Hildesheim and Alfeld - Germany

Hildesheim and Alfeld – Germany

Post published:4 June 2016
Post category:Europe Germany Western Europe

Share it with the world

Masterpieces of Medieval, neo-Gothic and Modernist architecture in Germany

While at first before we even came here I was not planning in creating a travel guide for those places wrongly thinking there would be not much else to see apart from the World Heritage Sites, we were quite wrong! In fact, we found ourselves actually struggling for time. Hildesheim has by far much more than both UNESCO World Heritage Sites listed and it is an extremely beautiful city worth to enjoy for longer than what we did. Alfeld in the other hand, while our original plan was to only visit the Fagus Factory, it is then that we discovered an incredible nice historical centre full of timber frame houses.

All of this was a nice surprise, on the same way it happened to us the following day with Hoxter and Goslar, yet stressed us a little bit because we did not have the time at all to enjoy all these places as we would have liked, with more time. We simply did not expect it as we only had in mind and planned visiting the World Heritage sites, and we had to even scrap the city of Quedlinburg all together for a future time.

All these cities are very small but because of so much to see, literally every building, it takes a while to explore, and so it takes a long time to drive there. With no motorways, the only choice are small roads passing never ending little villages, curves and forests in between. It might sound like a beautiful trip, but it’s plain, nothing really out of the blue bearing fields. (more…)

Share it with the world

Hanover - Germany

Hanover – Germany

Post published:4 June 2016
Post category:Europe Germany Western Europe

Share it with the world

Honovere: High river bank

As difficult as it is slowly getting nowadays find a destination never been before in Germany, we managed to grab another great British Airways flight+hotel deal at their website to Hanover, and with it, another tick off the list. Not only just the city itself, but few other places nearby to the south of the city, all of which UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Among them, one I really wanted to visit for a long now, the Fagus Factory in Alfeld, a masterpiece of modernist architecture designed by Walter Gropius.

We knew once again this was going to be a very busy weekend packed with sightseeing as many places as we could, but with a city like Hanover this was easy. There is no need to give the city any longer than a day, and even that is actually too much. This was, unfortunately, one of the most heavily bombed cities during WWII and its destruction lead to the loss of 90% of the historical landmarks. Majority of the buildings you see today are 1950’s, ugly blocks and pastiches, but of course not everything was lost, and heavy efforts were done to salvage as much and recreate a nice old town. Surrounding this old town there are nice grand constructions that to our surprise, were not mentioned anywhere not even in the city’s “red line sightseeing route”.

The “Old Town” (Altstadt) is actually not “old”, but a redeveloped area with some 40 old original houses that were left standing after the war and grouped together here in order to give the city once again an old historical core. (more…)

Share it with the world

Nesvizh and Mir - Belarus

Nesvizh and Mir – Belarus

Post published:30 May 2016
Post category:Belarus Eastern Europe Europe

Share it with the world

Treasures of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Crown Kingdom of Poland

An spontaneous and very last minute decision for touring something else in Belarus than only visiting its capital, Minsk; turned out to be one of the highlights in this trip all together. However, it was not an easy task finding out the transportation to get there. But first of all, let’s start by talking about how we found and knew about both these places. At the time I was collecting information about Minsk before the trip, Nesvizh Castle also pop up, but after reading the “complicated” way to reach it I decided to let it go and not going deeper to find out more.

A second attempt came after I finalised the guide for Minsk and discovered that for sure, two and a half days in the city will be way over too much. So as usual I do wherever we travel, I searched for UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the country in case something turns to be nearby. And there is was again, Nesvizh and Mir. I only noted down the very minimal information on how to get there and though on asking someone once in Minsk rather than the almost 0 proper help from internet. And so after our first day in Minsk, and after seeing hundreds of advertisements for visiting the castle, and also the castle of Mir (which I did not have any idea of its existence until this day); our resolution was waking up early and ask at the bus station.

Asking at the bus station did not happen at the end, but at our hotel they gave us all the information we needed, and managed to get there without delay and pretty much straightforward. Not before having to ask at another hotel for further “clarification” and help but all was there at the front of our eyes. I explain below at the next section how to get there and all you need to know with details which are nowhere in the internet.

