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you can easily do both on the same day if you book a day ticket for the ancient roman stuff and the evening tour for the vatican. as a bonus the vatican will be slightly less busy as well (it will still be insanely busy) note that you should book asap, both tend to sell out fast
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Aug 4, 2019 10:21
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I found the vatican museum's audio guide really interesting. Gave me a ton of insights I wouldn't have otherwise had. E: Also the vatican museum is one of the most infuriating places I've been in my life. So much stolen money and culture. So. Much.
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Aug 4, 2019 10:35
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orange sky posted:I found the vatican museum's audio guide really interesting. Gave me a ton of insights I wouldn't have otherwise had. I haven’t been in a while but isn’t it overwhelmingly like European art circa 1200-1800, plus Roman stuff? I don’t recall any controversy and Wikipedia doesn’t mention anything either.
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Aug 4, 2019 10:49
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CzarChasm posted:Looking at a British Isles trip next year. Ha anyone done any of the Trafalgar tours? Like this https://www.trafalgar.com/en-us/tours/t/amazing-britain/?season=presale+2020&tripcode=bhil Is this you?  If not then avoid that tour like the plague. Some of those legs involves visiting 3 or 4 different places in a single day. e: They literally drive through Wales without stopping just so people can say they've been to Wales. 
Sweevo fucked around with this message at 11:25 on Aug 4, 2019 |
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Aug 4, 2019 11:23
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Saladman posted:I haven’t been in a while but isn’t it overwhelmingly like European art circa 1200-1800, plus Roman stuff? I don’t recall any controversy and Wikipedia doesn’t mention anything either. I started my tour in the Egyptian Collection, I think, which biased my whole tour. But still, the Vatican is not the Italian State. They shouldn't own all of that Etruscan/Roman art.
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Aug 4, 2019 11:51
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CzarChasm posted:We'd like to hit a little of everything, but while most of the reviews are positive, the one negative I keep seeing is that this is a rushed trip. Can't tell if that's genuine complaint or some people just being whiny. You need at least 3-4 days in London, really, and I'd say 2-3 minimum for Edinburgh. You could drive yourself around some beautiful Scottish countryside and actually be able to stop and take it all in. Hadrian's Wall is worth a look. Bath is probably a day so you can go to the Roman baths. Bristol's not really worth bothering with if you're coming all the way from the US, it's a perfectly pleasant city but I'd skip it in order to free up time to see more interesting stuff. If you have ten days and want to see a bunch of stuff without rushing, I'd be thinking of something along these lines: London with a day trip to Bath (the train takes about 90mins each way and you can probably book decently-priced tickets in advance) and another to Stonehenge, or else an overnight in Bath and a day set aside for Stonehenge and surrounds as Bath is slightly closer to the site. (5 days total) Fly from Bristol (nearest airport to Bath) or London to Edinburgh for 3 days. Train or drive to Inverness (takes about 4 hours either way) and then a drive around various Highlandy places for a couple of days before flying home. Or I'm sure there are Highlands tours from Inverness that you could look into if you're not wanting to drive yourselves. Bollock Monkey fucked around with this message at 12:55 on Aug 4, 2019 |
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Aug 4, 2019 12:50
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Thanks everyone for the recommendations and especially the link for getyourguide. We were planning on adding a day or two to London on either end any way, but this seems like a better plan of attack.
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Aug 4, 2019 18:01
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orange sky posted:I started my tour in the Egyptian Collection, I think, which biased my whole tour. You would love all the museums in Berlin where there are a ton of signs that say "we had more of [this item from Turkey/Greece/Egypt/Iran/etc] but THE SOVIETS took them from us after WWII because they are mean people" without a single drop of irony.
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Aug 4, 2019 19:00
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orange sky posted:I started my tour in the Egyptian Collection, I think, which biased my whole tour. I'm not sure why Italy's claim to anything pre-risorgimento is much stronger than the church's
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Aug 4, 2019 19:27
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orange sky posted:I started my tour in the Egyptian Collection, I think, which biased my whole tour. To be fair for that particular example, almost all of the best Egyptian stuff by a mile is in Egypt... and there is an absolute metric TON of Egyptian statuary, and it would be a massive shame if it were all in Egypt, as even at present they have so much in Egypt they can't exhibit even a decent fraction of it without everyone being bored out of their minds by 3000 years of statuary. There are a few exceptions (like some of the Akhenaten period stuff is super unique and distinctive, most notably Nefertiti's bust) but by and large the Egyptians own the massive lion's share of their ancient history, which is fair.
