Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Saladman
Jan 12, 2010
You're not going to see any castles in Norway, and you won't even see any fortresses unless you really go out of your way to see some really bland forts. You also aren't likely to see any ruins, although maybe there are still some WW2 Nazi bunkers and whatever somewhere in Norway. Visiting in early August, you're also quite likely to not see the northern lights unless you go all the way up to Tromsø (i.e. not just as far as Trondheim).

I think the place you actually want to actually go to is Scotland, which matches your description better. Particularly for the ruins: https://www.google.ch/search?q=ruin...h3okAP9#imgrc=_


E: Actually VVV is totally right. Even in Tromsø you won't see any northern lights: http://www.timeanddate.com/sun/norway/tromso?month=8&year=2015; there's no real nighttime until August 15th (i.e. you can't see the northern lights at twilight).

Saladman fucked around with this message at 11:28 on Jul 17, 2015

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

spoof
Jul 8, 2004
In Stockholm right now and it was still reasonably bright at 11pm, and starting to get bright again when I went to bed at 1:45am. You're not going to see any northern lights in the summer.

actionjackson
Jan 12, 2003

Saladman posted:

You're not going to see any castles in Norway, and you won't even see any fortresses unless you really go out of your way to see some really bland forts. You also aren't likely to see any ruins, although maybe there are still some WW2 Nazi bunkers and whatever somewhere in Norway. Visiting in early August, you're also quite likely to not see the northern lights unless you go all the way up to Tromsø (i.e. not just as far as Trondheim).

I think the place you actually want to actually go to is Scotland, which matches your description better. Particularly for the ruins: https://www.google.ch/search?q=ruin...h3okAP9#imgrc=_


E: Actually VVV is totally right. Even in Tromsø you won't see any northern lights: http://www.timeanddate.com/sun/norway/tromso?month=8&year=2015; there's no real nighttime until August 15th (i.e. you can't see the northern lights at twilight).

Yeah there's a lot of ruins in St. Andrews, also go check out Stirling and Edinburgh Castle like I did.

JacksLibido
Jul 21, 2004
Weak, thanks for the info, saved me some time there. I've already been to Scotland and it was pretty awesome, maybe I'll hit up somewhere in Eastern Europe then.

E-Money
Nov 12, 2005


Got Out.
My wife and I our fleshing our the details on our honeymoon(!) and would love any tips, must-see's etc.

Sep 20-24th - Istanbul

We are staying at the W in Istanbul (know it's a bit out of the way but we had starwood points so it's free)
Planning on seeing the hagia sophia, grand bazaar, check out a Turkish bathhouse, and most importantly, eat lots and lots of delicious food.

Sep 24th ~~~ Sep 30th (have a day or so's flexibility for the end date - Catania/Sicily

This is the part of the trip that we don't entirely know what our itinerary will be
We want to hit some beaches, some ruins, maybe do a tiny bit of hiking, eat all the loving food, take a cooking class, go to the markets etc. We want a mix of "doing stuff" and "doing nothing/sitting in a cafe"
We don't have accommodations booked so can stay in various places as we go. might be interested in a B&B type place for at least a night or two as well.
Don't have specific cites in mind - we're gonna be close to Taomorina so it makes sense to check that out probably.
Does it make sense to make our way over to Palermo? is renting a car going to be the best way to get around in Sicily? My wife can drive stick but unfortunately I can't. Have heard bad things about Italian drivers but not sure how things are on Sicily or how necessary it is.

Basically, Getting into Catania and having about a week in Sicily, what's a good plan to make the fun stuff happen?

Sept 30th - Oct 3 - Rome

We're planning on doing an AirBNB type place here - we want to have a more immersive experience. Any suggestions on neighborhoods?
We don't have the flight from Sicily to Rome booked so we could add a day on there if we wanted to spend more time in Rome and less in Sicily
We wanna see some old stuff but not too much touristy stuff. I wanna eat caccio e pepe and all the gelato. Figure it's gonna be hard to gently caress this part up.