(more…)

Share it with the world

Minsk - Belarus

Minsk – Belarus

Post published:30 May 2016
Post category:Belarus Eastern Europe Europe

Share it with the world

Capital of the Commonwealth of Independent States

Another exciting trip ahead of us to a country we’ve never been, Belarus. And yet another country to tick off the list of countries visited in Europe, bringing down the count to just 6 left (out of 50!). These are already serious numbers, but also means that excluding Albania and Moldova which are quite near and “easy” to reach, the others are way farther and beyond any logical time to get there on just for the weekend or 3 days trip. So unless booking some time off coupled with the weekend, there is no other possible solution to be able to enjoy them. In any case, the remaining ones will definitely require more days for visiting as it is not the only objective getting to their capital, but also secondary cities and important places elsewhere in the country.

Flying to Minsk does not come cheap either. Not only the direct flight to/from London is seriously expensive, but also the scheduled times do not make much sense to be honest if all you have is only a few days. The flights are not daily either. In the other hand, if you look to a map, Minsk is very near Vilnius, to where you can grab some nice flight deals and very frequent. We twisted even more since the deal we found was actually with airBaltic on a London-Riga-Vilnius, and Vilnius to London. The bus from Vilnius to Minsk is 3.5 hours and is just 13 Euros, but for the sake of convenience, we managed to get the flight back from Minsk to Vilnius for almost the same price as the bus would have costed us, giving us some extra hours in Minsk as consequence and avoiding at least 2 hours on the border to enter back the European Union. Leaving the EU for Belarus is as quick as few minutes, but in the opposite direction to enter the EU the queues at the border are terribly long.

So with the flights and overland transportation sorted, the next was to find a hotel. That was an easy task, and a great deal at the DoubleTree by Hilton very near the city centre. Now, as we already knew, there was still the “most” important task to be done: getting a visa to travel to Belarus. Since we already experienced a similar process for getting one to Russia, Belarus was in a sense similar although they have introduced some extra barriers in the process. I will explain this below in a separate section so you know how to proceed. (more…)

Share it with the world

Caserta - Italy

Caserta – Italy

Post published:15 May 2016
Post category:Europe Italy Southern Europe

Share it with the world

Largest royal residence in the world in terms of volume

A radical change of plans for today. While everything was planned for visiting Capri, the weather was not really the best, very cloudy with frequent showers; definitely not what I would expect when going to Capri, that I want to see with sun, the blue Mediterranean and the Vesubious and Naples in the distance. Nothing of which we could have seen and enjoy today due to the dark clouds. Instead and in the very last second we had to get a Plan B. I did a quick research and came up with a great idea! All it took me was a search in Google for UNESCO sites near Naples and there it came: The 18th century Royal Palace at Caserta with the Park, the Aqueduct of Vanvitelli and the San Leucio Complex.

Then the day was planned. 3 small and easy sites to visit completing another World Heritage Site listing in its full. From Naples was matter of few minutes’ drive to the Royal Palace of Caserta, hence could not be easier. By volume, the palace is the largest Royal Residence in the world, built for the Bourbon Kings of Naples and Sicily, dependent of the Spanish Crown of Aragon. Then, not far to the northwest of the palace is the Belvedere of San Leucio; a resort developed around an old silk factory built from 1750 by Charles VII of Naples and his son Ferdinand I. Connecting everything together was a great water system, mostly underground, with a section, the Aqueduct of Vanvitelli the masterpiece of the engineering work. A perfect example following the tradition of the ancient Roman aqueducts put in practice in 1762.

It took us less than half a day to visit the three sites plus having plenty of time for getting nice cakes with coffee and a great relaxed lunch. Do not overestimate the time you will need to visit the area, either if you come on your own, or on an organised tour, the later will be even faster in completing the tour. (more…)

Share it with the world

Paestum, Velia and Padula - Italy

Paestum, Velia and Padula – Italy

Post published:14 May 2016
Post category:Europe Italy Southern Europe

Share it with the world

Magna Graecia

I can call this trip another of the great life travelling achievements for reaching this spectacular once in a lifetime site (well, or twice or more I don’t mind to return in the future). Magnificent Paestum and various other great archaeological sites. With this trip it’s been already quite a few places this year we’ve manage to come to very much desired places and quite off the usual path, far from main cities and even airports hence why that complicated to reach them and why we kept postponing on behalf of other “easier” destinations. But now with so many places across Europe already been, it’s time to continue this trend in planning this sort of exciting destinations.