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Aug 4, 2019 20:52
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I'll be back in Berlin for a couple of days soon and finally going to go to the ancient history museums. I love Egyptian stuff. Before that I'll be in Bari and Naples, if it's not too hot I'll see if I can go to Pompeii. I'd rather not do it in a tour and just have a look by myself, is this feasible?
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Aug 5, 2019 10:08
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Shibawanko posted:Before that I'll be in Bari and Naples, if it's not too hot I'll see if I can go to Pompeii. I'd rather not do it in a tour and just have a look by myself, is this feasible? Yeah, you can walk around on your own. Depending on what you want to get out of the experience there are a ton of guidebooks available and it is hard to get lost. I recommend checking out Herculaneum instead of Pompeii, though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herculaneum Pompeii is big, but almost everything they excavated was moved to a museum and the site itself is mostly just streets and knee-high foundations with only a handful of buildings. Herculaneum is also close to Naples, was buried just like Pompeii and while smaller it preserved things like mosaic floors, original roofs, etc., offering more than just ruins. I visited and enjoyed both, but where Pompeii is big, I thought Herculaneum was far more interesting. Kind of like the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon, I guess.
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Aug 5, 2019 10:40
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Yeah, Herculaneum is way more interesting and also more compact and easily visited if it's super hot and humid. Villa Poppaea (Oplontis) is also super interesting as it's in pristine condition. Pompeii is also really interesting too, I don't want to talk it down too much. Everything is easy to get to by the metro, but I guess you could also just take taxis (or Uber, if that's in Naples).
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Aug 5, 2019 11:51
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Does Herculaneum have these creepy plaster moulds, too? That stuff from Pompeii was incredible to see in person and I still remember it vividly after many years.
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Aug 5, 2019 15:19
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no, but it does have a bunch of corpses in a ditch make sure to go to the archeological history museum in naples, as thats where they took 90% of the stuff they dug up in the sites
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Aug 5, 2019 17:27
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We're going to Budapest on Saturday and we're thinking about what's the best way to get forint. Can I take some out with my credit card from an ATM at the airport? We're going to need some cash to pay for the bus fare to the apartment.
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Aug 5, 2019 21:30
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Use a debit card in an ATM at the airport. Look for a bank machine rather than the blue & yellow Euronet machines as those charge astronomical fees.
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Aug 5, 2019 23:43
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Is Revolut available to get in the US? A lot of my friends/family have been using it and converted money on the go.
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Aug 6, 2019 08:26
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webmeister posted:Use a debit card in an ATM at the airport. Look for a bank machine rather than the blue & yellow Euronet machines as those charge astronomical fees. My bank account is in euros. Is it going to let me use it anyway?
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Aug 6, 2019 10:49
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Spermando posted:My bank account is in euros. Is it going to let me use it anyway? Of course.
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Aug 6, 2019 10:53
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the vatican museum has this ikea showroom floor plan that forces you to shuffle through the whole thing in a day. the result was that i remember almost nothing i saw because every centimeter of every room is covered in stuff. the overwhelming vibe is shock and awe with iphone shutter noises as the soundtrack. galleria borghese does much more with less, and i enjoyed my day there a lot more.
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Aug 6, 2019 17:57
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Misc posted:the vatican museum has this ikea showroom floor plan that forces you to shuffle through the whole thing in a day. the result was that i remember almost nothing i saw because every centimeter of every room is covered in stuff. the overwhelming vibe is shock and awe with iphone shutter noises as the soundtrack. The problem with the vatican museum is the multitude of tour groups which just thrust you along through the entire visit. You can't really stop and enjoy something, especially if it is on the tour guide radar. Any important pieces would be swamped with people. I always remember my visit there where I stopped to view Augustus of Prima Porta, a statue of Ceasar Augustus which I have seen a lot in my reading on ancient Rome. Apparently this wasn't on the tour guide itinerary and had literally nobody near it. However when I went down the corridor to some selfie-worthie atrium there were nearly 100 people taking pictures with selfie-sticks of random poo poo they probably have no knowledge of but was on the tour itinerary. It's a phenomenon you see all over the world. People are more concerned with their instagram posts of supposedly famous things, even though they have no idea what it is or why it is famous.
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Aug 6, 2019 20:16
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Cheesemaster200 posted:The problem with the vatican museum is the multitude of tour groups which just thrust you along through the entire visit. You can't really stop and enjoy something, especially if it is on the tour guide radar. Any important pieces would be swamped with people. Rome in general is full of this. The Pantheon in July is so packed you can barely move but just around the corner in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva there's a 7-foot Michelangelo sculpture in a completely empty church because none of the guidebooks mention it.