Also, I have heard that English is not commonly spoken in Sicily. I took a few years of Spanish back in high school and was able to get by okay in Mexico. Will people be more likely to understand Spanish? I get that you can get by with gestures, but I like to take an effort to not be the dumb American tourist. If i should learn a bit of Italian before we go i'm okay with putting in a little work.

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005
Go to Ciampini gelato while in Rome, it will be the best gelato you ever taste.

People in Italy in general tend to not speak as much English as people from elsewhere in Europe. When my measly Italian didn't cut it I'd just start speaking in Spanish, they'd reply in Italian, and it was more or less mutually intelligible.


Definitely put in the half hour of effort to learn basic Italian phrases/count to 10/etc stuff that will get you through a good 80% of your daily interactions. You'll still look like an annoying tourist if you're telling people "gracias" for everything, but if you do actually need to have a conversation Spanish will usually work better than English.

Julio Cruz
May 19, 2006
The Italian reputation for driving terribly comes from the major cities when you have thousands of people and not enough road for all of them, it shouldn't be as much of a problem in Sicily especially once you get out of Catania. The south of Italy also tends to be more relaxed than the north which should help.

The best thing about Rome is that it's so full of amazing churches and archaeology and art and architecture that you don't even really need a guidebook or an itinerary, just wander off in a certain direction and you'll stumble across plenty of sights, most of which will be equally as worthwhile as the places on the covers of guidebooks, with the added bonus of being nearly tourist-free. My favourite find in Rome was a church called Santa Maria sopra Minerva, just around the corner from the Pantheon. It's got a statue by Michelangelo, just chilling out by the altar, and we were literally the only two people there.

That's not to say that some of the famous places aren't worth visiting too. I'd recommend the Pantheon and the forum, and you should at least walk round the outside of the Colosseum even if you don't go inside. I'd avoid the Vatican entirely (unless you want to queue for literal hours, which seems like a waste when you're only in Rome for a few days) and the Trevi fountain (unless you really want to do the coin-throwing thing, in which case you'll need to get through a crowd who are all trying to do it too). Also don't bother going to the Circus Maximus unless you have a great imagination because there's literally nothing there, it's basically just a long thin piece of waste ground.

You could probably manage in Rome without learning any Italian as a decent proportion of tourism-based jobs (wait staff/bar staff/shopkeepers) will probably have some Italian, but if you start off in English you will be seen as just another dumb tourist - they'll like you a lot better if you at least attempt to speak some Italian, even if it's just a couple of words. Spanish and Italian are similar enough that you could probably get your point across if you need to have a conversation with someone who doesn't speak English.

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005

Julio Cruz posted:

I'd avoid the Vatican entirely (unless you want to queue for literal hours, which seems like a waste when you're only in Rome for a few days) and the Trevi fountain (unless you really want to do the coin-throwing thing, in which case you'll need to get through a crowd who are all trying to do it too).

Uh, just buy your ticket online and you won't wait at all. And it's definitely worth doing.

San Clemente which was recommended a few posts up is also awesome, as is Santa Maria della Vittoria because you're alone most of the time, or a group of tourists come in and take a picture of Santa Teresa and then leave within five minutes.

MagicCube
May 25, 2004

If you're interested in ruins and a bit of hiking in Sicily I'd recommend splitting a few days between Siracusa and Agrigento. The Valley of Temples in Agrigento was amazing and Siracusa has a really cool old town (Ortigia) and some neat Greek ruins. English isn't widely spoken outside of the tourism industry in Sicily, but I doubt you'll have problems. I managed just fine with hand gestures, pointing, and basic phrases. As to getting around Sicily I'd say driving would be best if you can afford it/don't mind, followed by buses, with trains being a distant last place.

HookShot posted:

Uh, just buy your ticket online and you won't wait at all. And it's definitely worth doing.

