Prague - Czech Republic

Prague – Czech Republic

Post published:27 July 2014
Post category:Czech Republic Eastern Europe Europe

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Caput Regni: Head of the Kingdom

Prague, one of the most impressive and beautiful cities in the world, is hard to even describe and say something towards it. Once you get there and be on the streets, is easy to understand why. And no matter the time of the year you come, every season is somewhat special here. What is becoming harder though is to find a quiet month with not that many tourists. My first trip was back in 2009 and that was still nice; the city was only starting to gentrify and prices were really competitive for everything. Now it’s the opposite, one of the most desired cities, heavily massified.

It’s good to now have a wider overview of the city, hence the good reason this guide is actually a combination of all these visits, plus another more recent where we would also take the chance to get to the enchanting city of Cesky Krumlov. It’s always great coming back to Prague, there’s always something new. Refreshing memories and also being able to provide with a proper travel guide entry for my blog as otherwise remembering all the details from these years back would have not been accurate with half of it missing.

The city is always included on any poll and listing of the most beautiful cities in the world, or places to visit before you die and similar lists. As such, you can imagine the incredible amount of history, sights, museums, entertainment and nightlife, therefore in a weekend it is absolutely impossible to visit everything. You will need at least a minimum of 4 days although I would personally recommend you more if you have the chance, or a me right now, coming for a second time and continue visiting new places.

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Limerick - Ireland

Limerick – Ireland

Post published:20 July 2014
Post category:Europe Ireland Northern Europe

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Inis an Ghaill Duibh: The Dark Foreigner’s Island

Continuing on our second day for this weekend in this region of Ireland and after a great day yesterday at the Cliffs of Moher and Galway, we visit the city of Limerick. A small and pretty truly Irish city located along the shores of the Shannon River, barely 25 kilometres away from Shannon airport which serves both cities.

As opposed to Shannon where there is no history at all due to be a “new city” built in the 1960s, Limerick is full of history, traditions and old buildings like we saw in Galway. Compact and even it’s the 4th largest city in Ireland still small enough, for what you will not need any longer than half a day for visiting it. This gives you the chance and specially if you have a rental car of going somewhere else on the same day, like for example south-east to Cork which is 100 kilometres away.

The area (Shannon Region) is really beautiful in landscapes and rich in nature and architecture as castles, therefore planning a couple of other destinations around is something you should really have in mind, and specially if you are the kind of tourist as we are, eagle to see as much as we can considering the shortage of time. (more…)

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Galway - Ireland

Galway – Ireland

Post published:19 July 2014
Post category:Europe Ireland Northern Europe

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City of the Tribes

Galway. Pretty much a mandatory visit right after the Cliffs of Moher, and if you did not plan to have it on your list when visiting this region, then reconsider in doing so. Also bear in mind you cannot fly to Galway from anywhere since the airport ceased commercial operations in 2011, therefore being Shannon the nearest airport at around 90 km or some 110 km if doing a route as we did from Shannon Airport to the Cliffs of Moher and then to Galway.

To our surprise we were not expecting that the city was in fact so nice and beautiful. Small, yes, but absolutely every street around the city centre full with people, shops, cafes, restaurants and pubs, and so colourful! Every building in different colour, really lively I have to say. Quite opposed to what we found in Limerick the following day. We enjoyed it that much that we re-scheduled the rest of the weekend from here. We had to scrap Cork, that was a fact. When I though it would be more than enough a weekend to visit all those places, the truth is that this is not viable unless you see the cities on a “GP appointment style”.

Something we did not know is that Galway is the seafood capital of Ireland! You can imagine then that finding a restaurant offering seafood and fish is not difficult at all. But a better news is to see that prices were not high at all! This was seriously unexpected knowing how expensive Ireland is overall in all senses. So if you are looking for mussels in white wine and cream sauce you are in heaven. You will find this at most of the places, same as you find it along the Mediterranean coast of France. I wish I could remember the name for the place we were having lunch because they had what was perhaps the best mussels I’ve ever had.

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Shannon and the Cliffs of Moher - Ireland

Shannon and the Cliffs of Moher – Ireland

Post published:19 July 2014
Post category:Europe Ireland Northern Europe

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Baile na Sionnainne

Completing more and more places in the Republic of Ireland, it is difficult to go anywhere which is not nice. Merely for the incredible landscapes, their people and the food a trip is always well worth it. And considering in this occasion that July and August are usually the most quiet months we take in travelling because it’s high season and prices for a flight anywhere, even to next door, are really high, we managed to find a great deal to Shannon.

So what was all about coming to Shannon? Definitely not to visit the city, basically because there is absolutely nothing to see from the tourist point of view. The city was the first on-purpose planned city in Ireland built in 1960 mostly to accommodate the workers from the airport recently built by then. But it’s next door to Limerick and the world famous Cliffs of Moher, main reason why we came here.

For the time you will need, a weekend is more than enough to visit these three places, and even more around the area. Driving from Shannon to the cliffs is little over 1 hour, while from Shannon to Limerick is matter of minutes.But in between you have other nice villages and landscapes worth to take a detour and enjoy this very nice side of the truly rural Ireland.

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Fort William and the Highlands - United Kingdom

Fort William and the Highlands – Scotland

Post published:29 June 2014
Post category:Europe Northern Europe United Kingdom

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One of the Greatest Train Journeys in the World

Back to the place we were few years ago, Fort William, but finally on this occasion we prepared very well in advance and pre-booked everything in order to enjoy what we really wanted and pretty much the reason for coming back here: taking the Jacobite Express and visiting Eilean Donan castle. Although for many of you (including myself some years ago), it might sound more familiar if I name the train instead as the Hogwarts Express. Familiar now? That’s right, this is the same train used on all of the Harry Potter movies. The same locomotive, carriages and absolutely the same route with its distinctive Glenfinnan Viaduct.

