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My Lovely Horse posted:Goddamn it I was gonna go to both of these and didn't for running out of time. Guess I'll have to go back oh no I had time but the Kattenkabinet was closed.  I even saved luggage space for cat-themed souvenirs!Oh well, back to the apple pies and bike lanes and Surinamese food and piles of vowels another time I guess
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Sep 30, 2022 23:52
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Amsterdam was a great time, them dam boat guys was a great suggestion and I would recommend it to anybody going in the future. The Van Gogh museum was also amazing. Just arrived in Berlin and picked up a Berlin Welcome card. Does anybody have any suggestions for bars or restaurants? E: missed the recommendations from the last page, added Koshary Lux and Trespassers to the map RoRz0r fucked around with this message at 14:03 on Oct 4, 2022 |
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Oct 4, 2022 13:54
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RoRz0r posted:Amsterdam was a great time, them dam boat guys was a great suggestion and I would recommend it to anybody going in the future. Taqueria El Oso has great tacos, next to U Senefelderplatz. Has a bunch of other restaurants in the vicinity too. Cafe Chagall for Russian food, across the street from El Oso. Also liked Hako Ramen, close to U Eberswalder Str. Generally Prenzlauer Berg has a huge variety of options. Bellboy Bar in Mitte has wacky cocktails if you're into that. Area around U Moritzplatz and U Kottbusser Tor seems to have plenty interesting bars but haven't really checked them out. Wherever you go, bring cash.
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Oct 6, 2022 13:37
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Hühnerhaus 36 near Kottbusser Tor has some really great chicken drat though I'd also kill for some Mustafa's right outside Mehringdamm station, and if you're going then go at like 11 in the morning unless you want to wait an hour in line
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Oct 6, 2022 13:48
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Chaparro's near Görlitzer Park or in the (otherwise terrible) Bikini mall thing near Gedächtniskirche also had very good Mexican street food type things last time I went.
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Oct 7, 2022 06:47
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:Hühnerhaus 36 near Kottbusser Tor has some really great chicken Mustafa’s have some more locations now, haven’t they? I believe I saw one at Hackescher Markt as well.
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Oct 7, 2022 08:08
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Hollow Talk posted:Mustafa’s have some more locations now, haven’t they? I believe I saw one at Hackescher Markt as well. it's been nine years since i was last there, but that's good news and i'd figure it'd take a lot of pressure off their original mehringdamm location looking on google i found they also had a location in munich, but it's no longer there for me to visit in a month's time 
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Oct 7, 2022 16:09
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What sites/apps should I be looking at if I want to buy tickets at Teatro la Fenice?
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Oct 9, 2022 01:40
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I'm going to spend a weekend in Norwich in November and I'm looking for decent places to eat, but also places to go. Apparently Roger Hickman's is good?
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Oct 9, 2022 16:01
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Looking at Malta again. Carnival is on over the weekend we were looking at, so I wondered if anyone here knew whether that would make it unpleasant/difficult to be a tourist wanting to go to various sites and obviously eat out etc? I've also been searching through the thread and it seems like the consensus is that the public transport sucks a lot. Is that still the case? Google Maps makes it seem like there are enough buses to get from e.g. Valetta to Ħaġar Qim in about 45mins - 1h or to Mdina in 30mins depending on the time of day but is this a lie? I know Maps and public transport outside major cities is not always the best for accuracy.
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Oct 16, 2022 17:34
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runawayturtles posted:I ended up switching to the better flight, and we're gonna just add the extra day to Madrid. If we've seen enough of Madrid to be satisfied at that point, maybe we'll take a day trip to Segovia. Trip report, the itinerary was a bit rushed at the start mostly because of really bad jetlag, but overall it was good. Biggest takeaway for future travelers to Spain: Don't just buy long-distance train tickets in advance, buy day-trip tickets as well. The morning and evening trains to popular day-trip destinations (like Toledo) completely fill up, even in the shoulder season. We had to switch some days around to get morning/evening tickets; for same-day we could only get there by 1pm at the earliest. Buying all train tickets in advance also avoids the enormous pain of getting Renfe tickets directly as a tourist. The Renfe kiosks are broken for foreign passports, as far as we could tell, so the only options were 1) wait in the customer service line, or 2) use the Renfe mobile app, which seems broken for foreign credit cards, but works with paypal.
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Oct 16, 2022 19:04
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runawayturtles posted:Trip report, the itinerary was a bit rushed at the start mostly because of really bad jetlag, but overall it was good. What'd the final itinerary end up being?