Yeah the first time I went to the Vatican Museums I didn't know this and waited 3 hours in line. The second time I bought my tickets online and just showed my iPad to the guards and walked right in. Now the inside is another story and at (all) times the crowds will drive you nuts, but it's still worth it imo for one of the best museums in the world.

LLSix
Jan 20, 2010

The real power behind countless overlords

E-Money posted:

My wife and I our fleshing our the details on our honeymoon(!) and would love any tips, must-see's etc.

Sep 20-24th - Istanbul

We are staying at the W in Istanbul (know it's a bit out of the way but we had starwood points so it's free)
Planning on seeing the hagia sophia, grand bazaar, check out a Turkish bathhouse, and most importantly, eat lots and lots of delicious food.

Haggling is a thing in Istanbul. Especially in the Grand Bazaar, you can get most things substantially cheaper by haggling over the price.

Cheesemaster200
Feb 11, 2004

Guard of the Citadel
Anyone have a good hotel in Krakow near the old town? Looking for a place for me and my girlfriend. We are open to hostels, so long as they have private rooms.

wynott dunn
Aug 9, 2006

What is to be done?

Who or what can challenge, and stand a chance at beating, the corporate juggernauts dominating the world?

Cheesemaster200 posted:

Anyone have a good hotel in Krakow near the old town? Looking for a place for me and my girlfriend. We are open to hostels, so long as they have private rooms.

There's a nice bed and breakfast in the old jewish quarter (not the ghetto) of town, near a market. B&B Kolory near a bar called "Alchemy".

At any time of day you can get delicious soups and these giant psuedo-pizza bread things. Very delicious and very cheap.

Does anyone have any advice for staying in Athens? Have a trip coming up and wondering how it has changed post-crisis.

Ferdinand Bardamu
Apr 30, 2013

Cheesemaster200 posted:

Anyone have a good hotel in Krakow near the old town? Looking for a place for me and my girlfriend. We are open to hostels, so long as they have private rooms.

I stayed at Hotel Wawel back in June 2012. I believe that we paid €55-60 for a very nice, spacious room. It is positioned in the southern part of the Stare Miasto, so you are pretty much equidistant from the Castle/Kazimierz and the central square.

Also, there are bubushkas (especially at the entrance of the train station) in most crowded areas of the city that sell the giant pseudo-pizza things for dirt cheap.

Ferdinand Bardamu fucked around with this message at 11:57 on Jul 20, 2015

Anarkii
Dec 30, 2008

Mulatto Butts posted:

Does anyone have any advice for staying in Athens? Have a trip coming up and wondering how it has changed post-crisis.

I have a trip to Athens coming up too in less than a month, and have a booking in the Plaka area. My main objective is to be able to walk to the historic sites regardless of the state of public transport/traffic, so I'm sticking to that.

Nibble
Dec 28, 2003

if we don't, remember me

E-Money posted:

Does it make sense to make our way over to Palermo?

Having just been there for a few days, I'd say it depends. We spent most of our time there on the beach at Mondello, which was beautiful if a bit crowded, though might be better in late September. As for Palermo proper, we only spent half a day exploring there but it was quite enjoyable. There are a few open-air street markets to check out, Teatro Massimo was nice, and the Chiesa del Gesù looked unimposing from the outside but had my favorite interior of all of the churches and chapels we saw. We also had a great lunch at a place with a buffet-style seafood antipasto where I couldn't name even one of the dishes but it was all fantastic.

Beyond what we saw in less than a day, I'm not sure what else Palermo has to offer, which is why I'd say it's up to you if you really want to make the trek out there from the Catania area. We flew into Catania and took the bus over, it was under 30 euro per person for a 3ish hour ride, with some gorgeous scenic views driving through Enna. We didn't brave driving in Palermo but it looked suitably chaotic, a bit worse than Florence or Milan but not as bad as Naples. If you haven't booked flights yet it might make sense to try and fly into Catania then out of Palermo, since I feel like going there and back will waste a good amount of time. Unless you do rent a car and take different routes while checking out some of the smaller cities and towns along the way, that could be interesting.