A note in here, as I was wrong when I first came to know this railway some years ago and which perhaps you wonder on the same mistake, the Jacobite Express is a much older runner than even when the first Harry Potter book was being conceived. It’s a historic railway line that is nowadays mainly open as a tourist destination using old carriages and steam locomotives. So definitely no, this is not a new railway done for the movie, instead, the movie is based on a real railway.

The best and easiest way to reach this place is flying to Glasgow where we took a rental car and drove all the way up to Fort William in the Scottish Highlands. Since it’s a route we already did on our Scotland road tour some years ago we were not looking this time too much on stopping around for sightseeing and enjoying the views. Instead we drove quite directly to the hotel, had lunch and left straight away for Eilean Donan castle, another 60 miles away from Fort William. Should you be a first time visitor in Scotland then be prepared to calculate plenty of time as you will want to stop everywhere along the way to enjoy the spectacular views and nature. And yes, even if you do not drive, this all can be done by bus and by tour.

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Vatican City - Vatican

Vatican City – Vatican

Post published:22 June 2014
Post category:Europe Italy Southern Europe Vatican

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The smallest country in the World

Since The Vatican is a separate country and to follow with the way I do create the travel guides in my blog, here is a standalone guide for it. Although pretty much the same is self-explained in the guide for Rome. Basically, this guide is based upon an older visit and not the most recent, since all the next times we’ve done a trip to Rome we did not return to The Vatican again. Fair enough one will always walk past it and around it, but to be honest having already been twice in the Basilica and gigantic museums, spending countless hours and making the way through the hordes of tourists, I think I have enough for quite some time until I feel the need for repeating in the future.

It takes at least half a day to visit, therefore plan ahead and know the times in advance, trying to avoid the rush hours where the queues build up exponentially. For instance, I would never recommend you to get there by the time they open and the following 2 hours, but coming towards the midday is already a good choice. You can admire the incredible architecture from the outside in the morning, and consider accessing inside after an early lunch. Remember once you enter all you have are some cafes and pricey restaurants, a limited choice.

Two of it’s highlights are why every visitor to Rome come, as otherwise, it’s like you have not visited Rome to be honest: Saint Paul’s Basilica and the Vatican Museums, all of which listed by the UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Both lie within the Vatican City, also known ad the Holy Sea, the smallest internationally recognized independent state in the world by both area and population. The only such exception to be found in the world where a micro state is within the boundaries of a city of another state. An ecclesiastical monarchical state, ruled by the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. It’s also one of the last seven remaining absolute monarchies in the world, being the others as matter of curiosity and information Qatar, Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Brunei and Swaziland. (more…)

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Rome - Italy

Rome – Italy

Post published:22 June 2014
Post category:Europe Italy Southern Europe

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The Eternal City; Caput Mundi: Capital of the World

Although it is already several times I visit this city, it’s also good time to finally create a proper travel guide for it. I know that a weekend as I have just been is extremely short time not permitting me to see even a quarter of what the city has to offer, but in combination with the previous trips to this awesome capital, it makes a good background of thoroughly sightseeing everything when combining them all. I’m happy to be able to provide you with this very complete guide, easy and ready for anyone to use. And to myself, looking forward to the next time I return which for sure it won’t be that long.

Although we all have a first thing in mind, the Romans and one of the greatest civilization the earth have known in antiquity, the city goes back much more in time to around 14000 years BC as many archaeological finds have proven. In any case, the worldwide importance of the city resides in having been the capital of the Roman Empire, the birthplace of the western civilization.

With such countless richness in architecture and arts it is no wonder that it is the 3rd most visited city in Europe and the 11th in the world (at the time of writing this guide). Of course the 1st by excellence in Italy, therefore expect the hordes of tourists everywhere at any time of the year, being most acute during high season months. Prices for everything, specially accommodation, are of course based on such demand and therefore much higher than anywhere else in Italy.

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Madrid - Spain

Madrid – Spain

Post published:15 June 2014
Post category:Europe Southern Europe Spain

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Moorish Mayrit, Mozarabic Matrit

It’s finally time I set myself to create the travel guide for my home town. I know it won’t be easy but rather a challenge in order to try to compile the best through my own experience and eyes, and if creating the guide for Barcelona was already a difficult task where of course, there is much more to see and do than what I shared, here I am still even deciding on how I am actually going to structure and divide the sections and areas within the city for the sightseeing list.

But first, let’s start with some interesting facts. Remember that I do not describe in detail the history of the cities in my travel blog; for that you already have Wikipedia, Wikitravel and many other sites on the web, but I do always provide a good input and some notes quite appropriate to give you an idea. Madrid is the largest city in Spain; 3rd largest city after London and Berlin, 3rd largest metropolitan area after London and Paris and 3rd largest GDP in the European Union. Capital of Spain since 1561 when King Philip II moved it from Toledo. It’s the largest transportation and communications hub in the Iberian Peninsula; media, business, banking, commercial, education, fashion, political, arts, entertainment and cultural centre making it one of the world’s major global cities. It is the major financial centre of Southern Europe. Ranking among the most liveliest cities in the world, you will find one of the friendliest and more welcoming people in Europe.

It is quite surprising that most of the tourists Spain receives per year do not consider visiting Madrid and instead quickly go to the Mediterranean coast, Andalusia, the islands, and the most visited city in Spain, Barcelona. And shocking in the other hand, it is for many people in the UK to believe that the capital of Spain is Barcelona. I get into such comments quite frequently where I have to teach politely the people a little bit of geography and basic history. (more…)

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