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Oct 16, 2022 20:59
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Bollock Monkey posted:I've also been searching through the thread and it seems like the consensus is that the public transport sucks a lot. Is that still the case? Google Maps makes it seem like there are enough buses to get from e.g. Valetta to Ħaġar Qim in about 45mins - 1h or to Mdina in 30mins depending on the time of day but is this a lie? I know Maps and public transport outside major cities is not always the best for accuracy. When we went to Malta a few years ago, we did it all by public transport -- even going as far as the Azure Window on Gozo, back when that still existed. We stayed in central Valetta and it was fine for getting around. It's very slow, but if you're staying in Valetta you'll at least have a direct bus to basically anywhere, and you're going to be at the bus terminus so it will more or less leave on schedule. I'm someone who normally rents a car on vacation too. We did not go to Hagar Qim, I think in part because it was a hassle to get to (as is the entire southern coast), but there are a lot of imo much more unique subterranean sites which also happen to be more easily accessed, like Hal Saflieni and the catacombs in Mdina. YMMV on what you find more impressive. I did not regret not getting a car and I imagine parking is quite difficult in the Valetta bay area, but it also takes a lot longer to get from point A to point B than you would expect given how small the island is. In general I found Malta to be quite a very unique cultural medley of Italian, English, and Maghreb. Also re: the next poster, I'm very surprised that even local trains sell out in Spain!
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Oct 16, 2022 22:08
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runawayturtles posted:Buying all train tickets in advance also avoids the enormous pain of getting Renfe tickets directly as a tourist. The Renfe kiosks are broken for foreign passports, as far as we could tell, so the only options were 1) wait in the customer service line, or 2) use the Renfe mobile app, which seems broken for foreign credit cards, but works with paypal. The best option is not to buy directly from Renfe but from a third-party like raileurope.com. I'm not sure if I've ever tried the Renfe kiosks, not that I can recall at least. You need a passport? Is that only for cross-border trips?
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Oct 17, 2022 12:58
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SurgicalOntologist posted:The best option is not to buy directly from Renfe but from a third-party like raileurope.com. Which funnily enough is bad advice for most of Europe, where third party sellers will mostly just cost you extra money and create potential problems. Fun!
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Oct 17, 2022 16:49
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Bollock Monkey posted:I've also been searching through the thread and it seems like the consensus is that the public transport sucks a lot. Is that still the case? Google Maps makes it seem like there are enough buses to get from e.g. Valetta to Ħaġar Qim in about 45mins - 1h or to Mdina in 30mins depending on the time of day but is this a lie? I know Maps and public transport outside major cities is not always the best for accuracy. I don't recall them being massively late or anything. I'd just recommend using the Tallinja app instead of Google maps - the latter wasn't quite up to date with the timetable, plus with the Maltese app it was easier to figure out which exact stop to go to at the Valetta terminus (there's like 20, each one handling 2 or 3 lines).
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Oct 17, 2022 17:56
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SurgicalOntologist posted:The best option is not to buy directly from Renfe but from a third-party like raileurope.com. Yeah, raileurope was easier in my experience also. Not cross-border, you need a passport (or Spanish ID) for all high-speed rail travel in Spain. edit: We didn't consider raileurope for tickets once in Spain because the site says that they must be printed out, however we saw plenty of people using QR codes on their phone so it probably would have been fine. runawayturtles fucked around with this message at 18:58 on Oct 17, 2022 |
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Oct 17, 2022 18:48
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Residency Evil posted:What'd the final itinerary end up being? Ended up looking like this: Overnight: Fly to Madrid Day 1: Madrid - Royal palace, plazas Day 2: Madrid - Prado Day 3: Segovia day-trip Day 4: Train to Seville - Maria Luisa park, river walk Day 5: Seville - Cathedral & Alcazar Day 6: Seville - Museum of Fine Arts, flamenco show Day 7: Train to Cordoba - Mosque-Cathedral, bridge Day 8: Train to Granada - Chapel/Cathedral, San Nicolas plaza Day 9: Granada - Alhambra/Nasrid/Generalife Day 10: Train to Madrid - Reina Sofia, El Retiro park Day 11: Toledo day-trip Day 12: Fly home
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Oct 17, 2022 19:22
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runawayturtles posted:Ended up looking like this: Sounds like we had very similar trips. We hit up El Escorial, but missed Granada/Cordoba. I think when we come back to Spain, we'll either hit Northern Spain/Barcelona or go back to southern Spain. Were Granada/Cordoba worth visiting? We loved Seville, but felt very meh about Madrid.