That said, if there's one thing you must do in Sicily, it's eat all the arancini you can find. That, the seafood, and the desserts were definitely the food highlights of Sicily for us.

E-Money
Nov 12, 2005


Got Out.

Nibble posted:

Having just been there for a few days, I'd say it depends. We spent most of our time there on the beach at Mondello, which was beautiful if a bit crowded, though might be better in late September. As for Palermo proper, we only spent half a day exploring there but it was quite enjoyable. There are a few open-air street markets to check out, Teatro Massimo was nice, and the Chiesa del Gesù looked unimposing from the outside but had my favorite interior of all of the churches and chapels we saw. We also had a great lunch at a place with a buffet-style seafood antipasto where I couldn't name even one of the dishes but it was all fantastic.

Beyond what we saw in less than a day, I'm not sure what else Palermo has to offer, which is why I'd say it's up to you if you really want to make the trek out there from the Catania area. We flew into Catania and took the bus over, it was under 30 euro per person for a 3ish hour ride, with some gorgeous scenic views driving through Enna. We didn't brave driving in Palermo but it looked suitably chaotic, a bit worse than Florence or Milan but not as bad as Naples. If you haven't booked flights yet it might make sense to try and fly into Catania then out of Palermo, since I feel like going there and back will waste a good amount of time. Unless you do rent a car and take different routes while checking out some of the smaller cities and towns along the way, that could be interesting.

That said, if there's one thing you must do in Sicily, it's eat all the arancini you can find. That, the seafood, and the desserts were definitely the food highlights of Sicily for us.

Thanks for the tips!

Yeah - we're not specifically planning on spending an entire week in Catania. If we flew from Palermo to Rome we would just go there for the second half of the trip. Alternatively, if we fly out of Catania, we'll just stay in that area. I'm thinking it will be more fun to see more of the island, so maybe we'll do a few days in the Catania/Taomorina region and then trek over to the west side and fly out of Palermo. I think that gives us a little bit of everything. Lonely planet has a West-East itinerary in their Sicily guidebook that we may reverse and take some tips from.

We both live in NYC so we're not too scared about the driving in Sicily, but figured it was something to think about. i think we'll want to be able to go on enough small day-trips/side trips that it probably makes sense to have a car.

asur
Dec 28, 2012
People in NYC don't obey traffic laws and the police don't care? In Italy the farther south you get the worse it gets and by the time you get to Naples, and thus Sicily as well, all traffic rules have changed to general guidelines that may be thrown away at a whim if the person is in a hurry or for any other random reason. Lanes are determined not by markings, but by how many cars can fit. Lights may be ignored even if there's traffic that has right of way and will be ignored if there's no traffic. Stop signs might as well be non-existent. The only thing similar to the US is that pedestrians still walk out into the road randomly. The only reason is that system seems to work is that Italians are lot more observant than drivers in the US. I personally don't think it's that bad, but it seems a lot of people can't seem to handle it. The advice I'd give is to drive aggressively and be aware. Also don't make any blind turns at speed even if you have right of way.

One other thing to note is that the rental car companies in Sicily are rife with fraud. Make sure you do a detailed inspection of the car before you leave and mark even the slightest thing wrong with it on the rental agreement as you'll get dinged for anything unless the contract exempts it. Then when you return it, I'd have someone stay with the car while you go inside to fill out al the paperwork. If you want to avoid the hassle, it may be worth it to purchase the super protection or whatever the company calls the full protection. Theft in general in Sicily is pretty high though I assume most guidebooks warn about it.