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Aug 6, 2019 20:29
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To be fair, the Pantheon is one of the world's most incredible buildings (personally I'd rank it above the Colosseum) and anyone who visits Rome without seeing it is absolutely insane.
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Aug 7, 2019 01:09
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webmeister posted:To be fair, the Pantheon is one of the world's most incredible buildings (personally I'd rank it above the Colosseum) and anyone who visits Rome without seeing it is absolutely insane. Yeah, that dome is loving incredible, it's really hard to imagine how a dead civilization 2000 years ago managed to build something like that.
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Aug 7, 2019 15:03
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webmeister posted:To be fair, the Pantheon is one of the world's most incredible buildings (personally I'd rank it above the Colosseum) and anyone who visits Rome without seeing it is absolutely insane. To be clear I'm absolutely not saying it's not worth visiting, it's fantastic, but a lot of people people just go between all the sights featured in their guidebook and miss out on a ton of worthwhile stuff by not exploring a little bit.
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Aug 7, 2019 18:47
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I'm going to be in Paris for 24 hours next month. Not a huge amount of time, but is there any places that are a must see? I was thinking of going to Versailles but apparently that will suck up my whole day. Was almost just going to say "gently caress it" and see the tower, Notre Dame, then just walk around and see what catches my fancy. But if there are any "must see" places, especially for a history nut, I'd love to stop off at a place or two.
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Aug 9, 2019 05:49
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CelestialScribe posted:I'm going to be in Paris for 24 hours next month. About Notre Dame, well uhh... unfortunately no one is visiting there anytime soon. You could go to Saint Chapelle instead, or La Madeline if you want a more unique design. Yes there are tons of must sees for history nuts, just check the wiki travel page for Paris and see what’s up your alley.
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Aug 9, 2019 08:02
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Paris is the epicentre of European history. You would have to be more specific. That said, it's also very much a living city, and doesn't really give a "historical" impression the way a lot of smaller cities give. Plus all of the historical info plaques around town are only in French, so wandering around blind doesn't necessarily work
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Aug 9, 2019 08:13
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Cheers. I love revolutionary history so I'll probably seek out some landmarks related to that.
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Aug 9, 2019 10:31
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CelestialScribe posted:Cheers. I love revolutionary history so I'll probably seek out some landmarks related to that. Go to les invalides then, like where Napoleon is buried, and the military museum next door is neat if you’re into that kind of thing. Don’t bother going toward the bastille, there’s nothing there except the place name and it’s in a boring area of Paris. .
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Aug 9, 2019 11:26
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Saladman posted:Go to les invalides then, like where Napoleon is buried, and the military museum next door is neat if you’re into that kind of thing. One of my few regrets about my last trip. I'm fine with seeing Versailles next time, or going up the Eiffel Tower, or going into the Louvre. But I walked right past that and forgot it was there.
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Aug 9, 2019 17:55
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Excellent!
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Aug 9, 2019 22:01
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I booked a Switzerland train trip for September. The schedule is all pre-arranged and it might not give me the time to explore everything thoroughly, but it seems perfect to just sit back and watch the beautiful scenery roll by. Having said that, I will have some time for exploration in the following places: Zürich Bergün day trip Tirano, Italy Zermatt Bern Any tips of things I absolutely shouldn't miss, or things I absolutely should avoid?
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Aug 11, 2019 10:52
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Carbon dioxide posted:I booked a Switzerland train trip for September. The schedule is all pre-arranged and it might not give me the time to explore everything thoroughly, but it seems perfect to just sit back and watch the beautiful scenery roll by. How much time will you have and what are you most interested in?
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Aug 11, 2019 11:38
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Im in Naples, it's not really how I imagined, more like Marrakech than like a north European city. Something weird happened, my wife and I were walking down the street in the spanish quarter, some old guy was outside a cafe kind of shouting, but this happens all the time in Italy so i didnt think of it. When I walked past he grabbed my shoulder and went like "You speak English? Coffee??" and tried to pull me in the cafe. I was surprised so I just kind of mumbled "no" and kept walking but the dude pushed me by the shoulder and basically told me to gently caress off in Italian and shouted while I walked away. Is this something common? I remember reading somewhere that its rude to refuse coffee, but i didnt take that to mean you should let yourself be hijacked off the street when youre going somewhere.