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Oct 17, 2022 21:13
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Residency Evil posted:Sounds like we had very similar trips. We hit up El Escorial, but missed Granada/Cordoba. I think when we come back to Spain, we'll either hit Northern Spain/Barcelona or go back to southern Spain. Were Granada/Cordoba worth visiting? We loved Seville, but felt very meh about Madrid. Granada is worth visiting mostly for the Alhambra, a vast palace/castle complex with remarkable Islamic architecture and gardens. The place really takes a full day to explore, especially given the large crowds and countless tour groups. It also provides some great views of the city (and creates some great views from elsewhere in the city, most notably San Nicolas). I think it should be a strong consideration if you go back to southern Spain. If you do, I wouldn't skip seeing the tombs in the chapel, and the cathedral probably has the most ornately decorated interior of any that we visited. I don't think Cordoba is a must-see, but I don't regret going. Stepping into the mosque-cathedral is a distinctly unique experience. Granted, I would have greatly appreciated the mosque architecture with or without all the retrofitted Catholic stuff.  We didn't stray too far from there, but the bridge behind it makes for some nice photos (especially at night), and it was cool to wander around some of the narrow alleys and patios covered in potted plants.All that said, Seville was probably also my favorite, and none of the other cities really had the same feel.
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Oct 18, 2022 00:30
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I'm pricing out a trip from the states to Amsterdam between December 26th - January 4th. How's Amsterdam at that time? Is that too long of a trip? I'm thinking we would take a train trip to Bruges for a night but otherwise spend our time in and around Amsterdam.
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Oct 18, 2022 06:12
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Something Else posted:I'm pricing out a trip from the states to Amsterdam between December 26th - January 4th. How's Amsterdam at that time? Is that too long of a trip? I'm thinking we would take a train trip to Bruges for a night but otherwise spend our time in and around Amsterdam. All the streets will be dressed up for Christmas, with lights and trees and stuff. There's been talk about having fewer lights than normal because of the energy crisis but we'll see. December 26th is called "Second Christmas Day" here and it is an official holiday. People visit family or if the weather is decent they might go out for a trip. Expect restaurants to be booked completely full on the 26th. Snow around Christmas is very rare here. It is more likely to be a bit rainy and ~5-10 C. Nothing a thick jacket and an umbrella can't solve, it certainly won't stop the Dutch from going out. Oh, and speaking of Christmas, if you're into that, the larger catholic churches tend to set up beautiful nativity scenes around the Christmas period and you can just walk in to check them out. You're more likely to find those in the south (Bruges) than in Amsterdam, but Amsterdam may have them too. I'm not sure. Then, New Year's Eve. In the Netherlands, many people buy hundreds to thousands of euros worth of fireworks for themselves and set it off all day and night on new year's eve, but especially just after the clock strikes midnight. And many of the fireworks are actually illegal firework 'bombs', that don't cause a nice light show but just make really loud bangs. And irresponsible teenagers get their hands on that poo poo early and shoot it all day. I am always cautious when going outside on the day(s) leading up to new year's. At any point some kid could set off a firework wrongly and shoot it towards you. You're not likely to get hurt if you keep your distance and keep your eyes open, but still. On new year's eve itself, most of the Netherlands will sound like an active war zone, with constant bangs and flashes. I'm not kidding, I've heard from visiting Americans that they've never experienced anything like it. If anyone in your group has any sort of war PTSD I recommend not being here on new year's eve, or finding a quiet rural place to stay. Other than that, you can just go to one of the new year's eve festivals to enjoy the music and the new year's countdown and stuff. I don't know Amsterdam well enough to recommend anything in specific. Personally, I wouldn't be able to spend that many days just in Amsterdam as a tourist, but opinions might differ. However, Amsterdam is a good place from which to visit other nice cities such as Delft, Utrecht, Haarlem just to name a few, or some other places like Alkmaar (cheese market if you go the right day), Zaanse Schans (an open air museum with typical historical houses from the Zaan region), and plenty more I can't think of right now. If you're taking a train all the way to Bruges, you could also consider staying a bit longer there and visit Ghent or Antwerp on the way back. They're nice cities too. Of course if you just book accommodation (and perhaps the international train, just in case it gets busy) you can just choose day-to-day where you want to go. More you want to check out in Amsterdam? Stay. Want to visit another town? Great, walk up to the closest station, buy a ticket and board a train. They go every 15 - 30 mins anyway. Speaking of trains, I should mention that currently the Dutch railways have trouble finding enough employees, meaning they had to reduce the number of trains or use smaller trains, which means trains are more likely to be overcrowded than normal. You probably can still shove yourself in but you may have to stand in a crowd for the entire trip. I don't think this is likely to happen for the trip to Bruges because Amsterdam is the first station of the international train anyway, so it starts out empty there. Also, the international trains is a different branch of the company so I'm not sure if they're suffering from the same problems. If you want to be absolutely sure you can dish out the extra cash for a Thalys (high speed rail) connection instead of the regular train for the first leg (Amsterdam-Antwerpen). Thalys comes with seat reserverations. Carbon dioxide fucked around with this message at 07:39 on Oct 18, 2022 |
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Oct 18, 2022 07:31
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My wife and I went to Amsterdam for New Years about 11 years ago, there were indeed a lot of street fireworks but nothing particularly impressive, about on par with what you'd see walking around France on 14 July or Switzerland on 1 August. We did not reserve anywhere in advance and everything was packed so we ended up drinking outside until like 1am since it was warm and not raining, then we went back to a friend's house. Also the Christmas decorations in Europe are pretty much up until the 6th of January, but yeah as Carbon Dioxide said a lot of places are cutting back on lighting this year. Christmas markets open around the end of Nov/first of Dec, then they close around the 24th to 26th, and very rarely beyond that. So basically if you treat it as "a random winter week in Europe" it'll be fine. Museums will be open, most shops will be open, etc, so from a practical standpoint it's fine. If you want something that feels special for Christmas and NYE then you may be disappointed.
