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Chewbecca posted:
For what it's worth, that's pretty much the long term average exchange rate of the AUD->EUR for the last 20 years. It was a pretty brief period during the PIGS issues in 2011-2013 that caused the euro to lose against most currencies. It hasn't varied by more than ±5% from 0.63 to the euro in the past 6 years, except for a very brief first COVID spike in March 2020. British pound on the other hand: lol, although even that has been pretty stable since about 2010. The pound lost a poo poo ton of value against other major currencies in 2008 and never really recovered. And British salaries are still seemingly scaled on the "fact" that the pound is worth more than other currencies... RIP vacation travel for the Brits.
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Jun 1, 2023 08:56
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Saladman posted:For what it's worth, that's pretty much the long term average exchange rate of the AUD->EUR for the last 20 years. It was a pretty brief period during the PIGS issues in 2011-2013 that caused the euro to lose against most currencies. It hasn't varied by more than ±5% from 0.63 to the euro in the past 6 years, except for a very brief first COVID spike in March 2020.
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Jun 1, 2023 09:03
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Any tips for Madrid? Lived in Barcelona for 4 years and finally visiting (besides a couple work trips). We've got a long weekend, e.g. 2. 5 days. 6 month old and 3-year old in tow but quite well-behaved. I know the museums are the main attraction but probably the family doesn't have the patience for more than one unless rain forces our hand. And personally I'm more a history buff than an art buff, and my wife might have work to do so maybe we split up for something. Other than that probably what we would do is just wander the city and parks weather permitting. Maybe the itinerary is..
Any restaurant suggestions? SurgicalOntologist fucked around with this message at 11:26 on Jun 1, 2023 |
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Jun 1, 2023 11:22
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Two: Mercat San Anton is a higher end market/food hall, really good stuff, and will let everyone get their own thing if tastes vary and/or people want to explore. My favorite stand is the croqueta bar, they have little tiny fryer baskets and just plunk two croquetas down in front of you still in the basket. Botin. I know it's touristy and hackneyed, but I had a lot of fun there, the vibe is quite unlike anywhere I ever went in BCN, and the suckling pig is absolutely worth trying.
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Jun 3, 2023 09:37
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I highly recommend Mama Dumplings if you're in the Palacio part of town and in the mood for Chinese, the food's great and downright cheap by Madrid standards. Try the cold konjac noodles.
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Jun 4, 2023 00:05
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Trip report: 0 museums, 12 dumplings (thanks for the rec), 4 pee-pee accidents (I didn't pack enough spare pajamas apparently). It didn't rain much, spent a lot of time in parks and playgrounds. Fun city, hope to come back when the kids are older or with the grandparents so we can more easily go to the museums and do stuff after bedtime. I can't put my finger on it, but there is something more intimidating about the urban landscape compared to Barcelona, despite that the people are friendlier. Could just be familiarity with Barcelona at this point, I'm not sure.
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Jun 4, 2023 20:31
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Glad you enjoyed it! I hope to visit Madrid again at some point, I've only spent a couple weekends there and didn't get to see anywhere near everything the city has to offer.
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Jun 5, 2023 17:57
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SurgicalOntologist posted:Any tips for Madrid? Lived in Barcelona for 4 years and finally visiting (besides a couple work trips). We've got a long weekend, e.g. 2. 5 days. 6 month old and 3-year old in tow but quite well-behaved. Whoops, you already went, but the Royal Palace in Madrid is amazing just for the sheer amount of flash that is holds. It's Versailles-like, and they don't let people take pictures inside.
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Jun 5, 2023 20:47
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I leave for Palermo/Catania/Syracuse in two weeks. Any last minute tips?
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Jun 5, 2023 21:48
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GrandmaParty posted:I leave for Palermo/Catania/Syracuse in two weeks. Any last minute tips? Post what you like doing and if you’re able or willing to rent a car and/or if all your hotels are set. The Aeolian Islands for instance are incredible but would require overnight hotels to do them right (imo). Also I posted a while ago about Puglia, and just got back from 10 days there. Matera was incredible and I liked the mountain towns of Basilicata a lot, like Pietrapetrosa. Puglia itself I found nice and if you live near there, great - but also not necessarily something I’d recommend for someone going far out of their way. There are nicer parts of Italy and Puglia is no longer a cheap third world province like it was 20 years ago. I mean I had a nice time but I’d compare it with second tier tourist destinations like the Ardennes or the central/eastern Normandy coast or like, the Smoky Mountains. Really great local destinations but if you’re flying 10 hours to wherever you want, it would not be high on most peoples’ lists. In non-coastal southeast Italy it is exclusively Italians around, except Matera, and Matera was way nicer and less over-touristified than I feared. We also really liked Ostuni, it could be a town anywhere in northern Tunisia architecturally. Lecce we thought was meh, nice if you’re in the area but not worth a special trip considering how many amazing cities Italy already has. It would be a gem if it were in almost any other country. We didn’t like Gallipoli and thought the beaches in general were only okay. There is almost no one here yet in June, but in July - August when the umbrella mafias conquer the beaches I would be overwhelmed. Plus hotels are like 2-3x the price in August. Also there are these weird road signs everywhere that have a black 50 in a red circle. I never figured out what they meant - either the lowest allowed speed limit or possibly the maximum speed limit, but in units of nautical miles. Whoever does the road signs in southern Italy definitely did not get that job through talent or training. Kind of stressful to be driving 100 kph in a 50 zone, but lmao no one drives 50 on these intercity roads. Google Maps estimated travel times matched my driving speed, and people following the posted speed limits were an extremely rarity - no doubt all foreign tourists. Basilicata did not have that issue. We spent 3 days in Matera, 4 on a beach town near Lecce, and 2 in Castro. Pretty extensively covered Salento, did not see much of central or northern Puglia, besides Ostuni (cool!) and Brindisi (meh).
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Jun 9, 2023 16:53
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Saladman posted:Post what you like doing and if you’re able or willing to rent a car and/or if all your hotels are set. The Aeolian Islands for instance are incredible but would require overnight hotels to do them right (imo). Hotels are all set, unfortunately. I like to eat strange things, I like to run (as much as you can like running...) and I can speak some Italian. Mainly hoping for some interesting restaurant recs.
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Jun 9, 2023 17:13
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SurgicalOntologist posted:
In Madrid everything is bigger, less approachable, more grandiose. It's the center of a former empire, akin to London. Barcelona has more of a Mediterranean feel.
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Jun 9, 2023 23:42
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Saladman posted:Also there are these weird road signs everywhere that have a black 50 in a red circle. I never figured out what they meant - either the lowest allowed speed limit or possibly the maximum speed limit, but in units of nautical miles. Whoever does the road signs in southern Italy definitely did not get that job through talent or training. Kind of stressful to be driving 100 kph in a 50 zone, but lmao no one drives 50 on these intercity roads. Google Maps estimated travel times matched my driving speed, and people following the posted speed limits were an extremely rarity - no doubt all foreign tourists. Basilicata did not have that issue. Yeah I have no idea why, but some areas in Italy have a comically low speed limit that no one respects. I'm guessing it's to give the police/carabinieri a nice cashflow should there ever be a speed control 
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Jun 10, 2023 08:28
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I'm going to NärCon (Linköping) in July, but would also like to squeeze in some non-nerd touristy stuff if I can. Any recommendations for southern Sweden?
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Jun 10, 2023 12:16
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Lund is a cute university town. There's a bunch of nature stuff you can do too.
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Jun 10, 2023 13:21
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GrandmaParty posted:Hotels are all set, unfortunately. Eat cannolis, eat everything with pistachio, especially the desserts and pizzas - the pistachio mortadella pizza is always amazing. Look for outdoor dining and rooftop dining - I really liked the Sicilo Food and View 360 on top of the shopping mall on the north side of Piazza San Domenico in Palermo, just a great view of the church (not tall enough to overlook the city). We also went twice to Sud Antica Palermo, great food and a nice little garden. Honestly though it’s almost hard to get bad food in most parts of Italy, just avoid any restaurant sufficiently large to accommodate cruise ship people. Willing to rent a car and drive? Palermo is chaotic but out of there driving is fine, and it’s not yet tourist season in Italy so it should be a great time. We did the hike up to Monte Pellegrino which you don’t need a car for, it was a nice half day and the Santa Rosalia cave church is super weird and distinct, worth a stop if you are going by it. I didn’t love Cefalu, but it was alright. I did like Erice but it’s a bit tourist trappy, but has great views - would not bother getting there without a car though. Segesta was neat, there are some other big Greek ruins like it (eg Paestum) but not so many and it’s quite different from Roman ruins. Again need a car or an arranged bus tour. English is quite widely spoken in Sicily, especially the north and east coasts where all the tourists go. Not sure if there’s any particularly weird or unusual food there. They do a lot of regional sweets but the restaurants at least for me were essentially indistinguishable from anywhere else in Italy (but very good). Just check google reviews before going in somewhere and make sure to bail on it if it’s under a 3.5. A lot of Italian places do get bad reviews though from cruise shippers and other North American tourists who complain about slow service. Like yeah obviously the service is slow and you can’t catch the waiter. You’re in Italy, nothing is going to be quicker than 90 minutes from sitting down to paying. I always lol at those types of one star review, like a European giving a one star review in an American restaurant for the waiter being too chatty and coming to the table every two minutes throughout the meal. Don’t have any particular suggestions for Catania, never been to Syracuse.
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Jun 10, 2023 14:56
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distortion park posted:Lund is a cute university town. There's a bunch of nature stuff you can do too.
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Jun 10, 2023 22:00
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WithoutTheFezOn posted:I was in these two last month. This is a relatively recent change but in Amsterdam and the rest of the Netherlands you can now simply use Apple Wallet / Google Pay everywhere. The only difference compared to London is that in the NL you tap in and out all forms of transportation too to calculate the fare for your trip, instead of Landon’s flat fare model for buses and trams.
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Jun 10, 2023 22:32
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Saladman posted:Eat cannolis, eat everything with pistachio, especially the desserts and pizzas - the pistachio mortadella pizza is always amazing. Look for outdoor dining and rooftop dining - I really liked the Sicilo Food and View 360 on top of the shopping mall on the north side of Piazza San Domenico in Palermo, just a great view of the church (not tall enough to overlook the city). We also went twice to Sud Antica Palermo, great food and a nice little garden. Honestly though it’s almost hard to get bad food in most parts of Italy, just avoid any restaurant sufficiently large to accommodate cruise ship people. This is amazing. Thank you so much.
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Jun 11, 2023 01:20
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Going Barcelona, Zaragoza, and Bilbao in July like a madman. Great posts on Barcelona itt already. Any experience in Zaragoza or Bilbao?
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Jun 11, 2023 03:38
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Pizdec posted:Lund sounds great. I was also thinking about farmstays, but I'm not sure if you can get by with just English? Basically everyone we met spoke English, normally extremely well. That might be less of the case in more rural areas but I'd imagine you'll manage fine, especially since it's still a tourism thing.
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Jun 11, 2023 06:52
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Does anyone know how strict they are about muzzles on public transport in Italy? We're traveling with an australian terrier who's never worn one before. We're gonna buy one just in case, but I'm curious what the consequences are like.
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Jun 11, 2023 11:06
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I don't know about that, but I do know about muzzle training dogs who hate having their mouths touched. You need to convince the dog that the muzzle is the source of all the world's tasty treats, and you need to start muzzle training asap. It took me a month to go from the "dog sees the muzzle on the floor, dog gets treats; muzzle goes away, treats go away" phase to being able to put the muzzle on without help from another person.
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Jun 11, 2023 16:24
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Yeah, it's probably too late for that sadly as we're already here. Turns out my parents are allergic to proper planning. We do have a car luckily and might not need to take any public transport at all, but if we do I'm basically going to have to torture my dog or risk whatever consequences there are. 
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Jun 11, 2023 17:17
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I don’t have a dog but I’ve travelled quite a lot in Italy and if requiring a muzzle is a thing on paper, it is - much like Italian parking laws - not enforced much. It is definitely not the case for city transit, for big intercity trains I don’t know as I rarely take trains in Italy for some reason (they’re actually good, for the main lines). It sounds like since you have a car though you’re asking about local transport? Definitely not an issue with that, certainly not with a terrier. Unless your dog is an aggressive rear end in a top hat that bites people, of course.
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Jun 11, 2023 17:22
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She's a sweet and lovely people pleaser, so I'm hoping it won't be an issue. We're planning to visit Cinque Terre, which is probably the only place we'll depend on public transport. Everywhere else we're going should be easily doable by car.
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Jun 11, 2023 17:33
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QuasiQuack posted:She's a sweet and lovely people pleaser, so I'm hoping it won't be an issue. We're planning to visit Cinque Terre, which is probably the only place we'll depend on public transport. Everywhere else we're going should be easily doable by car. I would not worry about it. If you want to play it safe then have a muzzle somewhere but just "forget" to put it on your dog and in the 1/1000 chance a conductor cares and asks. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a small dog with a muzzle on it in Europe. I do occasionally see larger dogs like German shepherds with them on big intercity trains. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a muzzled dog on local transport although it’s not necessarily something I pay close attention to but I do like dogs and often go up to them. Italy has a lot more rules on paper than it does in practice, although occasionally they are super strict about certain things, like they were much more strict on Covid than most of Europe, and the Italians are also insane about getting passport photos for every single person that ever stays in a hotel or Airbnb or whatever, like it’s still a police state.
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Jun 11, 2023 19:17
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Pantheon going to require a ticket to buy, to enter now, rather than just allowing anyone to wander in off hours  https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/romes-pantheon-to-charge-entry-fee-from-1-july.html One of the real joys of the pantheon was just wandering into a derelict looking building and 
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Jun 11, 2023 19:58
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Thanks, that's reassuring. She's my parents dog, but she's kind of my baby and I'm a little too anxious and overprotective when it comes to her. 
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Jun 11, 2023 20:01
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Hadlock posted:One of the real joys of the pantheon was just wandering into a derelict looking building and Yeah, whenever I was in Rome, I went there so drat often. It's easily my favorite building. Still haven't been there on a rainy day, though! I really want to experience it like that
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Jun 11, 2023 21:59
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Hadlock posted:Pantheon going to require a ticket to buy, to enter now, rather than just allowing anyone to wander in off hours We are gonna be there on like July 10-13 lol I read the article but it isn't clear, should I book online?
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Jun 11, 2023 22:34
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This appears to be the official website, nothing on it yet https://www.pantheonroma.com/home/
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Jun 11, 2023 22:36
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Looks like they announced it mid March based on a government tweet
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Jun 11, 2023 23:11
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Looking to spend some time in Croatia and could use some advice for a trip. I have the better part of two weeks and I really don't know much about the country. Looking to bum around, see some old ruins, and maybe visit the beach and any cultural spots that I happen to walk by. Would you recommend flying into Zagreb? How feasible is Zagreb -> Split -> Dubrovnik. Would I need to rent a car for this?
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Jun 12, 2023 06:44
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Saladman posted:The time it takes to: I did those points (except the first half of point 2, because I'm not 67) for recent trips to Helsinki and Gdansk. Super easy. Also, those apps feature maps, directions etc. which make it easier to find your way.
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Jun 12, 2023 06:47
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Dr. Fraiser Chain posted:Looking to spend some time in Croatia and could use some advice for a trip. I have the better part of two weeks and I really don't know much about the country. Looking to bum around, see some old ruins, and maybe visit the beach and any cultural spots that I happen to walk by. If you're coming during summer, expect a crowded coast but perfect for what you described. Zagreb is not a big deal, especially if you have experience with central-Eastern Europe (Ljubljana, Budapest, Vienna, Belgrade...). Consider flying in to Split, Zadar, or Pula. If you do land in Zagreb, you can take a train to Split. From Split to Dubrovnik you can take the ferry. Disclaimer: I like boats, especially ferries. It's more practical to take a bus. You can rent, yes, but I wouldn't do it unless I'm planning to go inland and explore say Herzegovina or Montenegro. Finding parking near a beach will be impossible. If you like driving you can also explore Istria, plenty of interesting little towns both on the coast and inland, great food too. To try to sum up: Fly in to Split, spend a few days. Ferry to Dubrovnik and back. You need two days there tops. Beautiful but not much to do. From Split you can take a boat to Hvar, Korcula, or Vis. Very nice islands. Rent a car, drive to Istria (Porec, Rovinj, Pula) and spend the rest of the vacation in that region.
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Jun 12, 2023 12:41
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Dr. Fraiser Chain posted:Looking to spend some time in Croatia and could use some advice for a trip. I have the better part of two weeks and I really don't know much about the country. Looking to bum around, see some old ruins, and maybe visit the beach and any cultural spots that I happen to walk by. We did that last August, definitely did not need nor want a car, and I'm a huge fan of driving. The train from Zagreb to Split was not good, but it is direct and it looks like we might have been unlucky. Our train was tiny - like literally two train cars - no food for sale, no potable water (though I ended up drinking out of the bathroom tap without issue), no A/C, every seat taken and some people on the ground, and like 8 hours long through mostly drab, scrubby hills. Fortunately it's in the highlands most of the route so it wasn't really that hot and it looks like Croatia is rapidly modernizing its train fleet so I think we just got really unlucky. Zagreb is fine but not very interesting. We spent 36 hours there, that was well more than enough. It's not awful but if you can fly into Split, Zadar, or Dubronik equally easily - which is likely as in summer they probably have more flights than Zagreb itself does - then I would do that instead. So yeah definitely agreeing with Dr Malaver's assessment. We drove around Istria about 12 years ago and really liked it, with a very different atmosphere from the south. OTOH Croatia has so radically changed in the past 12 years that it might have been time rather than geography making the change.
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Jun 12, 2023 14:45
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QuasiQuack posted:Does anyone know how strict they are about muzzles on public transport in Italy? We're traveling with an australian terrier who's never worn one before. We used a muzzle for our mini dachshund when we travelled around Italy by train. It's typically required but as other people have commented, Italy is a pretty lax place in general with regard to rules. Most likely if your dog isn't wearing one when it should, it'll either be ignored, a conductor will ask you to put on one, or at worst they'll ask you to leave the train. I think getting fined (particularly in somewhere like Italy) is pretty unlikely. Note as well that you can get soft fabric muzzles, they aren't all those big wire mouth cages like the ones you see on racing greyhounds. My wife actually wrote a large blog post about this: https://www.travelnuity.com/dog-muzzle-for-travel/
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Jun 12, 2023 15:37
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GrandmaParty posted:I leave for Palermo/Catania/Syracuse in two weeks. Any last minute tips? Bit late but if you search in the thread history for Catania you will find me asking goons for places to check out 5 years or so ago for my own holiday there, the recommendations probably still hold up. Unfortunately I stayed with a local friend who acted as tour guide (and her mum cooked a bunch for me) so I don't remember a lot of specifics of where we went like restaurants etc, but I can message her and ask what's good (and what's still around compared to 5 years ago). Do check out Taormina if you can, car is probably the best way to do it. I took a bus but again had my Italian friend with me who could actually navigate the bus ticket system and stuff like that.
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Jun 13, 2023 10:14
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webmeister posted:We used a muzzle for our mini dachshund when we travelled around Italy by train. It's typically required but as other people have commented, Italy is a pretty lax place in general with regard to rules. Most likely if your dog isn't wearing one when it should, it'll either be ignored, a conductor will ask you to put on one, or at worst they'll ask you to leave the train. I think getting fined (particularly in somewhere like Italy) is pretty unlikely. That's a great article. Kudos to your wife.
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Jun 13, 2023 10:27
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