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Saladman posted:I'm not sure if European banks have equivalent; I looked a while ago for Swiss banks and they all give absolutely garbage conditions and hate all of their clients. Swiss banks are the absolute worst, though, with respect to providing benefits to their clients. I just use transferwise for everything now, no atm fees up to 200 eur a month (which I never reach anyway), good exchange rates and their app let's you turn off swipe only transactions + disable the card super easily if it was to get stolen.
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Aug 27, 2019 10:42
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Comb Your Beard posted:Anybody got any Prague or Vienna tips? Going there soon, psyched. Berlin too but that was just in the thread. Like art, good eats, drinking. I'm reading that The Slav Epic is not on display right now. The fancy stables tour in Vienna is pretty good, I went with a friend who loved horses and had a good time even though I don't care at all. We had coffee and cakes at cafe centrale, kinda touristy but fun nonetheless.
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Sep 6, 2019 10:53
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French people: is it true that apartment and office rentals are always billed by the full calendar month or is my landlord trying to pull a fast one on me? Everywhere else I've always paid monthly and if there's a half month it's pro rata. Here he wants me to pay the full amount for partial calendar months. e: It looks as thought this might be illegal, at least for my apartment: quote:Autrement dit, la clause "tout mois commencé est dû", parfois incluse dans les contrats de location, est illégale distortion park fucked around with this message at 08:22 on Sep 12, 2019 |
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Sep 12, 2019 07:57
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Saladman posted:I've never heard of pro-rating an apartment rental. IME (in CH), you have to give 3 months notice and can only officially move out on the last day of the month, unless your landlord is cool and lets you find a replacement who will take over the rent and is OK'd by them, in which case they don't care when you move out. The latter is pretty common, but otherwise I've never heard of anyone moving out in the middle of the month. It does seem like there are slightly different norms here, but I moved in on the 15th and am happy to pay up to the 15th, I don't really want to pay 7 months rent for a 6 month stay, and it looks like the law says I don't have to pay the full month when I leave since I've given sufficient notice. I suppose I might have already paid the full first month in his view, but I'd still rather pay 6.5 than 7.
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Sep 12, 2019 11:29
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Jerome Louis posted:Wife and I are flying into Paris in late April/early May for two weeks. Haven't really settled on an itinerary but I think the current idea we have is 4-5 days in Paris, train to Bordeaux, then 7-8 days road tripping from Bordeaux to Avignon with stops in Saint Emilion, Sarlat, ???, diversion to Aix-en-Provence, then train back to Paris from Avignon. Another day or two in Paris then fly back. Any issues off the bat from this rough itinerary? Looks like 7-8 hours of driving which should be fine for 7-8 days. We like to take things low-key, walk around neighborhoods a lot, good food, agriculture, wine, and nature, so the Dordogne was pretty appealing. Bordeaux is great, worth spending at least a day or so there. Even if you aren't going to the cité du vin it's worth getting the ferry there, fun and cheap way to see the waterfront (there's a touristy food hall next to the museum, best thing is the chocolate mousse stand). The musée d'aquitaine and art museum are both worth a visit and are generally pretty quiet, the u boat pens are great but check if they are open (normally only when an exhibition is on) before going. No need to hire a car while you're in Bordeaux itself it's heavily pedestrianised and it's an extremely walkable/bikable city. Most of the other "sights" are just ok on their own but the city centre as a whole is an incredibly nice place to be. Go see a cathedral or whatever then sit down for a coffee/meal/drink, repeat. Good places to stay are a back street in the city centre or somewhere in Chartrons near the tram. The main station area and the immediate surroundings of victoire aren't nice, in generally gets nicer as you go away from the station until you get to Chartrons. Food recs: Chocolate mousse by cité du vin La maison du glacier Arcada Lauza Bao Burger Ramen L'autre petit bois Pariés La toque cuivrée Could also do a trip to Arcachon, Biarritz or the Pyrenees (can get train for first two) if they look interesting to you.
