Paris -> London
Highlight
- A leisurely late start for once.
- Brunch at Angelina. The décor used to be nice once upon a time, but is now a faded glory. Still, the food was very very good and the service was not too bad. This is loads better than Lauderee.
- Very full and satisfied, started walking around. It was great because the sun came out an the weather was glorious, but disappointing since most of Paris decided to go on vacation so everything was closed.
- Spent 1 hour at our favourite pharmacy, got lots of cream and stuff for Slokky.
- We were definitely much happier when we got to St Germain area, lots to walk around and see. There wasn’t that much stuff on sale, an of those, not much in my size.
- We did managed to score at Heyraud, a pair of brown shoes of Slokky and some black and white heels for me.
- Found some very cute knits from somewhere (that's a store name!), but no good one my size
- Tried to find wii but couldn’t.
- Walked around the Latin quarter for a little while, and had lunch at 3pm at a touristy place. Not too bad for the price (€10) but not great, except for the excellent chips.
- Picked up our stuff at the hotel, then Eurostar, with yet another very very long line.
- Took 40 minutes to check in and nearly missed train, which left late because of the line.
Food
- Angelina breakfast:
- mini croissant, pain au raisin, pain au chocolate
- baguette with jam, butter, honey
- fruit salad
- orange juice
- hot chocolate with cream
- brioche
- eggs benedict
- L’Auberge du Moulin lunch:
- pate with baugette
- cheese crepe
- roast chicken and chips
- pepper steak and chips
- chocolate mousse
- napolitan ice cream
Paris
Highlight
- Grabbed breakfast at the local patisserie. Quite nice but not as good as the one we visited last time.
- Walked around the Tuileries, checked out Angelina, then lined up at Musee d’Orsay.
- We got there at 9:15, and was just outside of the taped off area, so not too bad, but a massive line did form behind us. We got in by 9:40.
- Decided to get the audio guide, which was not great at all, but as there was nothing to explain any of the paintings, it was better than nothing.
- We managed to finish the ground floor and the 5th floor before they kicked us out, still need to do 2-4, so looks like another trip is on the cards.
- Highlight was definitely the 5th floor and the vast collection of Money, Van Goth (extremely crowded here!), Renoir, Sisley and Pisarro.
- Back to hotel to relax before venturing out for dinner.
- It rained as we were walking there, but luckily stopped when we left.
- Hardly anyone eating so got very quick and personal service.
- Heavy Asian, especially Japanese influence, but chef is half Spanish. The food is excellent, especially the pork, but was very expensive.
Food
- croissant
- chocolate Viennoise
- pain au raisin
- ham baguette
- emmental cheese baguette
- lipton peach tea
- La Table du Lancaster dinner:
- baguette ,campagne, lemon, olive bread
- cucumber soup
- sardines with wakemi and wasabi
- frog’s leg with cauliflower tamarind sauce
- tuna with Japanese rice and ponzu sauce
- pork with honey barbeque sauce, apple
- goats, brie, 2 other cheeses with dried apricot and redcurrant
- floating island, rolled coconut, candy floss and cream
- pistachio dim sum with strawberry sauce
- Himalayan tea
- blue mountain Jamaican coffee
- pistachio macaroon, passionfruit chocolate, raspberry almond cake
London -> Ashford -> Paris
Highlight
- Stuffy train ride to Ashford.
- It rained heavily so we gave up trying to see the town, and headed straight for the Ashford Designer Outlet instead.
- Well, this seemed to be stragith out of UK suburbia, with overweight families dragging along their kids to indulge in the fast food at the food court.
- I was disappointed there was nothing on offer in terms of food, so I actually had to eat fish and chips from a chain store.
- Slokky though got to indulge in his Maccas, and I had a bite to see if anything has changed in the 15 years or so I have been avoiding the place. Even though they have supposedly upgraded their ingredients, it seems the taste is still the same.
- This place is supposedly designed by the same architect as the Millennium Dome, and it actually looks like it from the outside, but the design was definitely not practical as it was not shielded from the elements, in a country that constantly rained, so that as we walked between the shops, we kept getting wet.
- We started off slowly, but then stalled at a couple of stores, and had to rush at the end. I was satisfied though that we had covered most of what we wanted by the time we had to leave.
- The discounts differed. Some were very good while others weren’t worth bothering. Ted Baker had nothing my size, neither did Next
- Ended up with:
- silk knots (£2)
- Ralph Lauren shorts (£6.99
- Adidas tank top (£7)
- Eventually it did stop raining, so it made our walk back to Ashford International a bit more pleasant, but still no sun.
- The check-in for Eurostar was very quick, so we had to hang around for a long time at the not much to do terminal.
- We sat next to some extremely noisy people on the Eurostar, so I couldn’t sleep.
- Eurostars hotel was very modern, very much like the Scandinavian design hotels.
- Dressed up for dinner. Luckily other people were quite dressed up too so we felt good.
- Dinner was excellent. We went a la carte for once, and was treated to some an amazing meal. The service was a bit slow but the waiters were so cute!