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Oct 18, 2022 08:28
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Carbon dioxide posted:All the streets will be dressed up for Christmas, with lights and trees and stuff. There's been talk about having fewer lights than normal because of the energy crisis but we'll see. I was actually disappointed with how little Amsterdam was dressed up maybe a decade ago. I was coming from Zagreb, which is second or third rate compared to Amsterdam in everything but boy did we have more Christmas lights and decorations. It's a cultural thing probably, thrifty northerners caring about infrastructure, wages, maintenance and other boring stuff, while we're spending the last dime on twinkling lights. e: I don't think it's too long of a trip, especially if you like clubbing and will want to sleep in and take it easy some mornings. Doctor Malaver fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Oct 18, 2022 |
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Oct 18, 2022 19:28
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Thank you for the informative response!Carbon dioxide posted:December 26th is called "Second Christmas Day" here and it is an official holiday. People visit family or if the weather is decent they might go out for a trip. Expect restaurants to be booked completely full on the 26th. Carbon dioxide posted:Then, New Year's Eve. In the Netherlands, many people buy hundreds to thousands of euros worth of fireworks for themselves and set it off all day and night on new year's eve, but especially just after the clock strikes midnight. And many of the fireworks are actually illegal firework 'bombs', that don't cause a nice light show but just make really loud bangs. Carbon dioxide posted:However, Amsterdam is a good place from which to visit other nice cities such as Delft, Utrecht, Haarlem just to name a few, or some other places like Alkmaar (cheese market if you go the right day), Zaanse Schans (an open air museum with typical historical houses from the Zaan region), and plenty more I can't think of right now.
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Oct 18, 2022 19:32
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Something Else posted:Alright, now this does put me off somewhat. There's no medical reason to need to avoid it but it just sounds unpleasant. I live in Los Angeles where this poo poo is super common around certain holidays and I know I'm not a fan. Do you know if this is a thing in Belgium too? Maybe we can plan an escape to a sleepier town when this stuff peaks. I grew up in and lived the first 25 years of my life in the US, and let me tell you ever since moving to Europe I've lived in a handful of different cities (around Germany only, to be fair) and each and every NYE sounded like the city was being goddamn shelled by angry Allies. Europe doesn't gently caress around with New Year's fireworks in my experience.
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Oct 18, 2022 21:20
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Let's put it this way, they've done fireworks bans over here during the pandemic, purely on the grounds that they know for a fact people will blow their fingers off and the hospitals were overworked as it was.
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Oct 18, 2022 21:39
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The NYE I spent in Prague was an absolute war zone as well. Complete culture shock coming from Australia where individual fireworks have been banned since the mid-80s
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Oct 18, 2022 21:47
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Drone posted:I grew up in and lived the first 25 years of my life in the US, and let me tell you ever since moving to Europe I've lived in a handful of different cities (around Germany only, to be fair) and each and every NYE sounded like the city was being goddamn shelled by angry Allies. Oh yeah, I spent two NYEs in Munich and it was a blast. Drinking bottles of wine along the river, people firing off stuff willy nilly. Love that memory.
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Oct 18, 2022 22:09
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Went skiing over new year in Austria when I was younger, and people just letting off fireworks in the streets while crowds walked past scared the poo poo out of me. Luckily here in the UK it’s not like that.
