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Brian Fellows posted:So far the things I've seen that look interesting are the KGB museum and a nightclub in a nuclear bunker. So the question is, where should we go for beer, are the two things above recommended, and what else might we check out on a flash tour of Prague? When I was there I spent entirely too many nights gong to the Prague beer museum pub, they have many different kinds of Czech beer there. There might be too many drunk tourists, though.
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Sep 11, 2012 15:38
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A major ISP in the Netherlands is now turning their customers' routers into hotspots, but I believe they are only accessible to other customers, so far... Trains also have free wifi here, and some cities have open wifi projects (Leiden, Groningen).
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May 15, 2013 21:11
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Boola posted:I'm going to be based in Leidschendam, a suburb of The Hague in Holland, for the next 3 weeks for work. I'll be tied up during the day on weekdays, but I'll have the evenings and weekends free to explore. That is a nice place for checking out some countryside as well. I had family in the nearby village of Stompwijk, and the area around it is pretty nice and Dutch in itself. There is a chain of 3 windmills somewhere there, as well as many old farms, some of which sell their produce, windmills converted to homes, even some abandoned oil wells. I remember doing quite a few fun bike trips in that area. If you go a little more west there is the Vlietland park, nice for some swimming if it's warm, or bird watching. And indeed, if you get closer to the coast there are the dunes, which are also nice to bike or walk around in.
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Aug 17, 2013 23:30
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Winkel 43 on Noordermarkt is a nice place for cheap Dutch food, and not too far from the central station. And if you're not up for lunch/dinner, they also have great Dutch apple pie. Otherwise, a pancake place like the Pancake Bakery on Prinsengracht can be interesting, it's something new if you only know American pancakes. The red light district is always the red light district, but indeed the atmosphere is not really there when it's not dark so maybe you should save it.
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Oct 22, 2013 01:25
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In the ICE trains you can see which seats are reserved for which stretch of the route, so you just have to choose a seat without a reservation on it, or with a reservation that only starts after you get off it.
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Nov 20, 2013 01:32
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I've only been in Mainz for one day to explore, but it's pretty (for a German city) and walkable. It's the state capital of Rheinland-Pfalz and has quite a bit of history and old buildings there. Also, if you take the bridge across the river there is a tunnel (under the railway tracks) and some big walls of quite impressive street art there, if it's still there. Frankfurt is quite different, with towering bank buildings everywhere, some of which you can go to the top of. Don't really remember anything specifically interesting from there, except the people at the Occupy protest that was going on at the time. I guess both places are interesting in their own way.
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Nov 22, 2013 02:07
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You can take a 1 or 2 hour boat tour of the city from right in front of the central station. It's a nice way to get an overview of some old parts of the city. The red light district is also a few minutes from the station if that's something you've wanted to see...
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Dec 26, 2013 22:07
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I live there and it still looks like a pretty good list to me, though the Rijksmuseum has been re-opened by now, and of course there's more that could be on the list. If you want to meet up with people or ask about current events, there's a pretty active Dutch thread in SAL: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3524189
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Jan 26, 2014 00:27
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Using the Thalys (fastest option) on the NS hispeed site, the prices for tomorrow are 79 euros, and for a trip in two months it's between 50 and 60. That's less of a discount than in Germany, and doesn't really seem very worth it. Not that the Thalys is worth it anyway, as Jeoh said, just take the regular intercity trains. That's always €39, if I remember correctly...
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Feb 9, 2014 20:23
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Joose Caboose posted:I'm going to be in Portugal 5-6 days at the end of August (mid afternoon Tuesday-Sunday morning) flying in and out of Lisbon. Currently was figuring a couple days in Lisbon and probably a day in Sintra. Any other recommendations for side trips? Have considered taking a trip to either Porto or the Algavre for a day/night but don't know much yet about the transportation to either/if it's worth going that far for a short visit or if there's better side trips closer to Lisbon. I was in Lisbon for two weeks last year. Sintra was a great side trip, you might even be able to do two days there without getting bored if you enjoy the town itself too. Other recommended ones might be going to the larger beaches south of the bay for a day (for surfing or something), Cascais/Estoril (can walk between them along the coast), or one of the little fishing towns across the bay. And of course Belem, if that counts as a trip. Porto is pretty far, I think it takes like 3 hours to get there by train or so. A bit much for a day trip.
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Feb 20, 2014 20:32
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Bolzano isn't the most interesting city but the environment and surrounding countryside is beautiful, I'd keep it! It must be possible to plan a good hike or two from there.