- The weather had changed for the better, so we took a leisurely walk to the metro. Ah, Paris.
Food
- Harry Ramsden's lunch:
- fish and chips (£5.20)
- apple juice
- McDonalds oriental beef burger and chips
- Senderen dinner:
- bread sticks
- saffron lobster soup
- Chanterelle mushrooms served with squid and cockles flavoured with spiced oil
- Poached duck liver with morel mushrooms, walnut and curry
- Roasted wild duck with beetroot, cooked in a salt crust
- Roast suckling pig, leeks with rougail, carrot taglitalle with pink berries and mango
- raspberry pannacotta
- French napolean with Tahiti vanilla cream
- Butter biscuit with rhubarb and strawberry
- raspberry macaroon, orange jelly, almond tartlette with psichacio
London -> Brighton -> Hove -> Brighton -> London
Highlight
- A very bad start to the holidays with the dismal service from Southern ticket office, where they refused to help us get our tickets after the machine didn’t work. I wrote a complaint about that so will see what they do with it.
- After that debarkle, where we had to run to make our train, the ride went smoothly.
- Not as many people as I imagined, started off by walking to the Visitor Centre, but kept getting sidetracked.
- Stopped off at the many shops, first off, Taylor St Baristas, where they ground the beans in front of you and do coffee art, but that has never guaranteed good coffee before. Luckily, this place actually made the best coffee outside of Monmouth in the UK that I’ve tried, almost worth coming back to Brighton for. They said they have an offshoot in Liverpool St, so I’ll see if that one is any good.
- Next distraction, the various bike and outdoor camping shops, where we managed to get a big bite valve to replace the one we lost for our Camelbak, no such luck with the bite valve cover though.
- Watched Slokky try on all sorts of shoes, but didn’t end up finding one because his feet are deformed.
- And then found a nice Mambo canvas belt and some polo shirts for Slokky…
- By the time we made it to the visitor centre, it was around 10:30 already…
- Never mind, it was such a nice day, around 25 degrees, the sun was shining, it was great to walk around.
- Decided not to pay the £8.50 entrance fee into the Royal Pavilion because the weather was too nice, might come back another day when the weather is crap to do that, and the Art Gallery and Museum too.
- Laid around on the deck chair in the Royal Pavilion Park, before venturing towards food, via The Lanes.
- As can be expected, there was lots to see, with lots of quirky shops and kitchenware and food stores, where we picked up some coffee from Ringtons, so by the time we made it to Bankers for fish and chips, we were quite hungry.
- Got our food down by the sea in Hove to eat. It was quite peaceful, apart from the people screaming from the bungy jumping.
- Back for another walk around Hove, observing the architecture, the yuppy chic people who live there, and the wonderful stores they have.
- Stopped by Audrey’s for award winning chocolate. They were good, but not better than the Belgium variety, but I had to try since Prince Charles had been to the shop.
- Wanted to go into the Real Eating Company for a look and see if I could pick up a cake or something and then tick them off. Well, I couldn’t resist the food that I saw everyone having, so we decided to have a second lunch. The salad had the sweetest crab meat and wonderful nutty dressing and flavoursome tomatoes. The experience was unfortunately let down by too hot and too bitter coffee. Still, you can’t beat sitting on the pavement on a nice sunny day, people watching while you sip your coffee…
- Back to the waterfront, and made our way back to Brighton. As the scenery changed from chic to shabby, the more people appeared on the beach.
- Stopped by The Pumphouse for some delectable ice-cream. As we were really full from our 2 lunches we could only afford one scoop, but it was good!
- Walked by the classic jellied eels store but was too full to fit any more in.
- Paid a visit to the shipping museum, and you can see that a lot of Brighton reflects the heritage of the area.
- Made our way back to the shops, this time to visit the quirky Newtown vibe of the North Lanes. There were people everywhere, hanging out in the myriads of vegetarian cafes and record stores.
- We window shopped our way through the lanes, including an organic shop that reminded me of home, before taking a walk around other quieter areas, like the back of the Pavilions.
- Back to the sea, to the extremely popular Brighton Pier. It seemed everyone was there, hanging out at the fun fair. We watched people screaming on the rides (which were VERY expensive, £4 to go in the ghost house, and that’s the cheaper ones, 5 rides and you can afford to go to Disneyland!)
- Watched all manners and shapes of people sunbath, play the fair games, and eat.
- Decided against going to the Marina as it looked like there was nothing there, so laid on the pebble beach for awhile, before heading to Barry.
- Had a wonderful laid back dinner, read review here before heading home.
- Delayed for 15 minutes coming back because some person vandalised the train so they had to disconnect the last three carriages and also meant everyone had to squish into 6 cars.