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres
If anyone has any restaurant recommendations for Paris, I'm in town for a few days so started a thread seeking ideas in GWS: Something Offal › (I'm) Gay Paree: the Paris dining thread

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

If anyone has any restaurant recommendations for Paris, I'm in town for a few days so started a thread seeking ideas in GWS: Something Offal › (I'm) Gay Paree: the Paris dining thread

Thai: Suan Thai, near the Hôtel de Ville. This place is absolutely fantastic, but unfortunately they don't have a whole lot of room. If you're eating with more than 1 other person you'll want to reserve.
Moroccan: Chez Bébert (near Gare Montparnasse). The service sucks but the food is great.
Generic French: Ladurée is a famous French "chain" bakery/confectionary and they have a couple restaurants in Paris that are also good, and that serve real food (most Laudrees just sell macarons). Also worth considering. I don't know if all of the Laudrees in Paris serve food: probably they do not. The one at Madeleine does though.


Of these Suan Thai is definitely my favorite. Still, the others are worth a shot if you don't have anything else in mind. I've spent quite a bit of time in Paris (couple months? on and off over the years) and most of the places I've been have been pretty unremarkable.

diapermeat
Feb 10, 2009

E-Money posted:

Sept 30th - Oct 3 - Rome

We're planning on doing an AirBNB type place here - we want to have a more immersive experience. Any suggestions on neighborhoods?
We don't have the flight from Sicily to Rome booked so we could add a day on there if we wanted to spend more time in Rome and less in Sicily
We wanna see some old stuff but not too much touristy stuff. I wanna eat caccio e pepe and all the gelato. Figure it's gonna be hard to gently caress this part up.


We stayed at an AirBNB right near this location Via del Babuino, 135, 00187 Roma, Italy (google map) It is right near a metro station and the spanish steps. It was a pretty heavily touristy area but we definitely felt safe. Found tons of shopping areas a few roads away and lots of great restaurants nearby. We used TripAdvisor a ton to find great places to eat. We had no trouble getting by using just english and some hand gestures.

We did all the usual tourist stuff of pre booked tours. Enjoyed them all.

got any sevens
Feb 9, 2013

by Cyrano4747
Anyone done the backpacking thing around Europe lately? Do the recent troubles affect it much? Anyone still couchsurf? The thread here is locked but the last few posts are from a while back and said the site and the people were getting worse.

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010

effectual posted:

Anyone done the backpacking thing around Europe lately? Do the recent troubles affect it much? Anyone still couchsurf? The thread here is locked but the last few posts are from a while back and said the site and the people were getting worse.

What troubles in Europe...? There isn't any issue in Europe that would affect travellers besides the occasional transit strikes. Syria is not a European country and the Greece debt issue doesn't affect foreigners in the country as they have no ATM withdrawal limit.

Couchsurfing is reliable in most big cities, though it's not as common as in the US. My girlfriend and I had started to do it, but 90% of the people who contacted us seemed like creeps (the profile was in her name with a photo of her, just a normal photo) so we shut it down after hosting 2 sets of people, both of whom were good guests. YMMV.

Blinkman987
Jul 10, 2008

Gender roles guilt me into being fat.

effectual posted:

Anyone done the backpacking thing around Europe lately? Do the recent troubles affect it much? Anyone still couchsurf? The thread here is locked but the last few posts are from a while back and said the site and the people were getting worse.

Do you look and sound like you're from North Africa? If not, no problems. I mean, if you're Jewish there have always been problems but you'd already know that. :)

Edit: Chinese or SE Asian too, at least in Spain last time I was there.

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010

Blinkman987 posted:

Do you look and sound like you're from North Africa? If not, no problems. I mean, if you're Jewish there have always been problems but you'd already know that. :)

Edit: Chinese or SE Asian too, at least in Spain last time I was there.

Except none of this will affect tourists at all, except that waiters and waitresses might be bigger dicks to you if you're carrying a huge camera, Chinese-looking, and don't speak the local language. (I get that you're joking, but I'm not sure if effectual is or not.)

