OV9

Planning on taking a Friday and Monday off and having a city break somewhere. I was thinking Prague, any other recommendations? I like looking at historical stuff, museums and such.

Zonda_ wrote: Sat Jul 22, 2023 1:10 pm Planning on taking a Friday and Monday off and having a city break somewhere. I was thinking Prague, any other recommendations? I like looking at historical stuff, museums and such.

Berlin

Edinburgh if staying in UK.

Already going to Edinburgh next month, thinking of somewhere further afield

Amsterdam. Small enough to do plenty in a weekend and lots of art, museums, Anne Frank etc

Yes it’s between Amsterdam and Prague I think, I’ve been to Amsterdam but never for more than a day after visiting my grandfathers grave so it’d be nice to spend more time there.

Prague is great. We paid extra for that trip to get “exec” rooms which gave us access to the “Exec Lounge” - the drinks and food we consumed there greatly outweighed the extra cost of the rooms, so worth considering.

Who did you book that with?

Krakow. Auschwitz not for everyone, but produces some strange emotions- incredibly humbling, an extremely impressive display of German efficiency but with completely disgusting and despicable subject matter. The salt mines are worth going to as well, especially if you’ve been to any uk mining museums, as the way the workers were treat is night and day compared to there.

And perogi dumplings are amazing. As are the Obwarzanek- bagel type bread unique to krakow and sold everywhere from little stands in the street

Budapest is quite something. Copenhagen and Stockholm always fantastic (I profess significant bias), Chartres was lovely and something a bit different.

jamcg wrote: Sat Jul 22, 2023 4:57 pm Krakow. Auschwitz not for everyone, but produces some strange emotions- incredibly humbling, an extremely impressive display of German efficiency but with completely disgusting and despicable subject matter. The salt mines are worth going to as well, especially if you’ve been to any uk mining museums, as the way the workers were treat is night and day compared to there.

And perogi dumplings are amazing. As are the Obwarzanek- bagel type bread unique to krakow and sold everywhere from little stands in the street

I was also going to suggest somewhere in Poland, I really liked it when we drove through it on the way to Ukraine border last year. We stayed one night in Krakow on the way to Przemysl. Anywhere in Poland is good if you like hearty food, good bread and beer. The Golonka (pork knuckle) was also awesome.

Another thing that's great fun is to go to any city that you've never heard of. Once you get away from the big-hitter tourist cities like Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona etc then you'll begin to find places where the locals aren't a) bored of tourists or b) trying to capitalise from tourists. For instance, when I went to Netherlands, I went to Breda instead of Amsterdam.

Also Turin was great fun last year, it's a very beautiful city.

Zonda_ wrote: Sat Jul 22, 2023 4:17 pm Who did you book that with?

Can’t recall - Mrs mik would have booked it, and probably went direct to the hotel. Even if you book with someone else (booking.Connor whatevah) - worth calling to hotel to check if they do it?

Budapest is fantastic, indeed.

I need some tips for a New York City break over Christmas - will anything actually be open on Christmas Day, e.g. somewhere to eat? Any recommendations? (appreciate that's a bit niche)

Zonda_ wrote: Sat Jul 22, 2023 4:05 pm Yes it’s between Amsterdam and Prague I think, I’ve been to Amsterdam but never for more than a day after visiting my grandfathers grave so it’d be nice to spend more time there.

I lived there for a couple of years. If you end up going let me know if you want some info.

Budapest is our next weekend away. I know nothing about the place other than good reviews.

Antwerp is lovely

JonMad wrote: Sat Jul 22, 2023 7:12 pm I need some tips for a New York City break over Christmas - will anything actually be open on Christmas Day, e.g. somewhere to eat? Any recommendations? (appreciate that's a bit niche)

Oooohhhh, I spent six weeks in NYC of xmas/nye 2019-20. There's loads to do in NYC around xmas so you won't have a shortage of ice rinks, xmas markets and general festive spirit. There was a light show called the winter lantern show on Staten Island which was pretty cool, especially because you need to get the staten island ferry past the statue of liberty to get there, which is cool in itself. I think the beers were cheap on the ferry too. I've no idea about open restaurants on xmas day, we grabbed a lobster from a store and I made a load of gravadlax and we had a seafood inspired xmas day. Then drank champagne on the roof of the apartment building we were in.

There's also Santacon which takes place in earlier December, if you're there, where thousands of people dress up as santa and then maraude around town on a massive bar crawl. It's a totally marmite event, with thousands of people loving it, while thousands absolutely detest it. Some bars will actually ban santa costumes around that time of year.

240PP wrote: Sat Jul 22, 2023 10:52 pm

Zonda_ wrote: Sat Jul 22, 2023 4:05 pm Yes it’s between Amsterdam and Prague I think, I’ve been to Amsterdam but never for more than a day after visiting my grandfathers grave so it’d be nice to spend more time there.

I lived there for a couple of years. If you end up going let me know if you want some info.

Budapest is our next weekend away. I know nothing about the place other than good reviews.

Thanks.

Marrakech

Broccers wrote: Sun Jul 23, 2023 10:04 pmMarrakech

Do you hate him that much