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Feb 28, 2014 23:29
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I did that train ride once, as a night train though, so I can't comment too much on the experience of being awake through the whole ride. If you haven't really done any train rides in (Eastern) Europe it'd be an interesting experience, you cover quite a chunk of central Europe and it passes by Bratislava too, though I don't think this is an exceptionally beautiful scenic route or anything like that. There are nicer routes around for that.
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Mar 9, 2014 23:30
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GregNorc posted:How do train tickets work in Europe. For example, let's say I book a train ticket PRG -> Berlin on bahn.de. Will I be able to print it in advance like a boarding pass for a flight, or will I need to allow time to stop by a ticket counter? In most places, and certainly for bahn.de, you just print it. NS hispeed (international part of Dutch railways) liked to send them by post for some reason without a printing option, but that's maybe because I live there.
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Mar 13, 2014 19:51
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My Lovely Horse posted:
I had missed connections all the time over there and only had to go to an info counter like once. Normally you should ask the person checking the tickets in the train to make a note on yours, it has the same effect and you don't have to waste even more time.
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Mar 14, 2014 10:26
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That's correct! You can go to Gleis 13 a bit in advance and check where Wagon 33 is gonna be when the train arrives. And watch for announcements that the wagon order is reversed, which seems to happen from time to time... They have English spoken announcements for that in Amsterdam, not sure about Prague. edit: Actually since Prague is probably the starting point of the train it'll be already there and you can just take your time to find your Wagon and Platz by looking at the wagon numbers near the doors of the train. Entropist fucked around with this message at 21:36 on Mar 17, 2014 |
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Mar 17, 2014 21:32
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I'm not sure why people go there, there are so many more interesting places around Belgium, such as nearby Leuven...
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Mar 23, 2014 01:58
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It is a great place for a family or quiet holiday, I've been there as a child. It's an interesting bit of the Netherlands which isn't really like the rest of it, and more like the Belgian-German border area. I don't know why you need mountains and seas to have an interesting landscape - there's hills and valleys (unlike in the rest of the country), some small rivers and streams running through cute villages, interesting cultural landscape features (ancient roads cut into the hills), there's forests, old water mills, the typical timber-framed houses that are more commonly associated with western Germany and eastern France, the marlstone caves of Maastricht and the Meuse river there, the old city of Valkenburg nearby where there are also various caves and a cable car ride, lots of castles around, and I remember some small open quarry next to a river (Geul I think) which was fun to dig around for fossils in as a kid. The areas to the south in Belgium (Ardennes) and Germany (Eifel) are also nice, again not so much for big cities but for the landscape and small towns. If you have some time, you can take (train) day trips to other places in the Netherlands.
Entropist fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Apr 4, 2014 |
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Apr 4, 2014 00:37
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In the Netherlands the magstrip cards have been basically phased out for security reasons, and I thought it was the same in much of western Europe by now?
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May 16, 2014 18:46
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madey posted:Can anyone recommend a good bar or club in Amsterdam on a Friday night? Preferably not that touristy if that's even possible.
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May 24, 2014 00:20
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If there are still discount tickets listed for the train you want to take, that's likely to be cheaper. This does restrict you to taking that train only (unless there's a delay and you miss a DB connection). There are indeed a bunch of specials like that, I think the one you mention is/was called Quer-durchs-Land ticket. Apparently it's 44 euros now, which is unlikely to be worth it for a single trip, as discount tickets for even 8 hour trips including ICE can be like €50. But compare that to the cheapest discount option that's still listed (they start disappearing as you get closer to the date of travel, so booking earlier tends to be better). e: Indeed there are still discounted tickets for €49 for your trip on the website, so the time it saves is probably worth that extra 5 euros. Seems like a lot for such a short trip... but I guess it's pretty close to the date already. Also, if you buy the ticket at the station for local trains only, it is €48, so the €44 is not a big discount... Entropist fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Jul 18, 2014 |
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Jul 18, 2014 23:22
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If you're a student / university employee of a place that uses Eduroam, that's also a great source of free wifi in many European cities (if they have a university).
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Jul 20, 2014 15:38
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In various places in northern Italy I had to either provide my phone number (including country code, so it could be international) or an email address, which was not verified so they know me as butts@fart.com or something now. You don't even need to remember your username/pass as they send you a direct login link. In some EU countries it is the law that any internet user can be identified, which is why these systems are implemented. Usually they only expended a minimum amount of effort to comply though, which gets you these unverified email requirements. I think it was similar in Spain and maybe some parts of Germany?