LLSix
Jan 20, 2010

The real power behind countless overlords

Planning on taking a two weeks-ish trip to Spain starting September 26th for our honeymoon. This will be my first trip to Europe. Any suggestions about places to go or things to do? We're waiting to pick hotels until after we know what we want to do so if you have any suggestions about places to stay please throw those in too.

So far we have:
Madrid - 5 days
Biking in El Retiro.
Day trips to places nearby (Toledo, Segovia, and maybe one more).
Art museum?

Take train the bus to San Sebastion.

San Sebastion 2 or 3 days
Enjoy delicious Basque food.
Possibly chill on the beach.
Take a breather from "vacationing" and just chill and soak in the local atmosphere.

Bus and train to Barcelona.

Barcelona - 2 or 3 days
I'm super excited about walking down La Rambla.

LLSix fucked around with this message at 18:26 on Jul 25, 2015

Blinkman987
Jul 10, 2008

Gender roles guilt me into being fat.
Real Madrid or Barcelona soccer match just for the atmosphere and fun if you don't like soccer, eat endless jamon. They all taste distinct, so try them all! Toledo was good for a day. Didn't do the others you listed.

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010
For Art Museums in Madrid, I guess you pretty much have to check out the Prado, which anyway is right next to El Retiro. El Retiro is pretty small though, biking it would take about 20 minutes to do the entire park. You might try doing rowboats in the pond in the middle? I did that and enjoyed it.

Segovia is a bit long for a day trip though totally doable. If I only had 5 days in Madrid I'm not sure I'd recommend it (even though it has a super cool citadel and a pretty cool aqueduct). Presumably since you've never been to Europe, you're flying in from somewhere that will give you jetlag and make at least your first day much lower-key than you might want it to be.

PT6A
Jan 5, 2006

Public school teachers are callous dictators who won't lift a finger to stop children from peeing in my plane

Saladman posted:

For Art Museums in Madrid, I guess you pretty much have to check out the Prado, which anyway is right next to El Retiro. El Retiro is pretty small though, biking it would take about 20 minutes to do the entire park. You might try doing rowboats in the pond in the middle? I did that and enjoyed it.

Segovia is a bit long for a day trip though totally doable. If I only had 5 days in Madrid I'm not sure I'd recommend it (even though it has a super cool citadel and a pretty cool aqueduct). Presumably since you've never been to Europe, you're flying in from somewhere that will give you jetlag and make at least your first day much lower-key than you might want it to be.

It depends on what kind of art you want to look at. The Prado has the most significant and largest collection, no question, but I very much disliked the experience of visiting it. The Reina Sofia was more interesting to me, and it was a more pleasant museum to visit in addition to that. The Thyssen-Bournemiza also gets overlooked a lot, which, frankly, is great because it means it's not crowded with assholes like the Prado always is.


Blinkman987 posted:

Real Madrid or Barcelona soccer match just for the atmosphere and fun if you don't like soccer, eat endless jamon. They all taste distinct, so try them all! Toledo was good for a day. Didn't do the others you listed.

Jamon and wine!

Ally McBeal Wiki
Aug 15, 2002

TheFraggot

LLSix posted:

Planning on taking a two weeks-ish trip to Spain starting September 26th for our honeymoon. This will be my first trip to Europe. Any suggestions about places to go or things to do? We're waiting to pick hotels until after we know what we want to do so if you have any suggestions about places to stay please throw those in too.

So far we have:
Madrid - 5 days
Biking in El Retiro.
Day trips to places nearby (Toledo, Segovia, and maybe one more).
Art museum?

Take train the bus to San Sebastion.

San Sebastion 2 or 3 days
Enjoy delicious Basque food.
Possibly chill on the beach.
Take a breather from "vacationing" and just chill and soak in the local atmosphere.

Bus and train to Barcelona.

