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Chieves posted:6/19- Travel to Naples, check out more museums/ Villa Poppea I went to both Pompeii and Herculaneum, and really enjoyed having been to both as one gave me a greater appreciation of the other. Pompeii is a solid 6+ hours of exploration though. Herculaneum is more like 3h of exploration, and it's much quicker to get to on the train. Don't bother with Vesuvius - it's a pain in the arse to time properly, takes ages, and yeah the views are great but it's still by far the worst national park experience I've ever had. The National Archaeological Museum wasn't worth the time and spend, in my opinion, but I am from England where we have the British Museum right there, plus all the similar museums I've been to elsewhere in Europe, so I might just be a museum snob. The best thing we saw was Sansevero Chapel - the Veiled Christ was alright but the veiled woman statue blew my tiny mind and made me appreciate marble sculpture for the first time ever. I haven't been to Rome, though, so perhaps there are enough baroque churchy offerings there to make this seem boring. Naples is great for wandering in the tight, lively streets, has loads of good, reasonably priced food options, and loads of weird museum/church type stuff (which is absolutely my jam, but appreciate not everyone's!) Happy to answer any questions. We stayed at Hotel Piazza Bellini and found it really convenient, with a good breakfast. It's not a luxury spot but was more than good enough as a place to sleep, freshen up, eat breakfast, and have a quiet beer/coffee in the cute courtyard.
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Mar 3, 2023 16:51
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Electric Wrigglies posted:Vatican and St Peter's Basilica is great but huge as Hadlock said. It is almost embarrassing how dismissive of great stuff you get when you get so wonder fatigued in a city like Rome. I clocked up 30k steps a day pushing a pram around Rome but it helped that we got put to the front of the lines because we had an infant. oh yeah church fatigue is 100% a thing, if you rush around trying to see everything in one visit you won't even remember most of the stuff you saw after about day 3 speaking of Rome one of my favourite places I've been there is Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, just around the corner from the Pantheon there's a Michelangelo statue in there and I've never seen more than half a dozen people inside
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Mar 3, 2023 22:55
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Julio Cruz posted:oh yeah church fatigue is 100% a thing, if you rush around trying to see everything in one visit you won't even remember most of the stuff you saw after about day 3 Think this is pretty good tourism advice in general. Depending on where you're going, you're just not going to be able to cover a city within a given time frame. Nobody should feel obligated to try and see all the "musts" in any given place--do some research ahead of time and stick to what you want to do. It's like visiting the Louvre: if you go and try to hit the "highlights" I think you're more than likely to just wind up hating the experience. Figure out which collection you most want to see and just hang out there for a few hours.
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Mar 3, 2023 22:59
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A really unusual church in Rome Is Santi Cosma e Damiano, which is built on top of an old Roman temple. As you walk deeper you travel back in time!
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Mar 3, 2023 23:05
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Shops in Spain have the weirdest opening hours
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Mar 4, 2023 13:18
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Gotta get that siesta in baby!
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Mar 4, 2023 13:45
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Bollock Monkey posted:I've just come back from Naples. We spent 5 nights there and didn't quite manage to see everything we wanted, and that was after we cut a day trip from our itinerary. did you get the fried pizza edit: reference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_TVjcWi8ic&t=96s kiimo fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Mar 4, 2023 |
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Mar 4, 2023 18:36
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Honj Steak posted:A really unusual church in Rome Is Santi Cosma e Damiano, which is built on top of an old Roman temple. As you walk deeper you travel back in time! To build on that (!), I would also recommend Basilica di San Clemente, just down the road from the Colosseum, which is a church built on top of an old roman house which was built on top of a pagan temple. Get to travel back in time multiple times!
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Mar 4, 2023 21:04
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kiimo posted:did you get the fried pizza I had a fried Nutella pizza like that once in Italy it was wonderful
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Mar 4, 2023 21:09
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If you visit the Vatican definitely climb to the top of the St. Peters.
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Mar 4, 2023 21:47
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I was not prepared for the elaborate animatronic nativity scene at Christmas in St Peters.
