Szeged - Hungary

Szeged – Hungary

Post published:10 September 2016
Post category:Eastern Europe Europe Hungary

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City of Sunshine

If I mentioned in the previous travel guide about Timisoara that we left Szeged only in mind should we have time for visiting it or not, well, here I am writing the guide for it. Yes, we did have the time for it, and yes, it was actually the best decision we could have done. We did not expect such a beautiful city at all, and in this occasion it was actually a proper surprise for me. If I always like to check pictures of the places I am going to visit before hand, for the Szeged it was not the case. I though we would not have the time to go so I decided not to find any further information. Now after the trip, I am extremely happy that we did go! Not only myself, but everyone of my friends we travelled with too.

Located on the eastern part of Hungary, it does actually borders not only with Romania but to Serbia. It’s the last city in the country on the east, and the 3rd biggest, and it’s curious nickname, the Sun City, comes because it is the city with the most hours of sun through the year! Who would have thought the more the east the more the sun, but this is due to its geographical location, with no nearby mountain ranges. Another unexpected fact, the incredible large amount of art-nouveau architecture everywhere in the old town. From modest to absolutely amazing examples that seem to be taken from Barcelona.

Due to its extremely compact historic old town core, where the streets follow a perfect orthogonal grid pattern, and right by the edges an inner ring road avenue divides it from the “newer” areas by the west, and the river to the east, it is very easy and straightforward to visit and enjoy every sight without needing too much time. To give you an idea, we arrived to Szeged from Timisoara at around 16.00pm, and left the city slightly before 20.00pm in order to have the first section of driving with some daylight before night. If I must confess, this was a bit too short time; an entire half a day would be perfect for anyone as there are no further important sights once you are out of the small historic core. (more…)

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Timisoara - Romania

Timisoara – Romania

Post published:10 September 2016
Post category:Eastern Europe Europe Romania

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The Little Vienna

After a while since our first, and only visit to Romania before with Bucharest, Bran and Brasov; we return right in time benefiting from Ryanair’s new route from London Stansted on their introductory fare. Something we could not resist, furthermore their flight times could not be any better! Giving us the entire weekend over there, without having to rush away from work on Friday evening to the airport. I wish many of the European routes with any airline would be as good as this timetable.

Timisoara is Romania’s third largest city, yet second after Bucharest in regards to tourism, industry, economy and education. It’s location is also very favourable on the west of the country, very near the border with Serbia and Hungary; and its architecture, heritage from the times it was part of the Hungarian Empire has resulted in receiving the nickname of Little Vienna. The entire historic quarter retains almost intact its original fabric, with beautiful late 19th and early 20th century buildings among older palaces, cathedrals and churches.

It is very wrong when sometimes we think about Romania and come to our minds what we get through the news, unfaithfully believing that either the country is poor, their people untrustful or “not much” to see and do. It is actually all the opposite! And I already knew this after visiting the beautiful capital and the idyllic Transylvania villages and castles through Bran and Brasov; and now strengthen with Timisoara, (and Arad the following day). This leads me only to want more of this country and having a great potential here with so many destinations to go. (more…)

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Helsingor - Denmark

Helsingor – Denmark

Post published:30 August 2016
Post category:Denmark Europe Northern Europe

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Set of William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet

Moving onto one more last city to visit in this trip, was a choice between Helsingor, north of Copenhagen, or Roskilde at the west. Both very beautiful cities, both home to an UNESCO World Heritage Site, but was decided to be Helsingor for having more places to visit, being a bigger city and because we did have the time for this, enjoying pretty much most of the day before returning to Copenhagen to pick our luggage and fly back to London. And that was a very great choice what we did!

After all, any further days in Copenhagen would have been too much, and bearing few extra sights here and there, we did already see everything in 2 full days. Furthermore, we spent the entire day yesterday in Malmo, Sweden, so this was a perfect occasion to visit something else, leaving for a future trip the visit to Roskilde for example, among other cities.

Helsingor is way smaller than Copenhagen, with not even a fraction of the hundreds of sights you find in the capital everywhere, therefore you can easily plan for time, little over half a day. Once you visit its old town core and harbour and its UNESCO World Heritage Kronborg Castle, the rest will lie in between at easy reach from each other. In theory my original plan was not just visiting Helsingor, but also Roskilde, although as I knew I was with my family and we take more time than when I travel with friends, I preferred to have this day more relaxed than the previous three when we did not stop on and on. (more…)

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Malmo - Sweden

Malmo – Sweden

Post published:29 August 2016
Post category:Europe Northern Europe Sweden

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Malmhaug: Gravel Pile, Ore Hill

As mentioned in the previous post, Copenhagen, visiting Malmo was part of our original plan in both 2011 and 2016 trips. If back then was with a friend, now was with my family, but the reason remains the same. Being just across the Oresund Bridge, that near from Copenhagen, it is a great chance for being able to visit and enjoy them both. On this occasion we had plenty more time and actually ended up exhausting the entire city of Malmo in a day before returning to our base in Copenhagen from where we came early in the morning. After all, remember this is a small city and there is no need for spending any further time, therefore a day is more than enough.

From Copenhagen Central Station there are very frequent trains (every 20 minutes), and so in the opposite direction from Malmo Central Station. Just take note the train is not cheap at all considering the short distance travelled in barely just 20 minutes. Less was in our case since we took the train at Copenhagen’s Airport train station where our hotel was meters from. It took us only 15 minutes and we were there!

Upon arrival, it is quite obvious to see the level of live in here is somewhat higher; even it is already well known Danish people enjoy one of the wealthiest nation. But once you compare both cities, here in Malmo you will see an extremely clean, nice and quite spotless city, like anywhere in Sweden. People tend to be extremely polity, helpful and nice feeling overall, and managed to actually speak to us quite well in Spanish!

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Copenhagen - Denmark

Copenhagen – Denmark

Post published:28 August 2016
Post category:Denmark Europe Northern Europe

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Køpmannæhafn: Merchants’ Harbour

This year is been a mix of going to places never visited before, and returning to many others as a second time with others, pretty much, a yearly return in order to visit other cities and landmarks nearby. It’s great to have so many cities in a radius of around 3 hours flight max, making it extremely easy and convenient to keep doing what I love the most: to travel. In this case, it’s the second time I come to Copenhagen, 5 years and a month to be precise after the last visit, and for a bit longer this time but a similar route to include Malmo in Sweden and other smaller cities in Denmark. A nice 4 days with my family this time, as it is normal for us to do at least a yearly holiday the four of us, mum, dad, my brother and I.

Once more, I take the chance to completely remake this guide for the city I did create few years back now that I have way more and better up to date information, and a nicer way in listing the sights perfectly by neighbourhood and in an sense order for easy following a route and not missing anything.

Denmark is somehow, one of the less visited countries from the many I’ve been. But in the other hand, this is a small country with an extremely centralised economy and population most of which living in the capital and its metropolitan area. We’ve been many years ago at the second largest city, Aarhus, and that already felt very small. Bearing these cities, there is only one more you can fly from London, this is Billund, famous for being home to one of the largest Legoland parks in the world. (more…)

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Paris - France

Paris – France

Post published:7 August 2016
Post category:Europe France Western Europe

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La Ville-Lumière: The City of Light

Returning to Paris, probably the 6th time I come in my life, but still great as usual. There is a bunch of cities I never mind returning, most of which I do yearly as is Brussels, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid of course as it is my home town, and Paris for sure. This time, with 2 more friends, a great group the four of us full of joy and laughs. Therefore, and although I did have a great guide for Paris already created in my blog, I will be just making a brief make over and update here and there to make it even better. Rewriting parts, updating others, but still retaining the format for a perfect three day visit under the what to see and do section since that is the ideal time you should plan when visiting Paris for the first time. Then with the time, at future trips you might do, enjoy doing something different. Paris is one of those cities where on every visit you will end up discovering a new corner.

It does not matter the times I have been; my impressions are still the same. On one side I really love the city, because of its great urbanism, architecture, beauty, elegance and somewhat opulence; but in the other hand, it does not feel too secure, the transports are not efficient (specially buses) and the inaccessibility of the metro system where a escalator or lift seems to be a piece on engineering not invented yet. Air conditioning? Who needs that! Whoever thinks that London’s tube in summer is hot and sweaty, here in Paris you should think twice. And while it is true that new trains are phasing out the older ones, it will take several years for a proper upgrade. Anyway, the point is there. Every city has good and not so good sides. This is what makes the difference from one place to another, country to country.

What is unique in the city is its massive urban planification. The work of Georges-Eugène Haussmann between the years 1853 and 1870 where most of the medieval city was torn-down to make way for straight wide avenues, parks and large squares interconnected by streets following a perfect pattern; creation of a new sewage system and embellishment of the city with monuments and public fountains. One of his key elements is the Haussmannian apartment block, or Parisian apartment block, where he treated the buildings not as a single element, but as an homogeneous whole. Equal heights and proportions, similar to each other if not symmetrical. This is what makes Paris one of the most elegant and perfect cities in the world, however, can result “boring”. Everywhere you go and look, it’s the same, in a same palette of colours; monotony only broken by the landmark constructions such as the Opera Garnier, or Place de la Concorde, the Arch de Triumph, Place de la Bastille, Place Vendome and so on.

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Four Lifts of the Canal du Centre - Belgium

Four Lifts of the Canal du Centre – Belgium

Post published:30 July 2016
Post category:Belgium Europe Western Europe

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The last 4 hydraulic lifts from the 20th century in operation in the world

The Four Lifts of the Canal du Centre is the continuation of the previous travel guide on the Major Mining Sites of Wallonia. Both of which the UNESCO World Heritage Sites that we visited at the same time along the same route we planned for today. Since all these places are scattered through the same region, our starting point for this tour was the farthest to the east from our base, Brussels, to then continue in the easiest and simplest route to reach all the other sites along towards the last one, the farthest to the west before heading back to our base.

While the 4 mining sites are all within a trench of 150 kilometres from the Blegny Mine at the east and the Le Grand Hornu in the west, the 4 hydraulic lifts of the Canal du Centre are all located in La Louviere, spamming less than 8 kilometres apart. In this short distance the difference in the level of water between the river basins of the Meuse and the Scheldt is 66 meters. The solution to this was the set of 4 boat lifts we still see today, with the Houdeng-Goegnies built the first in 1888, and the remaining 3 in 1917.

Nowadays, their operation is reduced to only recreational use since the construction of the Strépy-Thieu boat lift that bypasses the older structures in a single lift rising boats 73 meters. Right until January 2016 it was the highest in the world, nowadays eclipsed by the Three Gorges Lift in China. (more…)

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Major Mining Sites of Wallonia - Belgium

Major Mining Sites of Wallonia – Belgium

Post published:30 July 2016
Post category:Belgium Europe Western Europe

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Industrial Valley of Belgium

Belgium, a small country but so much to offer to any visitor. I cannot count any longer how many times I’ve come to everywhere, especially Bruges, Ghent and Brussels, yet never getting tired for returning to Brussels. One of my favourite European cities with difference and because of its pretty much central location in the country, easy for making it the base and visiting other places around. If this is your first time travelling to the country and planning a visit to Brussels, then it’s best you check the separate travel guide for it, just simply click here. Right now, I will be splitting into 2 different guides all the places that we planned for this weekend.

In order for me to plan where else to go within a country and what is there worth to visit and keep returning to that country, sometimes often, I usually check the UNESCO website in search of UNESCO sites. This is already a very solid base that has never failed to us, not to mention we are strongly UNESCO sites seekers. So in this occasion, I could work out and prepare another great trip full or surprises: The Four Lifts of the Canal du Centre and the Major Mining Sites of Wallonia, all of which scattered along some 100 kilometers between the farthest ones, all the others in between more or less near each other, and south of Brussels. From near Liege at the east to Saint-Ghislain in the west, you will see it makes perfect sense to follow an east-west or west-east order since once site comes after next.

Either if this is your first time at 19th/20th century coal mines or if you’ve visited elsewhere some other mines, it is guaranteed you will love it! Not only the incredible underground tour at the Blegny Mine, but also the beautiful pieces of industrial architecture that was raised above, some of which influenced in the art-nouveau style. (more…)

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