Barcelona - 2 or 3 days
I'm super excited about walking down La Rambla.

Gonna rep it here and say if you want to stick 2 additional days in there, Logrono is a fantastic destination for food and wine. It's a quick bus ride from San Sebastian (less than a couple hours, I think?) and will be a bit less tourist-ed than the other spots on your itinerary. Ask PT6A about his vineyard tour. Calle Laurel is a renowned destination for food, and the town itself has just enough for 2 days of enjoyment and a bit of a more small-town feel without giving up any amenities or ending up in the sticks. People are quite friendly and the couple museums there are nice. Though for just 2 days I wouldn't necessarily recommend them, as walking around town and a vineyard / winery tour could more than round out a couple days there.

Also gonna agree with Reina Sofia over Prado in Madrid.

LLSix
Jan 20, 2010

The real power behind countless overlords

Saladman posted:

For Art Museums in Madrid, I guess you pretty much have to check out the Prado, which anyway is right next to El Retiro. El Retiro is pretty small though, biking it would take about 20 minutes to do the entire park. You might try doing rowboats in the pond in the middle? I did that and enjoyed it.

Segovia is a bit long for a day trip though totally doable. If I only had 5 days in Madrid I'm not sure I'd recommend it (even though it has a super cool citadel and a pretty cool aqueduct). Presumably since you've never been to Europe, you're flying in from somewhere that will give you jetlag and make at least your first day much lower-key than you might want it to be.

Yeah. The middle of the USA, so we might end up flying to the coast and then needing to wait a day for the next trans-Pacific flight.

PT6A posted:

It depends on what kind of art you want to look at. The Prado has the most significant and largest collection, no question, but I very much disliked the experience of visiting it. The Reina Sofia was more interesting to me, and it was a more pleasant museum to visit in addition to that. The Thyssen-Bournemiza also gets overlooked a lot, which, frankly, is great because it means it's not crowded with assholes like the Prado always is.

Thanks for the suggestions! We'll look into visiting both of those. What did you like about the Reina Sofia?


Blinkman987 posted:

Real Madrid or Barcelona soccer match just for the atmosphere and fun if you don't like soccer, eat endless jamon. They all taste distinct, so try them all! Toledo was good for a day. Didn't do the others you listed.
This is an awesome suggestion. I like watching soccer (football) and its a good opportunity to people watch too.

Thufir
May 19, 2004

"The fucking Mayans were right."
I actually didn't like Las Ramblas that much, it's just jammed with tourist restaurants and street hawkers. IMO Passeig de Gracia is a better walk, or just walking around Eixample in general. I really enjoyed walking around on Montjuic as well. The Barcelona subway is awesome.

San Sebastián beaches are pretty nice and have nice facilities but were super crowded when I was there a few weeks ago.

I thought the Prado was pretty ok, definitely worth the time and money. There's also the Naval museum up the street which is cheap and kinda cool if you like looking at ship models.

PT6A
Jan 5, 2006

Public school teachers are callous dictators who won't lift a finger to stop children from peeing in my plane

LLSix posted:

Thanks for the suggestions! We'll look into visiting both of those. What did you like about the Reina Sofia?

It was way less crowded, and I prefer modern art over looking at fifteen billion pictures of Christ. If you're not really a fan of modern art, I'd recommend the Thyssen-Bournemiza. Unlike the Prado, you can actually see the entire thing, and it's not at all crowded. I've heard that one described as "all the greatest paintings by the least important artists, and all the least important paintings by the greatest artists."

In San Sebastian, I'd also recommend the Aquarium, the San Telmo Museum, and the climb of Mount Urgell (I think that's what it's called). It's a nice hike.

I'll echo what FaceEater says about Logrono/Rioja, it's pretty much on the way between Madrid and San Sebastian, and it's amazing. Great food, amazing wine, low prices, the full deal. I stayed in Logrono and toured a winery in Haro on a daytrip (Lopez de Heredia -- definitely the one you want to hit up if you're there).