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Sep 18, 2019 21:52
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greazeball posted:Hey this is great stuff for me, thanks! My wife and I are doing a roadtrip in late October across central France, probably stopping in Orleans for a couple nights and seeing some chateaux then over to La Rochelle and probably a night or two there or in Bordeaux before heading back to Switzerland. Any recs in La Rochelle? Not sure about la rochelle itself but Île de ré is a good and chill holiday spot. Not sure how it would work over a short timeframe in October but if you stayed a night there and did some cycling it might be fun? Almost certainly mostly closed for winter though. E: if it's between la Rochelle or Bordeaux in the winter then go for Bordeaux there will be way more to do. distortion park fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Sep 18, 2019 |
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Sep 18, 2019 22:29
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Italy has got to have the worst bread in Europe. It's just so bad so consistently.
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Sep 26, 2019 12:55
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Entropist posted:For me it's definitely Germany that loses the bread contest. Germany has pretzels and you can get ok heavier breads (rye bread, weird health stuff). In Italy every single restaurant, supermarket, and most bakeries puts out stuff that would go straight to the bin in most countries
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Sep 26, 2019 21:14
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Entropist posted:Pretzels? Oh right, Italy has some great open-faced bread sandwiches too, they call it pizza. Lol didn't even think of that, I suppose it makes up for it.
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Sep 27, 2019 09:30
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dennyk posted:Y'all are nuts, Italians and Germans both make awesome bread. Used to buy this poo poo all the time back when I lived in Atlanta; denser than depleted uranium, sour as a month-old pot of yogurt, and really loving good with a slathering of hummus on top. If you can't get that, then there's always a proper pumpernickel, at least. And for Italian bread, there's nothing better than a chewy ciabatta, or a fresh focaccia. My complaint wasn't so much about the quality of the regional recipe's (especially when made in another country!). It was more that the general quality is very low unless you go out of your way to find the one good bakery.
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Sep 28, 2019 08:23
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Have you walked along the pedestrianised bit of the Seine yet? Also of you're a Ras Het posted:Paris has a lot of good parks but then it also has "classical" parks like Tuileries that looks good in pictures but irl is a big block of sand with a few pointless hedges and sad trees. I hope their greening effort extends to enlivening those places too There's definitely something very French about having the path:grass ratio way off in urban parks.
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Oct 8, 2019 10:32
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The French rail app/website landscape is really confusing, I think mainly due to a botched reverse merger of the Ouigo brand. I've had all sorts of issues, like tickets booked on the French site can't be added to the app if you have a UK phone, different sites showing different tickets, being unable to access to tickets on the website but able to on the app etc. I now always use the French oui.sncf website while logged in, and that seems to sync tickets to the oui.sncf app reliably, or it has down for the last few months at least.
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Nov 19, 2019 13:36
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Warbird posted:Is there a centralized train app/site that is considered the go to? OUIGO seems good, but I can’t find a train from Marseille to Cannes via the app. It appears that there is service from one to the other via some EC train from GMaps but I’m not sure what the breakdown here is. Be careful using anything branded as OuiGo as not all of them show all trains. E.g. searching on ventes.ouigo.com for Paris Bordeaux trains it isn't showing any under 2h20m, but the fastest trains should be about 2h. They are also sometimes from weird stations. oui.sncf seems to show them all, including (some of?) the cheaper ouigo trains. E.g. on 11th December oui.sncf has a 2h04m TGV inoui leaving Paris Monparnasse at 7:52 for 25eur per person, but I can't see that on the OuiGo website. Instead there are tickets for 10-19eur, all on slower trains and some leaving from way out in the suburbs. distortion park fucked around with this message at 13:54 on Nov 19, 2019 |
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Nov 19, 2019 13:50
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Saladman posted:The OUIGO website shows the tickets from Marseilles to Cannes just fine. It looks like direct links work, so for instance: https://ch.oui.sncf/en/results/outward/train?wishId=a1e8092d-ba56-4cfe-8f45-dfca525318b4 Sorry for the triple post but this is the oui.sncf website, which might be showing different trains to whatever OuiGo branded portal the OP was using.
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Nov 19, 2019 13:53
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Ras Het posted:Isn't that how Ouigo works? Like the "Paris" station is in Denmark or something Yes, although they also seem to have some slow trains from the main stations. The post was in response to people talking about using the OuiGo app/website.