Returning to Naples in any case is always great on its own!. So much to do not only in the city but around the impressively rich region, that even though this is the 3rd time we come here, we still need to plan future trips to Naples and continue exploring the hidden gems. The beauty of the Amalfi and Sorrento coastline for example it’s worth an entire weekend and not just a day. With so many idyllic villages perched from the hills and cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean it is guaranteed to keep you busy all the time. Then the island of Capri off the coast from Naples is another trip on itself. Yes, certainly we will be back; as soon I can find a good deal at the perfect flight times when it is also nice weather.

Although this is not a guide about Naples, I must still write about the best pizzas in the whole of Italy. Do not look anywhere else, those are here in Naples. No matter that we spent today well outside of the city (and so the following day), it was our base where our hotel was and therefore could enjoy once more pizza and a bit of the thriving nightlife. (more…)

Share it with the world

La Rioja - Spain

La Rioja – Spain

Post published:24 April 2016
Post category:Europe Southern Europe Spain

Share it with the world

Birthplace of Castilian and Basque languages

Another weekend, and another excitement for getting to new places never been before, with the addition of those being in Spain, at the world renown region of La Rioja, from where some of the world’s best wines are produced. Spain might not look like a huge country, but it’s big, with each of the 17 autonomous regions very clearly defined with their own traditions, culinary and even architecture. And for me as Spanish that I am, it’s been so far impossible to be on every capital of province nor every region. That’s good news anyway as it means there are many trips to Spain to look ahead in the coming years.

Logroño is the capital of the autonomous region of La Rioja. A very small city which does not require any longer than half a day to visit in full, but the perfect base in order to visit some of the most famous wineries in the world. Not only for their exceptional wines, but for their incredible breathtaking 21st century architecture blending with the ancient buildings. More and more is this trend of getting a top architect to create a new masterpiece, and the “wine route” is nowadays both ways: for the wine lovers itself, and for the architecture lovers.

This was our main point on this weekend where apart of visiting the city, we also managed to go to the top 4 wineries, each of them by an incredible architect. It is sadly to mention here the death of one of the architects just few days before, Zaha Hadid. Her pavillion added onto the historical buildings of the Bodegas Lopez de Heredia in the village of Haro is one of the most delicate I’ve ever seen. (more…)

Share it with the world

Parma - Italy

Parma – Italy

Post published:17 April 2016
Post category:Europe Italy Southern Europe

Share it with the world

Byzantine Chrysopolis: The Golden City

After a busy program the day before visiting the cities of Ravenna and Ferrara, today was more quiet for a smaller city, and mostly because we could not count with the entire day since we needed to return to Bologna airport in the afternoon to get the flight back to London. In any case, another weekend and another success with the plan we had in mind that worked very good and now we can cross another three cities in one go off the list.

While the city is known for its beautiful monuments across a nicely preserved medieval core, when we think of Parma, we have in mind something else of course. First, the indisputable Parma Ham, one of the top delicacies in the whole of Italy itself comes from this region; and the Parmigiano-Reggiano, the true Parmesan cheese. But it is not only about these 2 delicacies, it is for the large amount of restaurants serving some of the best dishes we’ve ever had in Italy, all of which non expensive, nor touristy places. only for its food and a relaxing sightseeing walk through the city it was a very worthy day what we planned.

To visit the city, half a day is more than enough. It is not big and the historical core is very compact with all the sights at walking distance from each other hence no need to plan longer. For us coming here after breakfast from Bologna, 100 kilometres east, and leaving back to Bologna after 15.00pm in good time to make it to the airport was well enough; otherwise any longer as an entire day and you will end up without places to visit. (more…)

Share it with the world