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Mar 4, 2023 21:56
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I did the tour to open the Vatican museum and got to see the lights turned on in an empty St. Peters and it's one of the coolest tours I've ever done.
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Mar 5, 2023 15:06
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kiimo posted:did you get the fried pizza Yep! It was massive!  Also a cup of battered and fried things (pasta, mini arancini, savoury doughnut things, courgette, aubergine, topped with a courgette flower).  Loved a lunchtime bowl of delicious ragù from Tandem... So much good food to be had in the city. The pasta was more comment-worthy than the pizza, in my opinion, but I am lucky to have lived in places with bangin' pizza. Bollock Monkey fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Mar 5, 2023 |
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Mar 5, 2023 18:21
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distortion park posted:Shops in Spain have the weirdest opening hours Just wait until you try to find a restaurant with a goddamn open kitchen before 8pm. Worst dinner hours in Europe, and probably the world.
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Mar 5, 2023 19:08
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I have a question about european trains (although I won't launch all at once). Looking to catch a train from Naples to Rome in early July. My questions are:
Help me, goons...you're my only hope
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Mar 7, 2023 18:00
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Chewbecca posted:I have a question about european trains (although I won't launch all at once). Looking to catch a train from Naples to Rome in early July. My questions are: You should book as soon as the tickets are available for the best price. They might not be available until a couple of months beforehand though, not sure about Italy. If a ticket doesn't necessarily come with a seat then you'll be given an option to reserve one, it's not normally that expensive and I'd recommend doing so for a long distance route you aren't familiar with/are traveling with a family. More information than you could ever want is here: https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-italy.htm
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Mar 7, 2023 18:15
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Are there any catches with EURail? It looks pretty great. Am I going to get owned with like, a Ryanair situation where the train says it's going to Vienna but actually drops you off in a field across the border in Slovakia or some poo poo? for context, I'm going to take a monthish to just tool around Europe. I've got the money and the time for the first time in my life so just hoppin on a train and hanging out in a city seems like the way to go. Are the EURail carriers gonna get me there?
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Mar 8, 2023 07:23
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Johnny Five-Jaces posted:Are there any catches with EURail? It looks pretty great. Am I going to get owned with like, a Ryanair situation where the train says it's going to Vienna but actually drops you off in a field across the border in Slovakia or some poo poo? EUrail is a rebranding of Interrail for international visitors. It's works on all the main rail providers, it's mainly dinky little tourist trains that it doesn't work for. Whether or not it's cheaper than just buying advance fares is another matter, it generally isn't but it does give you a lot more flexibility. Man in seat 61 explains it best: https://www.seat61.com/how-to-use-a-eurail-pass.htm
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Mar 8, 2023 08:04
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Johnny Five-Jaces posted:Are there any catches with EURail? It looks pretty great. Am I going to get owned with like, a Ryanair situation where the train says it's going to Vienna but actually drops you off in a field across the border in Slovakia or some poo poo? I hadn't really checked it out before but in your case, the 15 days of travel over 2 months looks ideal. Previously, I think all I saw were these 30-day travel cards, priced like you would take a mega journey each day. If you're only kicking about for a month, then that gives you travel days between cities and plenty of daytrips. You'll need to be aware of which trains require seat reservations (most high-speed trains), but it should still give you a lot of flexibility even if you can almost certainly save money by booking individual tickets. There won't be any Ryanair shenanigans, intercity trains will all go to the main stations. I think what distortion park means by dinky tourist trains that won't be included are things like mountain trains in Switzerland that just go up and down a specific area--I've got an annual pass for all the trains here but the area around Zermatt doesn't accept those so we paid like $90 each when we visited the Matterhorn. All major routes should be covered.