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Nov 19, 2019 14:08
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Omne posted:Should I do three nights in Killarney/two nights in Galway, or two nights in Killarney/three nights in Galway? We're doing Dublin (two nights) -> Killarney -> Galway (with a day trip up to Achill as one of the activities). Not sure which makes a better base for the longer portion of the stay between Killarney and Galway Killarney is a less nice town than Galway, but both have excellent day trips available so I don't think it matters much. One of my favourite things in Ireland was staying in the many excellent BnBs, have you considered stopping at one in-between?
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Jan 8, 2020 08:54
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I'd second dropping the Alps, there are plenty of hikes to do closer to your other destinations, especially inland from the coast (although the coast can be pretty despite how built up most of it is)
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Jan 8, 2020 20:00
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Taking the train in mainland Europe is one of my favourite things about traveling there. It's always interesting, normally relaxing and the views can be stunning.
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Jan 19, 2020 15:10
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Is the audio-guide to the Vatican museums good? Are there better options? I've downloaded Rick Steve's app, the audio guided walking tours seem quite slick so will try one but the Vatican museums one is just an hour and I remember them being large.
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Jan 21, 2020 22:19
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We're going at 9am, I was hoping it would be better then. Last time I went with a private guide and I don't remember it being too busy, maybe we went at a weird time or did a special route though.
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Jan 22, 2020 19:02
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Deviantfish posted:thinking of spending two weeks (plus two days to account for travel) to bum around the UK plus Ireland ... I'm mainly interested in nature I've got some bad news for you! More seriously London plus Scotland plus Ireland is too much for two weeks imo if you want to get out of the main cities and take your time seeing more than the main sights. To give you an idea, I've done 10 day road trips in Scotland and Ireland with my partner and both felt about right.
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Jan 26, 2020 08:32
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Cicero posted:American living in Munich here with my wife and an eight year old boy. There's a week off of school at the end of February, looking to do some kind of trip. Was originally thinking about a ski resort in the Austrian or Italian alps, being in Munich they're not that far away, and I haven't managed to visit either country yet. But, looking around, it looks like it may be too late to book a reasonably priced stay at any of the nicer/cooler kid-friendly places. I've been in southern France and in Italy for the last 3 months and it has been not at all cold (but I think this is an unusually warm year). Have you considered Rome? I'm not sure it's the best place for kids (pollution etc) but you can legitimately say that having pizza and ice cream is a cultural activity and the historical sights are a bit more accessible to children than most places. It's not the cheapest but definitely cheaper than skiing.
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Jan 30, 2020 21:47
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Obviously you won't get to do much in somewhere like Rome (which isn't even on the coast!) on a cruise like that but it might be fun anyway, as long as you don't quarantined on board because a foreign looking passenger got a fever.
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Jan 31, 2020 20:31
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Presumably if you're going on a cruise the actual cruise part of it appeals to you.
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Feb 2, 2020 12:55
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IME Italian trains are plenty reliable, especially the high speed ones, as long as there are no strikes on. The regional ones look a little dated (except in the very north of the country which feels more like a central european country) but run fine.
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Feb 3, 2020 13:22
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Entropist posted:We need more Europeans who are more familiar with this type of trip to post their travel plans and schedules itt and give a good example. It may seem like you won't get much out of it but there are a lot of people here who can give local advice for certain places, even if you have been there before. I'll try to do it from now on. It's quite person dependent I think. E.g. my partner and I almost always do either weekends to somewhere near where we're living (we move every few months) or do 9-11 day trips, often road trips to places we couldn't go if weren't renting a car. A couple of years ago we did 10 days in Scotland, I think it was train to Glasgow, 1 night in Glasgow then a couple of nights taking our time getting to Skye. We did lots of short walks and stuff on the way. Then we did 2 nights in the south of Skye in some hut thing, and two further north in a normal BnB (that felt about right, if you're a very keen walker you could do more). Then a long drive to the Cairngorms and two nights there. The key thing to think about is how much time, after travel and admin, are you going to have in one place? One night when you arrive late and leave early is almost none, but one night when you do the opposite is almost two days if the travel is short.