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Jul 20, 2014 15:57
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Exceptions apply for some areas... The German-Belgian border area doesn't have a lot of rail connections because the Ardennes are in the way, an area that's all hilly and unpopulated, and the ones that do exist are slow because of all the curves in the tracks that follow little rivers. For example to go from Saarbrücken to Luxembourg the trains have to go up to Trier first along the Saar river and then head west (beautiful views though), and it's much faster to go by bus, as well as cheaper. For longer-distance trips this doesn't matter much though, as rail will still be faster. Something like Frankfurt-<major Belgian city> should be fine by rail, the train will go around the north of the whole hilly area via Aachen and Liege which is a high-speed route, or maybe the south via France. If you're going purely by cost, buses can be cheaper than rail even for long distance trips like Paris-Amsterdam. Companies such as Eurolines handle those routes. The downside of course is that it takes quite a bit longer, is probably less comfortable, and you probably get dropped off at some auxiliary station which is not near the city center. If you have to travel at weird times this might be the only option, though.
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Sep 4, 2014 23:31
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I went to Ghent and Bruges by car a few years ago and it was fine. I googled beforehand to find free parking places. In Ghent we parked at an uni campus for free about 20m walking away from the center, and in Bruges on a long parking place just to the west of the center, with about 10 mins of walking. Usually you can find something outside the center if you search beforehand, like the P&R places in the Netherlands.
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Sep 14, 2014 19:40
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https://www.brugge.be/randparkings Pretty much the first result for Bruges. These are all free and there's even a map showing their locations. I think I used Magdalenastraat but both of the ones in the west are close to the center. In bigger cities you might need to take a bus or tram when doing this but that's not too expensive. e: Ghent: http://www.mobiliteitgent.be/met-de-auto/parkride-pr Antwerp: http://www.parkereninantwerpen.be/parkeermogelijkheden select Parkeermogelijkheden and then Gratis parking, at the right side of the map Entropist fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Sep 14, 2014 |
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Sep 14, 2014 22:50
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Brussels or Paris is hardly a choice. I'm not sure why people always want to go to Brussels, it's a bit like going to Australia and visiting Canberra. If you do want to go to Belgium, I would suggest just about every other city, except the Walloon industrial hellholes.
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Oct 17, 2014 14:11
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Yeah, we don't. No one wants to see your fat hairy legs. You can usually get away with 3/4th length pants though. And on the beach, for a picknick in the park or for lakeside/countryside outdoorsy activities it may be okay.
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Nov 11, 2014 12:50
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actionjackson posted:For the Netherlands, what cities would your recommend for day train trips? I'll already go to The Hague, but the only other major cities I know of are Rotterdam and Utrecht. Also for Denmark, I'm wondering about checking out Malmo, Sweden since it's just across the water. Are there any other interesting cities within a <1 hour train ride from Copenhagen? The Hague is good if you like government buildings. Rotterdam was destroyed during the war so it looks totally different with lots of modern architecture. Utrecht is nice, the smaller university cities of Delft and Leiden are nice. Haarlem is supposed to be nice too and quite close, but I've never really spent time there. Use your bank unless you enjoy getting ripped off. You'd need a really bad bank or a really obscure country that your bank doesn't do somehow, for something else to be a better option. Entropist fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Dec 2, 2014 |
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Dec 2, 2014 23:10
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actionjackson posted:I'm going to the Hague mainly for the Escher museum, which is about 0.5 miles from the train station Amsterdam is pretty expensive in general for accommodation. But since I live there, I've never really looked into accommodation options. $91 is quite a lot though, here's one for €55/night that's quite centrally located: http://www.edwinsguesthouse.nl/ I know Ghent a bit, a friend of mine lives there. You can easily get to Bruges, Antwerp (the other two places most worth visiting in Flanders) from there, and other good options, Leuven or the coast, are not that far. It's a nice city, maybe slightly less pretty than Bruges but also a bit less touristy and more like a place where people live. Entropist fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Dec 3, 2014 |
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Dec 3, 2014 18:33
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Seeing the ICC would be cool too though. For my last trip I just got currency from the bank beforehand, though I don't think they carry Danish kroner 
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Oh I didn't actually read the website, I just saw it listed on hostelworld for that rate. Seems a bit weird and rather small, too. Anyway if private rooms in a hostel are also okay, you can probably find similarly prices on hostel websites (hostelworld, hostelbookers), which sometimes list B&B's too.