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Mar 8, 2023 18:42
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Johnny Five-Jaces posted:Are there any catches with EURail? It looks pretty great. Am I going to get owned with like, a Ryanair situation where the train says it's going to Vienna but actually drops you off in a field across the border in Slovakia or some poo poo? EURail can be good if you're covering fairly long distances, like you want to hit every major EU capital over a two month period. It is a bad deal if you want to spend a month exploring France in detail. There are very very few "bullshit train stations" in Europe. Spain has a couple, like Segovia's high speed station, as does France like Gare Lorraine, but they're few and far between and mostly not on tourist routes. Segovia is the only one I've encountered as a tourist that is a bullshit train station in the middle of a field in the countryside with garbage public transport. Doing long distance trips, flights are still usually cheaper than EURail, but trains are also way nicer than flying. What I haven't looked into is how EURail works with night trains -- if you can get a sleeper (probably an extra fee) then that would be great. Don't get an overnight upright seat unless you're 20 and on summer break and on a shoestring budget, but I don't think anyone who is 20 posts on SA anymore.
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Mar 8, 2023 20:08
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Saladman posted:There are very very few "bullshit train stations" in Europe. Spain has a couple, like Segovia's high speed station, as does France like Gare Lorraine, but they're few and far between and mostly not on tourist routes. Segovia is the only one I've encountered as a tourist that is a bullshit train station in the middle of a field in the countryside with garbage public transport.
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Mar 9, 2023 01:14
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thanks goons i am an old fat man so comfort is definitely paramount. I'll probably go with one of the passes just for maximum flexibility since i've got budget leeway to accommodate
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Mar 9, 2023 01:28
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Entropist posted:Greece apparently also started building them. The Corinth train station on the new fast line is 3 km from the center, no public transport whatsoever, and other stations on this line seem the same. But I think that's the only one I encountered as a tourist, besides the Segovia one.  lol nice job, bet the ridership on that is hitting all their targets distortion park fucked around with this message at 13:29 on Mar 10, 2023 |
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Mar 9, 2023 10:45
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distortion park posted:
Saladman posted:Just wait until you try to find a restaurant with a goddamn open kitchen before 8pm. Worst dinner hours in Europe, and probably the world.  Bollock Monkey posted:Yep! It was massive!  my belly!
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Mar 9, 2023 20:49
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I want to take the TGV between Barcelona and Paris in June, Seat 61's timetable shows 2x trains a day, 10:30 & 14:30. On the SCNFconnect there is only the 14:30 departure. Did the early one sell out already and I'm poo poo outta luck? Or maybe they didn't put the tickets on sale yet for June?
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Mar 12, 2023 20:48
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Casual Yogurt posted:I want to take the TGV between Barcelona and Paris in June, Seat 61's timetable shows 2x trains a day, 10:30 & 14:30. On the SCNFconnect there is only the 14:30 departure. Did the early one sell out already and I'm poo poo outta luck? Or maybe they didn't put the tickets on sale yet for June? I had a look and only a few days in June don't show the 10:33, I'd guess those are sold out
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Mar 12, 2023 22:04
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Going to Copenhagen for 5 days with the family in April. It seems like a very child-friendly city. Any recommendations beyond the standard (tivoli, zoo, aquarium, etc,), for younger children?
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Mar 14, 2023 16:04
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The Experimentarium is a little out of the way but a lot of fun for children and adults. Lots of interactive science exhibits.
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Mar 14, 2023 16:39
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I'm planning to be in Vienna for a few days next month and was just looking for recommendations - preferably good cheap places to eat/drink/things to do, though I get the feeling looking for cheap options might be a bit futile here. I hope to have a short trip to Bratislava one day and knock off one or two galleries. 
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Mar 14, 2023 17:24
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Hedgehog Pie posted:I'm planning to be in Vienna for a few days next month and was just looking for recommendations - preferably good cheap places to eat/drink/things to do, though I get the feeling looking for cheap options might be a bit futile here. I hope to have a short trip to Bratislava one day and knock off one or two galleries. I'd like to know as well. I'll be there in early July and am paying an arm and a leg for a room. My ex lives there, so I've been around the city some, and everything seemed pricy. Maybe a kebab shop lol.