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Feb 19, 2020 12:51
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Lady Gaza posted:Doing admin-related things like getting a SIM will likely be easier in Amsterdam vs Portugal (depending on exactly where you go there) as the Dutch basically speak perfect English. It's insane they all speak like 4 languages fluently
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Feb 21, 2020 08:26
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Pity that Germany can't afford a high quality high speed network, unlike the wealthy industrial powerhouses of Europe: Italy, France and Spain.
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Feb 24, 2020 16:36
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Saladman posted:I thought that maybe my terrible anecdotal experience was just anecdotal, but holy poo poo it's even worse than the last time I looked at the statistics in like 2012. Only a third (!!!) of intercity trains are less than 6 minutes late, i.e. 66% of trains run late. They have loads of money they just refuse to invest in modern reliable infrastructure, it annoys lots of European wonky types, they claim it's damaging the whole EU economy and is preventing Germany from achieving its green goals.
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Feb 24, 2020 16:59
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What do you think the odds of rail travel being restricted due to coronavirus are at this point? It seems likely to me over the next few weeks, I don't see why it would stop spreading and lots of people are freaking out about it.
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Feb 24, 2020 17:00
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Ras Het posted:Austria already halted rail traffic with Italy It isn't closed, they just stopped one train.
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Feb 24, 2020 17:54
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Trento itself is nice enough, nothing that special but it has some good food and a chill atmosphere and some moderately interesting museums. I was there for a month last summer and loved it, the area is incredibly beautiful. I'm not sure what there is to do in winter other than winter sports (try snowshoeing if you don't ski), eating, and chilling in a heated pool at the hotel though.
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Mar 2, 2020 17:28
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In France, E Leclerc car rental is an incredible deal, it's like 5 eur a day plus some tiny amount per km. You don't get some shiny truck (in fact you'll probably get a beat up punto), but it's unbeatable on price, and the staff are chill. for covid reasons i've been stuck here for months and have saved so much money vs a traditional rental
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Jul 16, 2020 15:15
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Saladman posted:
I was really hopeful about this at the start based on some lip service from certain politicians, and some countries have done it internally, but they've mostly fallen back on tired tropes about borders. I don't think that any country had travel restrictions along an internal border that were stricter than their internal ones?
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Jul 27, 2020 14:58
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There's a Rick Steve's android app with loads of audio tours which is free I think (or at least the one I listened to was, i didn't even realize you could pay). They're really good, much better than audio guides you get in museums and on par with a good tour guide. When he has a female co-guide some of the jokes play on stereotypes a bit but nothing too offensive.
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Jun 14, 2021 08:11
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Carbon dioxide posted:Well, Switzerland is actually quite doable price-wise if you stay away
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Jul 9, 2021 11:26
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Paris definitely has some of the worst rail changes around. I don't think I've ever done one which hasn't required a taxi or a very unpleasant journey carrying luggage down long, stair filled tunnels. If we're changing from SNCF to Eurostar we try to go via Lille instead, as even if it's a little longer the stations are right next to each other and are both easy to get around.
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Aug 23, 2021 18:39
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A lot of the mail based suppliers also look super scammy. The official government list is full of like ".111AdvancedCovidTests.co.uk" trying to game the default sorting and lying about the prices.
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Aug 27, 2021 11:51
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You could get one of those pocket WiFi rental things - I used one in Japan and while a little annoying it was easier than messing around with sims.
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Dec 15, 2021 08:20
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ulvir posted:optimistically, my wife and I are currently entertaining the idea of taking a train from Oslo to Vienna this summer. are there any scandigoons with that kind of experience in here? like, realistically, what would the actual travel time be like? and how easy is it in practice? the online plans I've seen says the trip will take a combined 19,5 hours or so from Gothenburg, but that, I assume, is if, and only if, you get to immediately hop from one train to the other in Copenhagen and Hamburg without delay. Best resource by far is this website: https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Oslo.htm Oslo to Vienna sounds tricky tbh. If you make it a slower journey with some nice stopovers it could be fun but would require the right mindset. Seat61 suggests Oslo -> Copenhagen then has a few options including a night train.
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Feb 6, 2022 17:38
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