Milan - Italy

Milan – Italy

Post published:24 July 2016
Post category:Europe Italy Southern Europe

Share it with the world

World’s Fashion Capital

It was long long due to return to this city, the third time now, and counting. We kept postponing and not even considering it on behalf of other cities, preferably if we’ve never been before, but it was indeed a great choice especially that this time we could enjoy by far more than last times, with great weather and great company. If back in 2009 I was a bit disappointed with the city and found it quite plain, grey and dirty; all this has changed for the opposite with the years to a great experience, very clean city and enormously elegant and monumental. I also recall, back then it was November, cold and rainy days. Nothing to compare with how vibrant and lively was now in the middle of summer.

Milan is the second largest city in Italy after Rome, and the 5th largest urban area in the European union; an important financial, industrial, cultural and arts centre; the mode capital in the world. Do not expect to find here such a charming squares to the likes of Rome or Florence, but in a sense, more austere yet imposing constructions and very elegant avenues and streets following a great urban planning. There is a lot to see and do and a weekend can come really short since distances are large and the sights scattered all around on every corner. Not only the city itself is packed with history; the nearby region is simply spectacular with countless beautiful villages, lakes and nature at the foot of the Alps. Milan will be your perfect gateway base to explore this region.

The historical core is perfect for visiting on foot. Over the years I can compare since the first time I came in 2001, and now, these many years after, majority of the historical and shopping streets are now pedestrian friendly. Vast amount of buildings perfectly restored and beautiful overall urban landscape where an unique icon of the city gives its extra personality: the historical ancient trams. While many hundreds have been removed over the years, a reasonably large fleet have been retained and run through many of the lines coupled with the more modern fleet. Milan, like Lisbon, Blackpool and Isle of Man are the only places left in Europe with a traditional historic tram fleet fully operational at such scale.

(more…)

Share it with the world

Trier - Germany

Trier – Germany

Post published:3 July 2016
Post category:Europe Germany Western Europe

Share it with the world

Roman Augusta Treverorum

Our second part for this weekend after visiting the city of Luxembourg was for the historical small city of Trier, just across the border in western Germany. So what’s the importance in this city, that perhaps majority of people did not hear about its existence? Being one of the most important ancient Roman cities in current Germany, as well believed to be the oldest city in the country. The ancient Roman monuments and remains are scattered through the city, most of which reused many hundreds of years ago implemented in new constructions from the era.

By the 4th century the city was among the largest even in the world at probably reaching around 100000 inhabitants. Nowadays to compare, the city is home to 107000! Almost equal to what is today, 1600 years after its peak at the brink of the decline of the Roman Empire.

But is is not only about the Roman monuments that makes the city special. Of course having the largest hall from antiquity to survive today in almost intact condition, or the oldest bridge in the whole of Germany, are some of the facts. The other ones are the oldest Gothic church in the country, the oldest of any church in Germany, and also the second oldest, and while talking about cult and Christianity here, the Cathedral of Trier has among its treasures the Holy Tunic, said to be the robe Jesus was wearing when he died. All of this, together with a very beautiful old town, that even it was heavily damaged during WWII, was nicely restored and rebuilt afterwards; makes it perfect for a great day out. (more…)

Share it with the world

Luxembourg City - Luxembourg

Luxembourg City – Luxembourg

Post published:2 July 2016
Post category:Europe Luxembourg Western Europe

Share it with the world

Gibraltar of the North

Although cannot really recall how many times I’ve now been to Luxembourg, it is certainly getting closer to 10 for sure. Considering the very first time I went in 2009 and how long it took me for returning to do a proper visit, I was not expecting the following trips that came afterwards and will possibly come in the near future. The fact of being that near to London, with plenty of flight options, most of the time so cheap well below budget, then it’s one of these cities great for a escape, enjoy nice food, some culture and good shopping.

Flights to the city are very frequent from cities such as London where we came from, Germany, France or Switzerland, with deals every now and then depending on the season, date and times. It’s not really a big problem to find something nice, but getting a hotel over there can easily cost you way over what you initially though. A great way to save you on budget securing nice flights and hotel is to have a look at the British Airways website and search for “flight+hotel” deals. This is how we are doing more and more often our European weekend trips, and it works awesome! I really encourage you to take a look, because sometimes you can be surprised on how much you can save.

The capital city of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, one of the smallest countries in Europe, is often ranked as having the second highest per-capita GDP in the world, also topping the lists high up in the ranking for best quality of living. The figures of course, directly translates into a pretty much rich country with high standards of living and high costs for everything, like Switzerland. Do not expect this to be a “cheap” trip even if you find a great flight deal, not to mention this is certainly not a backpacker country.

(more…)

Share it with the world

Hoxter and Goslar - Germany

Hoxter and Goslar – Germany

Post published:5 June 2016
Post category:Europe Germany Western Europe

Share it with the world

Carolingian Abbey and a 1000 years old mine

Continuing on the second part of the weekend today Sunday, after visiting the day before the cities of Hanover, Hildesheim and Alfeld with their UNESCO World Heritage sites; our first point would be the beautiful and historical city of Hoxter, some 100 kilometres south of Hanover, our base city. While a small city, probably unheard to everyone (unless for a German), it is very important in the country due to its Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey, the only standing structure that dates back to the Carolingian era in the country.

Farther east from Höxter, not near though and on small roads since there are no motorways in this area, is the city of Goslar with its over 1000 year old mines of Rammelsberg. All the places and cities are incredible in every sense, and something we actually did not expect. We did not know there was so much to see at both cities, and so many timber framed buildings, specially in Goslar. It was literally every single building! The only fact that played against us was the time. We wish to have had more time to enjoy more peacefully the visit, and even reach the historical city of Quedlinburg. This will have to be done on a future trip.

So while our original thoughts were that Hanover would be a bit boring, with not much to see to keep you buys for a weekend, it does have a good side, the many many other places “nearby” in the region. Way too many, so in the pipe, probably for the next year, is to find another good flight deal to Hanover and continue visiting the region and historical cities. (more…)

Share it with the world

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

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

Tetouan - Morocco

Tetouan – Morocco

Post published:21 May 2016
Post category:Africa Morocco

Share it with the world

Berber: Tittawin; meaning The Eyes, The Water Springs

Another short weekend in Morocco after we found another impossible to miss deal with British Airways+Iberia. Not only the air fare was great, but was also having such interconnecting flights via Madrid to Tetouan all with the Oneworld Alliance, meaning more Tier Points and Avios that we can for sure use to keep booking reward flights as we generally do through the year. As you can imagine, not every flight we are doing every weekend is paid by cash; but having a good planning and organisation means getting free flights or paying a tiny fraction of the full price for great destinations.

After the impressive experience 3 weeks ago when visiting Casablanca, Rabat, Meknes, Volubilis and Fez; this time our trip was way simpler and easier. While landing in Tangier, we left immediately towards the beautiful and so historic city of Tetouan, main reason for this trip. Once more, another city included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site listing because of its impressive ancient Medina, palaces and mosques covering so many centuries of history and architecture, and that great level of preservation and restoration, plus the “new city” next to the Medina, in traditional southern Spain architecture. A remark in here, this region of Morocco in the north was part of the Spanish colony, not the French who had the southern half of the country.

Often bypassed by tourist en-route to other destinations such as Tangier, Ceuta or Chefchaouen, it is perfect for spending half a day. There is no need to calculate any longer because of its small overall size with the sights very near each other and resumed to just the Medina and immediately around it at the “new city”. Our time was also very limited, hence why we returned to Tangier later in the afternoon on this same day where our hotel was. (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