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Aug 11, 2019 11:58
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greazeball posted:How much time will you have and what are you most interested in? I'd like to do some short mountain hikes, couple hours at most, and in the cities maybe visit historic buildings and such. Perhaps a good pub or restaurant for the evening. Anyway I'll stay one night in Zürich, 3 nights in Bergün, but the 2nd day there will be the trip to Tirano, 2 nights in Zermatt and one night in Bern. I'm not entirely sure how much time I actually have in each place, it'll depend on the departure times of the trains. The travel org recommends to spend the time in Zermatt with either an excursion to the Gornergrat or taking a cable car somewhere. They'll prob be sending me some more travel trips later.
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Aug 11, 2019 12:09
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Carbon dioxide posted:I'd like to do some short mountain hikes, couple hours at most, and in the cities maybe visit historic buildings and such. Perhaps a good pub or restaurant for the evening. Zurich: Best pub: Frau Gerold's Garden (NB: only if it's not raining, if it is raining, then go to Jules Verne) Short Mountain Hike: Go up Uetliberg for views of town, it's 2 hours roundtrip if you're walking from the end of the tram/bus line. If you're really lazy you can take the train up (or down) from basically the top. Short-ish Mountain Hike: Go up Grosser Mythen, you can take a tram from the end of the valley at Brunni up about halfway and then hike the rest (±45 min to top). Would take most of a day to do this, and if you do you should stop at Einsielden Abbey since it's on the way. Bergün: Honestly not sure about any short hikes around here. There are a bunch of hardcore hikes but... hmm.. You could do a daytrip out to Lavin / Guarda, or Tarasp? None are really hiking but they're all nice and distinctive. I've never been up any of the mountains on the southeast side of Engandin valley, but I bet many some of them (e.g. from Sils or Silvaplana) have nice views if you take the lifts up. The views of the valley from the St Moritz lift are definitely not the best. Any hike that's not connected to a lift will either take way more than 2 hours, or not go very high and probably not give great views. YMMV. Zermatt: Yeah definitely go up the Gornergrat. The hike up to Schwarzee is pretty nice too and gives good views of the Matterhorn similar (although perhaps not as striking) as Gornergrat. FYI it is cloudy there, a lot. Bern: If you want a hike and still aren't over it, then go up Gurten.
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Aug 11, 2019 17:00
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I'm not really sure what one night means, whether that's 5-8 hours in a place or arriving at 8 and heading out again in the morning. One easy thing you can do in Zurich if you don't have a lot of time is take a ferry tour, it goes into town a little and then out on the lake. I also don't really know anything about eastern Switzerland. In Zermatt, you're going to want to take the five-lakes trail. It's about 3 hours and it has incredible views of the Matterhorn the whole way. Frickin postcard stuff, my trip there was amazing:  Gornergrat is cool but you don't get the postcard views of the Matterhorn that you do on the trail. In Bern, again I don't know how much time you'll actually have, but the easiest way to see the town is to take a bus to Rosengarten, take in the views from the edge of the park, then walk down and see the bears, walk into the old town and visit the cathedral and then keep going up the road to the Zytglogge. You can go up the cathedral tower if the weather's nice, Einstein's apartment is on the way, and there are cool decorative fountains along the main drag. The whole of old town (from the bridge until you reach Zytglogge) is a UNESCO world heritage site. There's a good restaurant near the Zytglogge called Lötschberg. One of the best restaurants in town is Zunft zu Webern, you'll pass it on your way through the old town. It's a good variety of Swiss and continental dishes. Also near-ish Zytglogge is a nice beer café, Au Trappiste (TripAdvisor link because the pub's website is down at the moment).
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Aug 11, 2019 17:15
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greazeball posted:I'm not really sure what one night means, whether that's 5-8 hours in a place or arriving at 8 and heading out again in the morning. I'm not sure either, I'll see once I get the tickets like a week before the start of the trip. I think I'll at least have better part of a day for most places so that should be fine. Thanks for the tips so far. Googling a bit myself I also see some stuff about the Gornerschlucht gorge near Zermatt that you can take a walk through. Is that worth it? Edit: I don't have that much experience with Actual Mountains. Last time I went to anything similar was the Scottish Highlands and I did some easy walks there. I'm sure I can handle something like that 5-lakes trail if I just take my time. Just wondering how well I should prepare. I see they recommend walking sticks, how important/helpful are those really? Carbon dioxide fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Aug 11, 2019 |
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Aug 11, 2019 18:32
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