Shibawanko
Feb 13, 2013

Museo del Prado is worth it just for the Garden of Earthly Delights and the Goya stuff. I'm not sure why anyone would not like the experience of visiting, maybe it was very crowded? It wasn't so bad when I went there.

Otherwise just wander around and eat.

Blinkman987
Jul 10, 2008

Gender roles guilt me into being fat.

Shibawanko posted:

Museo del Prado is worth it just for the Garden of Earthly Delights and the Goya stuff. I'm not sure why anyone would not like the experience of visiting, maybe it was very crowded? It wasn't so bad when I went there.

Otherwise just wander around and eat.

I'm posting just to be super salty that when I went to the Prado, the Goya stuff was out on loan.

Edit: The rare book library is kinda cool, and I guess you can see some of the tools used to build the thing if that's your thing.

Blinkman987 fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Jul 26, 2015

PT6A
Jan 5, 2006

Public school teachers are callous dictators who won't lift a finger to stop children from peeing in my plane

Blinkman987 posted:

I'm posting just to be super salty that when I went to the Prado, the Goya stuff was out on loan.

Edit: The rare book library is kinda cool, and I guess you can see some of the tools used to build the thing if that's your thing.

I got to see it! It was my goal, I finally loving found it, and then I left and drank heavily in a nearby bar.

The organization was very illogical and hard to figure out compared to the other two "majors" in Madrid, I found. It was busy, and expensive, and no one would put up with any part of it if it didn't hold some of the most significant works of art in the world.

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010
I liked the Prado a lot more than Reina Sofia, which I felt like the only point was to run through, look at the Guernica and the 500 people standing in front of it, then get out. I also had the flu when I was there, so maybe that was it (I don't think I got it from the Reina Sofia, but I'm not sure).

YMMV, but I thought the Prado was cool because of (1) the Garden of Earthly Delights (less cool: the 500 people standing in front of it), (2) all of the other Bosch paintings, and (3) the side-by-side paintings by masters that painted the same scene, e.g. you get to see an identical painting of Adam and Eve done by Raphael and Botticelli, or whoever. Also I like looking at ridiculously bad medieval paintings of Jesus and other saints. There's one with a bird delivering a hamburger to Saint Francis or someone.

Anyway it's impossible to argue about it, maybe you should check out both, since they're extremely different? If you're from the center of the United States and have never been to Europe, presumably you have not been overdosed on near-identical-looking Renaissance paintings of crucified Jesus and portraits of old rich dead men, so it might be more interesting. Every major European capital has a museum that, if you were placed randomly in one and could look only at the paintings and not at the architecture, you'd have to have a PhD in art history to differentiate them. So, if you don't go this time, you can go to the Louvre or the National Gallery or wherever in the future.

Doctor Malaver
May 23, 2007

Ce qui s'est passé t'a rendu plus fort
Don't make my mistake and try to see the whole Prado. It was hopeless - after spending I don't know how many hours, I was exhausted and defeated and in the end was just glancing at rooms full of masterpieces while crawling to get out.

MagicCube
May 25, 2004

Saladman posted:

Prado . . . crucified Jesus and portraits of old rich dead men

I'm headed to Madrid in November and would you say Prado is better or worse than the Uffizi in terms of subjects listed above? In this case better meaning less, worse meaning more. I mean I loved the Uffizi, but drat, after a while I got a bit tired of so many crucified and dying Jesus's.

Shibawanko
Feb 13, 2013

There's a lot of Christian imagery there, but not in that way. It's not really a museum of religious art per se but it has a lot of stuff from the period when the first secular art started to emerge, and also from later artists who drew from the Christian imagination to create modern works, like Goya.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Ally McBeal Wiki
Aug 15, 2002

TheFraggot
Yanno, I did forget about the Goya at the Prado. That was absolutely the highlight of that museum for me.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply