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Thanks a lot all, this is all quite helpful. I'll certainly climb Arthur's Seat. Bletchley Park does sound interesting, I think I'll be able to fit it in. webmeister posted:I'd definitely recommend Liverpool! I grew up with family from Manchester (rival city) so all my life I'd heard negative stories and things about Liverpool. But I was completely taken aback - it's young, friendly, vibrant and really interesting. Check out the Pier Head area (you'll love the architecture), the Albert Dock is interesting and home to several museums, plus there's the cultural quarter around St George's Hall which has some great neo-classical buildings. Lots of trendy pubs, restaurants and cafes around too, since there's a huge student population. Yeah there are definitely some lovely parts of the city, but the centre is definitely fine. Thanks, this convinced me of going to Liverpool! York was actually one of the alternatives I was considering, but it's true that I can visit that on my way from London to Edinburgh. Considering the timestamps of your videos I assume you're still travelling and visiting other UNESCO world heritage sites, I wish you a good trip! I noticed you had a video about Blenheim Palace as well, which I'm considering visiting when I'm in Oxford.
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Jul 11, 2017 12:51
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Walh Hara posted:Thanks a lot all, this is all quite helpful. I'll certainly climb Arthur's Seat. Bletchley Park does sound interesting, I think I'll be able to fit it in. Blenheim is nice, so if you plan to do this, do go with your original plan and spend two days in Oxford. You can take a bus to Woodstock (the village where Blenheim is located) from Oxford city centre, which is really rather convenient. That said, Blenheim isn't enormous and I think walking through the gardens is more interesting than the inside, overall.
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Jul 11, 2017 13:28
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webmeister posted:With London, how long you spend there just depends on your budget and what you think you'll find interesting. I reckon you could stay for six months and still not run out of stuff to do (assuming you have fairly broad interests). A starting point (by no means exhaustive): Pablo Bluth fucked around with this message at 10:45 on Jul 12, 2017 |
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Jul 11, 2017 21:10
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I asked about places to eat in Oslo a week or two ago, but I'm also going to Flam and Bergen, then Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam later on. Also a lot of Iceland but we're not going to be in any one city/town more than a night so it might be tougher to go out of our way there. Any further recommendations for restaurants? We're open to all recommendations from cheap to expensive as we'll be discussing all the options anyway. Incidentally, are any of these cities known for any particular kinds of food?
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Jul 12, 2017 10:39
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I've heard many a good thing about Forettabarinn in Reykjavik. Localish food options and set menus I've heard are a good price/quality ratio.
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Jul 13, 2017 23:05
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Walh Hara posted:Thanks, this convinced me of going to Liverpool! York was actually one of the alternatives I was considering, but it's true that I can visit that on my way from London to Edinburgh. Yep, sure am! Not sure I'll ever make all 1073 of them, but we're making steady progress  Blenheim Palace is quite nice, I was surprised at how big it was and how much time you can spend there. The house itself is interesting and there's a big section about Winston Churchill too since that's where he was born (and is buried nearby). Though we skipped since we'd already visited the Churchill War Rooms in London and were a bit sick of hearing about the guy. If you go, definitely take the time to wander around the gardens as well. Between the gardens and the house (and a spot of lunch) you can easily spend most of a day there.
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Jul 13, 2017 23:32
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Also, I spotted this review the other day and it reminded me of the conversation upthread about moronic 1-star reviews. This is for the fancy new Titanic museum in Belfast (which is actually really good)  why didn't they defile a mass grave for my personal enjoyment
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Jul 13, 2017 23:48
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webmeister posted:Also, I spotted this review the other day and it reminded me of the conversation upthread about moronic 1-star reviews. This is for the fancy new Titanic museum in Belfast (which is actually really good) Yeah, she should really just go see all those WWI and WWII
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Jul 14, 2017 00:17
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Looks like we've got a few hours to burn around the time of our lunch reservations in Modena, Italy. Any suggestions on things to do around the town? We won't have a car.
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Jul 14, 2017 00:59
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webmeister posted:Also, I spotted this review the other day and it reminded me of the conversation upthread about moronic 1-star reviews. This is for the fancy new Titanic museum in Belfast (which is actually really good) If I went to a Titanic museum I would also expect items from the ship. Museums are full of items found in graves.
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Jul 14, 2017 09:20
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webmeister posted:Also, I spotted this review the other day and it reminded me of the conversation upthread about moronic 1-star reviews. This is for the fancy new Titanic museum in Belfast (which is actually really good) Yeah, that doesn't seem totally unreasonable although I've never been to the museum so can't really judge. It's not like the Titanic is some unique untouchable mass grave. I mean it's basically the 20th century equivalent to the Vasa, which they raised and put dozens of peoples' bodies on display with lots of placards there telling you how poor and sick and miserable this poor skeleton's life was. (Like almost every skeleton has a sign talking about how the person was stunted, malnourished, and had many hosed up injuries that were badly healed, god drat it made 17th century Sweden sound miserable.) OTOH her point doesn't really make sense, "totally geared to tourism", as opposed to... what was she expecting?
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Jul 14, 2017 10:45
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Saladman posted:Yeah, that doesn't seem totally unreasonable although I've never been to the museum so can't really judge. It's not like the Titanic is some unique untouchable mass grave. I mean it's basically the 20th century equivalent to the Vasa, which they raised and put dozens of peoples' bodies on display with lots of placards there telling you how poor and sick and miserable this poor skeleton's life was. (Like almost every skeleton has a sign talking about how the person was stunted, malnourished, and had many hosed up injuries that were badly healed, god drat it made 17th century Sweden sound miserable.) Raising a ship from just outside Stockholm is a fair bit different from raising one from the middle of the Atlantic.
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Jul 14, 2017 12:38
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I dunno, I feel like a 350 year old shipwreck is a bit different to one from a hundred years ago. There are probably still people alive today who had direct relatives who died in the disaster. Plus it's been protected by treaty from exploitation since 1986 in the US, and since 2004 in Canada, the UK and France. And UNESCO gave it heritage protection in 2012 as well. I think her "tourism" point is that it's very different in presentation style to say, the British Museum. Lots more theming and interactivity, though to be fair it doesn't actually call itself a "museum" per se.
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Jul 14, 2017 13:10
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Doctor Malaver posted:If I went to a Titanic museum I would also expect items from the ship. Museums are full of items found in graves. I like how the Ustica Massacre museum in Bologna did it. The main exhibit is the plane reconstructed by forensic investigators, and the personal items recovered from the wreckage are hidden from view, sealed in large, featureless black boxes around the plane:  The dead passengers and crew members are represented each by a hanging lamp and a black mirror around the walkway. Each mirror has a hidden speaker playing a random "last thought" at a low volume and random intervals, so that you're surrounded by the whispers of the dead the whole time. It's a mix of memorial and museum, and extremely effective hackbunny fucked around with this message at 15:18 on Jul 14, 2017 |
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Jul 14, 2017 15:12
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webmeister posted:Also, I spotted this review the other day and it reminded me of the conversation upthread about moronic 1-star reviews. This is for the fancy new Titanic museum in Belfast (which is actually really good) On the other side of the coin (I'm sure you can guess the location):  $60 to get close in one spot to some stones with a half hour window before it gets absolutely mental? Sign me up.
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Jul 15, 2017 02:47
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"Don't go to Stonehenge" should be in the OP. If you're really keen on it then go to Bath or Bristol on the A303, you can see it reasonably well from the road and without spending £20 each for the privilege.
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Jul 15, 2017 03:37
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Julio Cruz posted:"Don't go to Stonehenge" should be in the OP. If you're really keen on it then go to Bath or Bristol on the A303, you can see it reasonably well from the road and without spending £20 each for the privilege. I went there because I had the English Heritage pass and I wanted something to do in between Bath and Portsmouth (Old Sarum and Salisbury Cathedral were cool though). Probably the most disappointing thing I've seen in all my travels.
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Jul 15, 2017 03:51
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MagicCube posted:On the other side of the coin (I'm sure you can guess the location): Stonehenge is the worst famous tourist site I've ever been to. I'd only go back if they invent a time machine where you csn go back to 1970 and you don't need a pair of goddamn binoculars to see the stones. Malta has similar stuff and you can walk right up to it and touch it (not that you're supposed to). I guess maybe Stonehenge is too famous and idiots will gently caress it up, but the 20 meter minimum distance or whatever is insane.
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Jul 15, 2017 08:37
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I'm actually going to buck the trend on this one, I think Stonehenge should be visited. Yeah it's definitely way overpriced for what it is (though to be fair almost every historical site in England is ludicrously priced, particularly once you add in parking charges), but if you're at all interested then go and check them out. The walking path goes pretty close (2-3 metres) in a couple of spots, and the place where tight-arses peer over the fence is actually near one of the more distant points on the path. Yeah it's only just behind the path, but it's still a lovely view and you'll have people constantly in front of you. And yeah if you don't really care that much then sure, just drive past on the motorway. I was actually pretty skeptical going in, but after doing the new visitor's centre and the full visit for my video I actually respect what they're doing. Since it was obviously a super-sacred site to the ancient people (whether for burials, astronomy, religion or whatever), they want to return it to as close to that as possible - a bunch of stones, standing alone in a field in the middle of a plain. And interestingly, it actually wasn't damage to the stones that caused it to get closed originally - it was damage to the grass. Thousands of people trampling the grass every day was causing huge amounts of soil erosion and destabilising the stones. If you want to touch stones, head 20 minutes up the road to Avebury and touch to your heart's content!
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Jul 15, 2017 09:34
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You could also visit the Hunebedden in eastern Netherlands. Those were ancient burial sites or something but they kinda look like 'houses' made from huge rocks. At least the ones still standing up.webmeister posted:I'm actually going to buck the trend on this one, I think Stonehenge should be visited. Yeah it's definitely way overpriced for what it is (though to be fair almost every historical site in England is ludicrously priced, particularly once you add in parking charges), but if you're at all interested then go and check them out. Honestly, I enjoyed my visit, too. It wasn't all that crowded - I think it's fine if you go outside of the summer vacation period? And an audio tour is included, which actually comes in like 20 different languages. Main thing I remember is the two stones you can touch, one that's local, and one that's from Wales where the other Stonehenge stones came from. They believe the Welsh stones were chosen by the ancients because they "always feel warm to the touch, no matter the climate". I remember this because the audio tour left this as some kind of big miracle, and I felt real stupid afterward because I didn't realize right then and there that was of course because of a difference in heat conductivity.
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Jul 15, 2017 09:44
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Saladman posted:god drat it made 17th century Sweden sound miserable.
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Jul 15, 2017 11:01
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The usual suggestion is to skip SH, and go to Avebury instead. edit: missed webmeister's comments. Pablo Bluth fucked around with this message at 12:24 on Jul 15, 2017 |
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Jul 15, 2017 12:20
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Ally McBeal Wiki posted:I've heard many a good thing about Forettabarinn in Reykjavik. Localish food options and set menus I've heard are a good price/quality ratio. I was there a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it, set menus were about €50 each I think. Skip the tap beer though, it's nothing much.
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Jul 15, 2017 19:06
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Hey folks, I will have a day or two to spend in Luxemburg soon. I'd like to spend some time in the capital city but also in the countryside. I'll have a car available so travel is easy. Any recommendations?
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Jul 17, 2017 21:34
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I don't remember many specifics since it's been like 15 years since I was there but the northeast border of Luxembourg is a river, the Our, which is in a valley that is quite lovely to drive along on the Luxembourg side. The curved road along the river seemed quite popular with bikers too, as evidenced by the number of biker bars. There were castles to visit along there too. Luxembourg is also not far from Trier, which is nice to visit if you haven't been there. It has Roman ruins. Schengen in the southeast point of the country is also a possible point of interest though I have no idea what there is to see there. As for the capital, you can walk through most of it in a day.
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Jul 17, 2017 22:35
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Kropermann is a monster from Luxembourg Who's actually the size of Luxembourg He crushed the whole country of Luxembourg Because he is the size of Luxembourg! Sorry.
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Jul 18, 2017 04:33
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Hey what is this behaviour, I heard a rumour that you English have a fetish for French spelling! Honour your language's history as a French-Norse-OE creole and don't complain about French spelling flavour, oui? Or was this an attempt at humour...
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Jul 18, 2017 12:57
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Went to Milan and Venice last week, loved the cities, but turns out July is not the best time of the year to go there. I'm still interested in going to Rome and Florence next year; what would be the best months to visit those cities?
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Jul 18, 2017 20:35
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radlum posted:Went to Milan and Venice last week, loved the cities, but turns out July is not the best time of the year to go there. I'm still interested in going to Rome and Florence next year; what would be the best months to visit those cities? I think shoulder season is best - not too hot, not too crowded, but most things are still generally open. So around April/May or September/October
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Jul 18, 2017 21:33
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I can't believe Brouwerij'tij AMS closes at 8pm what a cool brewery. (Just started AMS visit)
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Jul 19, 2017 19:13
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I probably passed you at least once today. It seems to be a trend in this area, the distillery in Flevopark also closes at 20h. I guess the staff doesn't want to work late!
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Jul 19, 2017 23:19
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I just got back from Amsterdam yesterday! It is such a great brewery. Made sure to drink Zatte en Natte on my trip, and tried their IJwit for the first time. I can recommend Gollem's proeflokaal (tasting room, basically) on Overtoom if you want more good beer, or Arendsnest more centrally. Both have a really nice vibe and helpful staff.
Bollock Monkey fucked around with this message at 11:43 on Jul 22, 2017 |
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Jul 21, 2017 15:06
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I just finished my vacation in the Lofoten islands in Norway and can't recommend them hard enough. You will spend way more than you'd ideally like, but it's the most beautiful place in the world I've been to yet. It is a tourist destination, but it isn't overwhelmed yet - they don't even have a mcdonalds/BK/Starbucks yet, which is amazing to me. I loved every minute of it there and I only wish I could have stayed longer. If you like hiking, fishing, or just scenery in general I would highly recommend it.
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Jul 21, 2017 19:49
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yeah I eat rear end posted:I just finished my vacation in the Lofoten islands in Norway and can't recommend them hard enough. You will spend way more than you'd ideally like, but it's the most beautiful place in the world I've been to yet. It is a tourist destination, but it isn't overwhelmed yet - they don't even have a mcdonalds/BK/Starbucks yet, which is amazing to me. I loved every minute of it there and I only wish I could have stayed longer. If you like hiking, fishing, or just scenery in general I would highly recommend it. I have been longing to see Norway for a long time and would love to visit that region that in particular... Do you mind expanding on how you planned your trip?
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Jul 21, 2017 22:19
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Bollock Monkey posted:I just got back from Amsterdam yesterday! It is such a great brewery. Made sure to drink Zatte en Natte on my trip, and tried their Ijswit for the first time. I can recommend Gollem's proeflokaal (tasting room, basically) on Overtoom if you want more good beer, or Arendsnest more centrally. Both have a really nice vibe and helpful staff.  In the Dutch language, ij is often considered a single letter, and should be capitalized as one. IJwit. Not Ijwit. slijterij
Carbon dioxide fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Jul 21, 2017 |
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Jul 21, 2017 22:35
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Good language tip. I also noticed an errant 's' in there too. I get too caught up with the word ijsbeer because it is a lovely word. Also the first time I came across a slijterij sign, the font made it look like 'slutery' and I was sad to discover otherwise.
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Jul 22, 2017 11:38
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In fact, the name of the beer is a bit of a double pun. Eiwit is the Dutch word meaning both 'protein' and 'egg white'. It's pronounced exactly the same as the beer name IJwit. The IJ is the name of the wide river thing that connects Amsterdam to the lake, while wit means 'white'.
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Jul 22, 2017 14:03
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liz posted:I have been longing to see Norway for a long time and would love to visit that region that in particular... Do you mind expanding on how you planned your trip? There are a few ways you can get there. The way I chose was flying into Bodo (BOO) and then taking the ferry from there to Moskenes near the southwestern tip. You can also fly into the "big" cities there Svolvaer or Leknes on the Wideroe airline, but we chose not to because they only fly in the morning/early afternoon and my flight didn't land in Bodo until the evening. Weather is of course an issue and our ferry to the island almost didn't go because of wind, but we were fortunate and it worked out. Some people rent cars in Bodo and take the ferry over with their car, but honestly I'd recommend waiting until you are on the island itself to rent a car, especially if you go to Moskenes. I got an automatic transmission car from Rent-a-car Moskenes for like 320 dollars for 4 days, which is much cheaper than any other option I looked at. It won't be the newest car but who cares? Hotel-wise was pretty simple too, I went with a cabin at the Lofoten Turistsenter about 40 minutes from Svolvaer. It was about 125 a night for a 2 bedroom cabin. If you try to stay in the more central parts of the islands you will pay out the rear end. It wasn't a 5 star hotel experience but that's not what I wanted anyway. As for activities, a lot of it will depend on the weather. We were lucky to only have one day ruined by it, but even that day ended up fine just doing a driving sight-seeing tour along the highway there. If you are interested in fishing or whale watching (which I was, but didn't research it enough in advance), I would recommend staying closer to the northeast tip since most of those trips depart from there. I still got some fishing in and got to play on the beautiful Lofoten Links golf course (be prepared to walk though, they don't do golf carts and it is kind of hilly in parts). Also note that when you look up hiking trails, the difficulty ratings assume a typical norwegian, so "easy" for them would probably be "challenging" in the US. An "easy" trail there kicked my rear end and left me covered in mud and with scratches all over my arms. It was worth it for the views though.
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Jul 22, 2017 18:55
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The Schwa posted:I was there a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it, set menus were about €50 each I think. Skip the tap beer though, it's nothing much. Well thank you very much. Now to get my travel partners to cancel our reservation at Grillmarkadurinn and switch to Forettabarinn.
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Jul 22, 2017 20:02
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I'm visiting Italy in late August. My trip is arrive in Milan for 1 night, Rome for 3 nights, Naples 1 night, Florence 2 nights, and back to Milan for 1 night and out. I am planning to see the Pope's address on Wednesday at least to begin with and need to plan the rest of my trip. I'd appreciate suggestions.
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Jul 24, 2017 04:38
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