but I haven't found anything like it wandering Aldstadt and central Freiburg. Does anyone know of such a place around there? Should I be looking farther out? Any grocery store will carry washing powder, and many of them (e.g. PennyMarkt) will carry peanut butter. I'd avoid Lidl and Aldi because those stores are loving nightmares but basically anywhere else will have it. Or you could just go to an Indian/Thai/Asian grocer--they always have peanut butter and laundry powder.
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Aug 22, 2014 13:55
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Jan posted:Dumb question, I'm staying at an Airbnb room in Freiburg for 2 more days and I'm looking for basic stuff: some powdered laundry soap for handwashing stuff when I'll be in our Ferienhaus in the Black Forest (with no laundry room), and some basic breakfast supplies like peanut butter. I'm used to getting all that stuff from big surface grocery stores back home but I haven't found anything like it wandering Aldstadt and central Freiburg. Does anyone know of such a place around there? Should I be looking farther out? There is a Penny on Bertoldstraße opposite the university which should carry these things. Otherwise, there should be an Aldi (if it is still there) in the basement of the "Schwarzwald City" shopping center in the Schiffstraße. There should also be a supermarket in the basement of Karstadt towards the Siegesdenkmal (that used to be Migros but I think has changed since). There is also an Edeka in the Rausstraße, which is a parallel street of the KaJo and near Karstadt. Last but not least, there is also a Rewe on the Fahnenbergplatz (Rotteckring), which is towards the Colombischlössle. There are plenty of supermarkets, so you should be fine! 
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Aug 22, 2014 15:34
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Hollow Talk posted:There are plenty of supermarkets, so you should be fine! Yeah, no doubt, but missing both the language recognition and the "big waste of surface space" recognition, they can be hard to find. Thanks for the suggestions, that should sort me out.
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Aug 22, 2014 16:05
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Anything in particular that shouldn't be missed in Nice?
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Aug 25, 2014 12:01
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Jan posted:Dumb question, I'm staying at an Airbnb room in Freiburg for 2 more days and I'm looking for basic stuff: some powdered laundry soap for handwashing stuff when I'll be in our Ferienhaus in the Black Forest (with no laundry room), and some basic breakfast supplies like peanut butter. I'm used to getting all that stuff from big surface grocery stores back home but I haven't found anything like it wandering Aldstadt and central Freiburg. Does anyone know of such a place around there? Should I be looking farther out? Just look for REWE or EDEKA. If you can find it, get REI in der Tube for your handwashing needs. It's laundry detergent in a tube specifically for handwashing. I don't think you can find it anywhere outside of Germany and when I'm traveling I always bring some in my toiletry bag. DM and maybe other Drogerien also sell it in travel size.
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Aug 25, 2014 20:59
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AreWeDrunkYet posted:Anything in particular that shouldn't be missed in Nice? Wayne's Bar in Old Town
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Aug 25, 2014 22:17
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I'm going to be near The Hague for work in October and when that's done, planning on spending a couple nights in Rotterdam followed by a week split between Copenhagen and Berlin. My main questions are what the weather is like in October (being from  all I know is snow and cold), and if I should take sleeper trains or fly between countries? Is Malmo worth visiting when I'm in Copenhagen? Any hostel recommendations?
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Aug 27, 2014 06:33
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Cacator posted:I'm going to be near The Hague for work in October and when that's done, planning on spending a couple nights in Rotterdam followed by a week split between Copenhagen and Berlin. My main questions are what the weather is like in October (being from The weather in Germany and Denmark strongly depends on your luck. If you are lucky, you might get nice autumnal weather and a fair bit of sun. I wouldn't risk it though and take a waterproof jacket that is ideally also windproof, since Copenhagen tends to have a fair bit of it. Have you been to Copenhagen at all before? If so, I'd say Malmö might be worth a visit, but if you haven't been before I'd recommend spending your time simply exploring the city. If you can find decent flights, I'd take those, since you are already splitting time between two lovely cities that deserve as much of your time as possible. Try to fly into Berlin-Tegel (TXL) if you want a slightly easier way into town (though Schönefeld is fine as well), Copenhagen only has one airport and the Metro will get you into town quickly from there. Edit: Malmö is nice enough, it's just not that exciting compared to the much bigger and much more alive Copenhagen. The bridge is quite the sight, however. Hollow Talk fucked around with this message at 12:34 on Aug 27, 2014 |
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Aug 27, 2014 12:32
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There's a train connection from Amsterdam to Berlin that takes about 6 hours and costs €100 I think. You can do better flying. The trains are really nice though, they come through my home town and I'll take them over a regular train if I can.
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Aug 27, 2014 15:39
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Pvt Dancer posted:There's a train connection from Amsterdam to Berlin that takes about 6 hours and costs €100 I think. You can do better flying. If you look for Sparpreise you can knock that down to 29 if you book early.
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Aug 28, 2014 05:11
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I'm in Barcelona for a conference, I have 3 hours free tomorrow morning and maybe 3 the following morning. Any recommendations for things to do in these two instances? Since I'm unsure if I will be free the second day I'll put must-sees on the first day.
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Aug 31, 2014 16:31
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Lady Gaza posted:I'm in Barcelona for a conference, I have 3 hours free tomorrow morning and maybe 3 the following morning. Any recommendations for things to do in these two instances? Since I'm unsure if I will be free the second day I'll put must-sees on the first day. Park Guell is pretty awesome though quite touristy.
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Aug 31, 2014 16:46
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Saladman posted:Based on your itinerary, you should just get a German SIM card. Colmar and Basel both get German cell phone service, since they're right at the border (though in Colmar it will be pretty lovely; I was there in 2008 with a German phone and remember that the connection was intermittent). I've been walking around Basel for the afternoon and this has been turning out to be pretty spotty. I've had Vodafone signal only when sitting right next to Basel Badischer and in some random as hell alleyway next to Münsterplatz. Is there some secret to this or should I have opted for the German master race with Deutsche Telekom?
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Sep 1, 2014 21:25
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Jan posted:I've been walking around Basel for the afternoon and this has been turning out to be pretty spotty. I've had Vodafone signal only when sitting right next to Basel Badischer and in some random as hell alleyway next to Münsterplatz. Is there some secret to this or should I have opted for the German master race with Deutsche Telekom? T-Mobile generally has the best coverage.
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Sep 2, 2014 10:05
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futurebot 2000 posted:T-Mobile generally has the best coverage. That would make sense. In Altglashütten all of us on Vodafone or O2 were getting a terrible Edge signal. The only person able to do anything was roaming and probably using T-mobile's network. Oh well, we weren't there to surf the Internets anyway, it didn't prevent us from climbing 13000 metres over the week. 
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Sep 2, 2014 20:06
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Jan posted:I've been walking around Basel for the afternoon and this has been turning out to be pretty spotty. I've had Vodafone signal only when sitting right next to Basel Badischer and in some random as hell alleyway next to Münsterplatz. Is there some secret to this or should I have opted for the German master race with Deutsche Telekom? Probably too late now, but you should be able on your phone to choose your telecom provider, so even if your SIM is not tmobile or whatever, you can select it when your normal provider is out of reach. The iphone does this, no idea about Android phones. On iphone you should see a "Carrier" button in Settings. Then pick any German provider within reach and you can avoid Swiss int'l roaming.
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Sep 2, 2014 22:13
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Saladman posted:Probably too late now, but you should be able on your phone to choose your telecom provider, so even if your SIM is not tmobile or whatever, you can select it when your normal provider is out of reach. The iphone does this, no idea about Android phones. On iphone you should see a "Carrier" button in Settings. Then pick any German provider within reach and you can avoid Swiss int'l roaming. I just checked and I do have Telekom.de listed among available networks from my Airbnb apartment. It doesn't seem to accept my connection though, might not be able to "roam" off this prepaid plan.
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Sep 2, 2014 22:31
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I ended up just roaming on Swisscom for my last day, it's not like I needed to hoard the 14€ left on my SIM card for anything else. That said, I'm puzzled by the ridiculous amount of construction work I've seen around Basel, not even counting Novartis and Roche's expanding campuses. It seems like there are new buildings popping up in both new and old town, and I've encountered road work on pretty much one road out of three. Is the city preparing for some big thing or is this just the normal amount of work being done to keep infrastructure in tip-top shape? Montreal has maybe one third of the work being done in Basel and everyone is up in arms about it. Probably because our infrastructure is still poo poo in comparison, even with all the work being done, but yeah.
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Sep 3, 2014 19:25
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I am traveling in October and I am landing in Frankfurt and want to travel to Cologne and, from Cologne, into Belgium and then into the Netherlands. I haven't sussed out the details of exactly which cities in Belgium I want to visit but, ultimately, I am flying out of Amsterdam. Would you guys say the cheapest way to get around is by bus? Or is train just as economical? Thanks!
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Sep 4, 2014 03:24
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Landing in Amsterdam on a Friday evening (end of Oct), and catching a flight back out Wednesday morning. First time in the Netherlands, how's best to spend this time? 3 days in the city and 1 exploring a bit outside? Some googling reccomends Zaanse Schans. Is this terrifically misguided? Specifically, the 4th day of this itinerary: http://www.visitacity.com/en/amsterdam/itineraries/4-days-in-amsterdam-and-zaanse-schans-day-1
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Sep 4, 2014 15:35
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Mortley posted:In the Basque country? No specific questions? I just did 9 months in Asturias. Ah sorry, I never caught this post. I'm going to be studying in Valencia until Decemeber. Curious about cultural habits and norms that I might not catch onto at first, and the sort of stuff that I would regret missing out on while here. Related, I'm considering spending about ten days backpacking somewhere in Europe. I was thinking of flying from Valencia to Paris, and then going from there to bum around in Germany until I leave. Completely fine with hitchhiking and slumming it in hostels (and possibly outside). Would Oktoberfest be a worthy end goal? edit: I'm also visiting Bilbao next weekend without too much of a plan, if anyone knows anything about it. ThatBasqueGuy fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Sep 4, 2014 |
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Sep 4, 2014 18:33
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jet sanchEz posted:I am traveling in October and I am landing in Frankfurt and want to travel to Cologne and, from Cologne, into Belgium and then into the Netherlands. I haven't sussed out the details of exactly which cities in Belgium I want to visit but, ultimately, I am flying out of Amsterdam. Would you guys say the cheapest way to get around is by bus? Or is train just as economical? Yes, trains are better than busses for trips between cities in most cases. especially over distances like Frankfurt-Cologne or Cologne-anywere in Belgium.
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Sep 4, 2014 22:32
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Exceptions apply for some areas... The German-Belgian border area doesn't have a lot of rail connections because the Ardennes are in the way, an area that's all hilly and unpopulated, and the ones that do exist are slow because of all the curves in the tracks that follow little rivers. For example to go from Saarbrücken to Luxembourg the trains have to go up to Trier first along the Saar river and then head west (beautiful views though), and it's much faster to go by bus, as well as cheaper. For longer-distance trips this doesn't matter much though, as rail will still be faster. Something like Frankfurt-<major Belgian city> should be fine by rail, the train will go around the north of the whole hilly area via Aachen and Liege which is a high-speed route, or maybe the south via France. If you're going purely by cost, buses can be cheaper than rail even for long distance trips like Paris-Amsterdam. Companies such as Eurolines handle those routes. The downside of course is that it takes quite a bit longer, is probably less comfortable, and you probably get dropped off at some auxiliary station which is not near the city center. If you have to travel at weird times this might be the only option, though.
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Sep 4, 2014 23:31
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Megabus is recommended if you go to Paris by bus, the stop is pretty well located. Deutsche Bahn now operates a bus line between Eindhoven and Cologne, it's worth checking out. Think it was 9 euro for a pretty comfortable bus with WiFi.
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Sep 5, 2014 06:28
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ThetaOmnikron posted:Landing in Amsterdam on a Friday evening (end of Oct), and catching a flight back out Wednesday morning. First time in the Netherlands, how's best to spend this time? 3 days in the city and 1 exploring a bit outside? Some googling reccomends Zaanse Schans. Is this terrifically misguided? Specifically, the 4th day of this itinerary: http://www.visitacity.com/en/amsterdam/itineraries/4-days-in-amsterdam-and-zaanse-schans-day-1 Zaanse Schans is pretty nice if you want to see windmills. Close enough to the city not to be a waste of time, but a big change of scenery nonetheless.
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Sep 5, 2014 11:04
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Jan posted:
Standard. They seem to rebuild most Swiss cities from the ground up every 2 years. Zurich is even worse than Basel for constant construction work.
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Sep 5, 2014 12:18
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My headphones broke. I'm in Turin right now. Where can I buy new (preferably good) ones?
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Sep 5, 2014 13:33
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Istari posted:I'm thinking of heading to Paris for the last week of October, and I have a couple of questions. To get around I suggest the Paris Visite pass. Good for zones 1-3 or 1-5 and 1,2,3, or 5 days. Unless you're really heading out to the boonies don't bother with the 5 zone pass. They absolutely take American credit/debit cards at the ticketing windows. Everyone spoke English just fine if you don't speak French (I don't and had no trouble). The Visite are good on Metro, bus, and trains as long as they are within your zone. I downloaded a fantastic app called "Visit Paris by Metro." It has maps of the metro, the city, and night bus routes. These download to your phone so you can use it even without data/wifi. Has markers for lots of touristy attractions like museums, Eiffel Tower, etc. Also works with your phone's GPS offline so you can figure out where the gently caress you are without carrying around a big dumb map which makes you look like less of a tourist. I just figured out where I wanted to go when I was on the hotel's wifi, found the closest metro stop and went from there.
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Sep 5, 2014 18:38
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SubponticatePoster posted:They absolutely take American credit/debit cards at the ticketing windows. But do be warned that the ticket machines may not if your card doesn't have a chip & PIN, so leave a little extra time to stand in line. SubponticatePoster posted:Also works with your phone's GPS offline so you can figure out where the gently caress you are without carrying around a big dumb map which makes you look like less of a tourist. You can also just use Google maps or something if that's what you're used to. Scroll around (and zoom in) a bunch to where you expect to go to pre-load the maps, and offline GPS is plenty to get yourself around.
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Sep 5, 2014 18:48
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AreWeDrunkYet posted:You can also just use Google maps or something if that's what you're used to. Scroll around (and zoom in) a bunch to where you expect to go to pre-load the maps ...or download the maps for offline viewing
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Sep 5, 2014 19:03
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I ended up having too many fiddly problems with Google maps offline and bought the pro version of Maps with Me. Works fine and downloading your maps is easy as poo poo and things never change.
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Sep 6, 2014 00:45
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SubponticatePoster posted:To get around I suggest the Paris Visite pass. I'm going to be there from Wednesday (early morning) to Friday the next week (10 days), so I'd need 2 Paris Visite passes (69,40€), whereas 2 weeks' worth of Navigo Découverte for zones 1-2 is only 45,80€ (including the price of the card) (hell, I could get 2 weeks' worth of Zone 1-5 for only 74€). So is there something blindingly wonderful about the Paris Visite pass that I'm just not seeing ? SubponticatePoster posted:They absolutely take American credit/debit cards at the ticketing windows.
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Sep 6, 2014 03:45
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If I have to hear one more hipster talk about how they aren't going to the usual tourist sites and they just want to experience the local culture.
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Sep 6, 2014 23:27
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By hipster you mean backpacker, right? Or basically anyone not doing package holidays. But it really is weirding me out sometimes how there is this cognitive dissonance in certain people to label everyone as "those tourists" who are essentially just doing the same thing they are doing. I have a few friends like that, one of them always tries to go to super obscure places to get away from "the tourists" and one always complains about the stupid things "the tourists" are doing and in that moments neither of them sees themselves as tourists so I always have to reality-check them, haha.
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Sep 7, 2014 12:44
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elbkaida posted:By hipster you mean backpacker, right? Or basically anyone not doing package holidays. But it really is weirding me out sometimes how there is this cognitive dissonance in certain people to label everyone as "those tourists" who are essentially just doing the same thing they are doing. While this might be extreme, I do think there is merit to trying to avoid just doing the tourist hotspots. For example, if you go walking in Berlin, you will get huge amounts of people at certain places and points in town, but they tend to get there directly via bus, metro or some such. If you simply take the time to walk (or bike, as with the new and hip guided biking tours) between these points of interest, you will get a much better sense of space, distances and how the place is connected and functions. Alexanderplatz in Berlin makes a lot more sense if you come towards it from Leipziger Straße and the former Eastern German high-rise blocks of flats there, rather than from the turn-of-the-century boulevard Unter den Linden. Though I'm sure some people mean the whole avoiding tourists-thing like they would with music, where a band (or place, for that matter) is dead to them as soon as a certain number of people start frequenting it and thus making it mainstream, and in that case: 
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Sep 7, 2014 14:36
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I posted way back when in this thread about a trip to Austria and Germany. It's now booked and I'm trying to figure out all the details. We're starting with Vienna then going by train to Salzburg, then to Munich. Is there any benefit to 1st class vs 2nd class on DB Bahn? It's only 11 EUR more total on this particular train and it's from Salzburg to Munich. How much of a pain in the rear end is it to get luggage on these trains and where is it kept? How far in advance of the scheduled departure should I plan to arrive at the station? While we're staying in Munich I'm planning on day trips to Dachau and Neuschwanstein. Would a Bayern ticket be worth it?
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Sep 8, 2014 18:22
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Amaterasu posted:Is there any benefit to 1st class vs 2nd class on DB Bahn? It's only 11 EUR more total on this particular train and it's from Salzburg to Munich. quote:How much of a pain in the rear end is it to get luggage on these trains and where is it kept? quote:How far in advance of the scheduled departure should I plan to arrive at the station? Waci fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Sep 8, 2014 |
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Sep 8, 2014 18:54
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You carry your own luggage onto the train and you can put it in a little luggage area near the door (possibly at the other end of your carriage) or if it's smaller/lighter you can put it under/behind/over your seat depending on the arrangement of the seats. I'd arrive to the station 20 min early just because it can sometimes be a long walk to the actual platform. You can always get a coffee or something to bring on the train if there's extra time.
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Sep 8, 2014 19:26
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Waci posted:You get extra leg space, coffee, and a newspaper. I think they also promise a power socket in first class (on most trains, only some 2nd class seats have power sockets). This is only on ICE or similar, right? For Regionalexpress etc 1st class is most likely not worth it.
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Sep 8, 2014 20:52
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ICE, and IC too as far as I know. No idea about RE, but you're right, I'd imagine at least the bit about power sockets wouldn't apply (don't take a long distance RE in any class if you can avoid it, anyway).
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Sep 8, 2014 22:14
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