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Mar 14, 2023 17:46
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I enjoyed Sigmund Freud's office. But honestly if you're going to be in Wien do yourself a favor and catch some classical music. I was loving blown away. Or you can go down to the river and write some poems for tourists. Just have the poem ready and then shoehorn in whatever word they suggest, even if it's "milkshake"
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Mar 14, 2023 20:40
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things I enjoyed in Vienna (think it was 2011) Stefansdom Guided tour of the Parliament building Natural History Museum and the museum opposite which I think was the Museum of Art(?) and the garden between them Gardens of Schönbrunn (we didn’t go inside though I don’t remember if it was too expensive or just lack of time/energy) the Freud “museum” is basically just a room with some of his writings on display, if you’re interested in him or philosophy in general then you might enjoy it but I thought it was pretty dull tbh (doesn’t help that generally I think he’s full of poo poo)
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Mar 15, 2023 03:31
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Julio Cruz posted:Natural History Museum and the museum opposite which I think was the Museum of Art(?) and the garden between them Hmm, haven't been to that art museum. I've been to the Belvedere and will probably go back since The Kiss is there and my gf wants to see all the Klimts. I did the same for Schonbrunn, too much money if you've already seen Versailles or Caserta.
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Mar 15, 2023 03:46
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Lady Gaza posted:Going to Copenhagen for 5 days with the family in April. It seems like a very child-friendly city. Any recommendations beyond the standard (tivoli, zoo, aquarium, etc,), for younger children? Do not go to the zoo, the Copenhagen Zoo is one of the most depressing memories of my childhood. This is good advice in all of Europe, BTW. (Although looking at pictures now it looks like they've slightly improved it since 2003)
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Mar 15, 2023 16:53
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The only European zoos I have fond memories of are Amsterdam and Twycross (in Leicestershire), and the latter might just be more for convenience's sake as it's not far from me, so I got to go with school. I had a long-standing grudge against Paignton Zoo (in Devon) because I was promised pandas, but all they had were red pandas. I got over it eventually as I realised red pandas are super cute. At this point I'd really only recommend European zoos if you have kids with you. The city ones (like Amsterdam) are usually easy to get to at least.
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Mar 15, 2023 17:56
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Zagreb has a nice Zoo. It's easy to get to and labyrinthine - in a positive sense. Overall relatively small but every time we go we discover something else. I don't think I've ever been to another Zoo  though so can't compare.
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Mar 15, 2023 19:56
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Doctor Malaver posted:Zagreb has a nice Zoo. It's easy to get to and labyrinthine - in a positive sense. Overall relatively small but every time we go we discover something else. I found Zagreb zoo quite sad, it didn’t look like the bigger animals had enough space to me and they seemed quite miserable though that was a decade ago so it might well be better now
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Mar 15, 2023 20:09
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If you are in Berlin and want to see a zoo, go to the Tierpark (note: this is different from Tiergarten). It’s the former GDR zoo, and it is much larger and leafier than the Zoo.
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Mar 15, 2023 20:27
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There are some okay zoos. Zurich has a pretty good one; the elephant enclosure is still too small but it is about 10x bigger than any enclosure I’ve ever seen for any animal. Parc de Sainte Croix is good, their animals all have a ton of space, and some of them even have enough space for mini migrations and free range, like the deer. I mean it’s not like being in the wild but it’s also not like the bare concrete Bear Pits they used to have up until the 1990s. Going to a zoo outside of W Europe and N America is a very dicey proposition and not at all recommended, unless you like seeing lions in 20x20m barren concrete and metal prisons that make the Tiger King enclosures look like 3* resorts in comparison. Arnhem has a neat zoo with biospheres too, some with free-ish ranging animals iirc. I’m a big fan of the zoos where you can get literally right next to an animal, like Zürich (Australia region), sainte croix (prairie dogs & deer), and also every petting zoo ever. I can’t get enough of petting zoos with interactive farm animals. I am also four years old. What I have always been disappointed by are aquariums with mammals. 100% depressing, like the belugas in the Valencia aquarium or the dolphins in the Boulogne aquarium, and those are supposed to be like the two best aquariums in Europe.
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Mar 15, 2023 20:39
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The aquarium in Copenhagen has seals but their enclosure is actually in the ocean which is about as good as it gets. Still an enclosure though. Slightly more disturbing is the pool full of piranhas because they seem to like taking bites out of each other. Idunno if that's something they normally do though.
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Mar 15, 2023 20:59
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