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Dec 3, 2014 19:02
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Goodpancakes posted:As an American with that chip on the front card its not all it has cracked up to be in Europe. There are practically no circumstances where having the chip on the card would be useful vs the magnetic strip. If it takes your chip card it will take your magnetic strip. While it is true that European bank cards come with and use the chip primarily, all of those cards are part of a PIN pass network. Just having the chip on your card doesn't grant your card access to the PIN pass network (as an American anyway). If you look at the back of your card it shows you what networks take your card. For example my chip card is PLUS, so I had to seek out atms with the PLUS network even though it had a chip. In the Netherlands they stopped using the magnetic strips a year or two ago, due to a lack of security and problems with skimming. Though maybe some ticket machines still use them. Many payment terminals still have the magstrip thing, but they are blocked off and I don't know if it's still possible to use them in case of emergency or something.
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Dec 4, 2014 01:07
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I stayed in Vienna for like €30/night that way. It was a small room in some guy's apartment and I only saw the guy when I arrived and when I returned the key, but that was fine by me. There's no guarantee of getting to know a local, that's more of a Couchsurfing thing. There are lots of airbnb apartments in Amsterdam, there are a lot of people who own many places with automatic access systems and make lots of money off it so you might not even see anyone. It's a big thing here so you should be able to find something.
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Dec 6, 2014 15:07
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In the Netherlands? If you like lakes and islands and swamps, sure! Cities and towns, not as much. You could check out the historic but small Frisian cities (Sneek, Franeker, or something on the southwest coast), or there is Groningen. The Bourtange border fort is also nice, or Giethoorn, a village with canals instead of streets. I mean, the towns and villages can be really nice there, but they're small. For natural stuff (though all our nature is fake) check out the national parks in the area, they are pretty much the highlights of places where not many people live. Entropist fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Dec 8, 2014 |
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Dec 8, 2014 17:36
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Yeah. It´s a nice area with lots of restaurants, and still within walking distance from the center. It´s a maze of small streets and pretty nice to walk around in, too. You can try the Dutch food at Winkel 43, or the pancake bakery near the Anne Frank house. The Jordaan is a bit less touristy than the actual center, locals hang out there a lot too.
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Dec 27, 2014 02:07
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Seconding the Indonesian recommendation. The Anjeliersstraat is nice, it intersects the pedestrian street with all the restaurants. There's also a tiny Chinese/Indonesian restaurant in a basement there in the Tweede Anjeliersdwarsstraat, which has like 3 tables, one in each corner and the fourth corner is where the owner cooks up the dishes. Quite interesting. I haven't been to that pancake place, I'd just go for the Pancake Bakery since there are quite a few bad pancake places around too. They have some pretty creative ones there.
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Dec 27, 2014 23:17
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Yeah, all of those look like they're better by train. You can do buses if you want to be cheap, but it will take longer and be less comfortable, and the views will probably be worse. Adding a day to Vienna wouldn't hurt, there's a lot to see there! Otherwise as far as Eurotrips go this seems pretty reasonable, and a good choice of destinations! I found it kind of hard to find a place to stay in Vienna outside of summer (during the break, they use some university dormitories as hostels). I ended up going for an airbnb. But if you're booking so far in advance, it's probably easier.
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Feb 2, 2015 17:09
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That's my impression of the Dutch, and I'm Dutch...
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Feb 6, 2015 23:26
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Bonn is not the most interesting place ever, and Cologne is indeed nearby, and there's plenty to see there. There's also Koblenz, which I've only seen from the train but the views were great. It's located where the Rhine and Mosel rivers meet. Alternatively, if you want some countryside, the Eifel area just to the south is quite beautiful and has nice villages and forests and caves and mineral springs and stuff.
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Feb 8, 2015 17:34
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Amsterdam is pretty expensive as well. Costs really depend on your standards, 10 euro for a kebab or fried foods-based dinner or 30 euro for something with a good price/quality ratio at a well-chosen place, including a drink. Half to 2/3rds that for lunch. For trains I have no clue, you should look up the price for a same-day trip beforehand. It's pretty expensive when booked at the last minute.
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Feb 18, 2015 00:11
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DNova posted:10 euro for a kebab? In Amsterdam? Last I was there was ... gently caress me, like 7 years ago... but no way... Nah, for a plate dish (with salad and fries or something) at a kebab place including a drink. Just a döner kebab in the center is like 4 euros I guess? Nothing too crazy, but a bit more than in Germany. I do live in Amsterdam, and maybe, send pics first. Entropist fucked around with this message at 00:41 on Feb 18, 2015 |
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Feb 18, 2015 00:38
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