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Oct 18, 2022 22:35
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It really depends place to place. From what I know, the fireworks tend to be slightly less warlike in rural Germany and Belgium than they are in the Netherlands. But I also know that some Dutch holiday parks have special deals where people who are highly sensitive to the sounds can go and rent a holiday home and the owners make it a quiet zone. They make sure no outsiders get in on new year's eve and stuff. If you're in any town or village in the Netherlands with a bunch of houses together expect fireworks. Personally, if I really couldn't stand it I'd either leave the country or find a B&B at some farmhouse surrounded by fields. In practice, I just hide indoors with the windows closed and that works well enough for that one night. Towns and cities are allowed to use local ordinances to ban fireworks in specific regions. Some places do it around hospitals and stuff. There's also towns banning it in large sections of the town and instead setting up a professional (and nice to watch) fireworks show in a central place instead. I've never been in one of those places so I can't say for sure, but I have a feeling people just ignore those local bans for the most part, and cops are too busy putting out fires or whatever to actually stop people from setting off any fireworks.
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Oct 18, 2022 22:46
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WaryWarren posted:Oh yeah, I spent two NYEs in Munich and it was a blast. Drinking bottles of wine along the river, people firing off stuff willy nilly. Love that memory. I was going to say in Munich people were straight up throwing fireworks at each other on NYE
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Oct 19, 2022 02:50
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France is a bit less crazy on NYE than neighboring countries, since there are a lot more prohibitions in place regarding fireworks (not that it stops people from doing stupid stuff)
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Oct 19, 2022 05:02
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I always worry at new year because London's biggest firework display happens right outside the windows of St Thomas's hospital.
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Oct 19, 2022 05:33
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I'd much rather have the largest professional fireworks in the world outside my window than a group of drunk teens aiming fireworks at everything and everyone.
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Oct 19, 2022 07:09
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HopperUK posted:I always worry at new year because London's biggest firework display happens right outside the windows of St Thomas's hospital. The maternity unit is up on the 7th floor, you get a great view from there but probably not good for new babies..
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Oct 19, 2022 10:20
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Chikimiki posted:France is a bit less crazy on NYE than neighboring countries, since there are a lot more prohibitions in place regarding fireworks (not that it stops people from doing stupid stuff) Well, they also get it all in on 14 July. I was also in Paris for NYE about a decade ago and I don't remember there being any significant fireworks at all, definitely nothing professional (we were on Champs du Mars) and not even many random street ones. In Switzerland on NYE you pretty much just see sparklers and those things that are like giant road flares, and then some towns do professional fireworks shows as well, but you get about 10x more on national day, the first of August. It's on a pretty predictable schedule so... wear earplugs if you were planning on going to sleep before like 1am. For animals I'm sure it can be startling, since dogs don't know how calendars work and don't wear earplugs. Although, our cat always goes out and watches the holiday fireworks that we can see from our terrace, after the first minute where he just freaks out. I don't think as a random passerby that you really have any risk of anyone shooting fireworks at you, in any case. I go out every NYE because I like fireworks, and tbh I don't remember the last time I saw people doing stupid antics with fireworks, but it might vary a lot from place to place. I haven't even seen anyone shoot roman candles at each other in years, although I guess those might be illegal now, since they were the only firework that was regularly used specifically to shoot at other people.
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Oct 19, 2022 11:53
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Does anyone have any suggestions for getting from either Florence, Bologna or somewhere close to Cologne/Bonn, Frankfurt, Siegburg. On the cheap tomorrow? We were coping with the Eurowings strikes OK but I didn't anticipate an Italian airport strike on top of it and suddenly a cheap trip is becoming incredibly expensive.
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Oct 20, 2022 20:52
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I haven't checked but the cheap yet uncomfortable answer is always Flixbus. There are trains (Bologna-Munich, Munich-Frankfurt) but it will not be cheap (250 eur?). And many options are not easily bookable because international rail booking sucks (you'll have to chain something together through Switzerland, which is probably not cheaper anyway but might be). Best bet is probably trains that go directly to Germany like the one I mentioned, which can be booked on bahn.de. Entropist fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Oct 20, 2022 |
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Oct 20, 2022 21:21
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General Probe posted:Does anyone have any suggestions for getting from either Florence, Bologna or somewhere close to Cologne/Bonn, Frankfurt, Siegburg. On the cheap tomorrow? We were coping with the Eurowings strikes OK but I didn't anticipate an Italian airport strike on top of it and suddenly a cheap trip is becoming incredibly expensive. I wouldn't call it cheap and you may not actually arrive tomorrow, but Flixbus is basically the budget travel option in Europe. Looks like about €115 per person and 20 hours to go from Bologna to Frankfurt. Rail Europe has the same route for about twice as much in half the time.
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Oct 20, 2022 21:24
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