Food
- Taylor St Baristas cappuccino (£1.80)
- Bankers haddock & chips (£4.99)
- Audrey’s chocolate Vienna mint
- Audrey’s chocolate hazelnut baton
- The Real Eating Company lunch:
- Dorset crab salad with tomato (£8)
- cappuccino (£2.50)
- clotted cream ice cream
taste test Booja Booja ice cream- dinner at Barry at the Tureen:
- Mushrooms stuffed with crab and garlic
- Fresh salmon cakes with a basil mayo
- Marlin steak sauteed with lime and cream
- Scotch salmon boned escallope oven-baked with a red pesto, cheese and crumb crust
- Blackberry liqueur soufflee served frozen
- Gooseberry fool
Arcen -> Weeze -> London
Highlight
- Slokky didn’t ask about check out, so we didn’t know what to do with the keys.
- We almost got locked out as he put the key in the slot and we couldn’t open the front door, which was locked. Luckily I was smart enough to try to unlatch the door, while Slokky panicked and didn’t listen to me.
- The flight was on time for once.
Food
- cherry and strawberry yoghurt
- sandwiches of cheese, salami and ham
- orange
Best -> S’Herb -> Veghel -> Boekel _> Gemert _> Venray -> Arcen -> Well -> Arcen
Highlight
- Tried to look around Best. Besides a semi interesting church, there was nothing around.
- S’Hersh, as usual, dead on a Sunday, but it’s a pretty town, so even window shopping was fun.
- Lovely market square with lots of beer house and café.
- Had to wait for all the museums to open.
- Highlight definitely St John’s church, but we couldn’t go in as there was a service on.
- Walked by the canal for the same funny houses.
- The Citadel was boring.
- Walked to because Slokky didn’t know the opening times.
- Walked back to the museum to learn a brief history.
- SM is a modern design museum, very cool.
- We couldn’t find any herrings or fries place that was open, so we just ate cake for lunch.
- Trip down the brown, flat countryside. There was a nice church and building at Veghel.
- Absolutely nothing at Boekel.
- Gemert was interesting. Very good location castle, even if not elaborately decorated.
- Venray for WWII cemetery. There were 3 Aussies buried there.
- Arcen to check in our hotel. It’s in the roof of the building and quite charming.
- Walked around the small town of Arcen, very popular with the tourists, who were all eating ice-cream!
- Kasteeltunen was more touristy but otherwise looked like the other castle.
- Dinner at the charming riverside restaurant. It was much more classic and much less English. People seem to be locals. A guy came to talk to us about his travels to China.
- The food was again quite slow, but there wasn’t a huge lull like the other place. We got to try two different menus.
- The chef greeted us as we parted, so that was very cool.
Food
- butter cake
- apple
- dinner at Brenin:
- tuna with tomato and lobster salad
- asparagus soup with shrimps
- fish with prawn and asparagus
- tuna and other fish 3 ways
- smoked fish with truffle mash and asparagus
- brioche, white rye, seed, tomato bread
- duck breast and mash, beans and bok choy
- lamb chop with pesto, lamb cutlet, sausage, cabbage
- chocolate 4 ways: brownie, aero, terrain, mousse
- mango terrain, vanilla ice-cream, cream and dried mango
London - > Eindhoven -> Best
Highlight
- Another very early morning start. Especially since we had to pick up a new camera after the thief took ours.
- Eindhoven airport really only serves Ryanair. It is very small.
- Caught the bus downtown to pick up the car, got an Audi.
- Drove to PSV stadium, took some photos, visited the store, got some nice red socks for Slokky (which can be seen in photos of the Peak District), for €10, then walked to the city.
- Dropped by Media Centre to get a camera case for the camera.
- Walked through department stores and shops on the way to the tourist info. Got a cute light bulb egg holder and Eindhoven t-shirt as souvenirs.
- Walked to the market square, lots of Chinese restaurant looked dodgy.
- Looked at church, which was quite nice.
- Went to Hema and got yummy butter tart.
- Considered going to get chips, but the places were not that appealing.
- Van Abbey museum – modern art, very cool but hard to understand.
- Walked around the park and admire the hanging trees.
- De Bengen – with very cool shops, kinda alternative.
- <> museum, old and not much to see, but situated in a church.
- Back to the shops. Hema for more food, not many other shops were opened, so we were bored.
- Walked around the vast “Phillips” area. Afterall, Eindhoven is the birthplace of the Philips light bulb.
- Waited in the car anxiously for dinner.
- The restaurant is situated at the stadium. It was very cool as you can see into the stadium. As expected for a one Michelin star place, it was very formal. But alas, the style didn’t reflect the quality.
- Dinner was very formal though, but we were disappointed. I had to complain as it took one hour between the starter and the main, but my concern wasn’t even addressed. They just kept saying it was coming very soon.
- The highlight was definitely the starter with the cucumber and the crab. The quail was too dry.
- Because of the long wait, I couldn’t really enjoy myself. We spent from 7 until 11 there
- So, another very tiring day. And we didn’t get to use the NH Best facilities.
Food
- malteasers
- organic apple juice
- butter tart (€1.60)
- Avant Garde dinner:
- cheese toast, spice cake, bacon sour cream on cracker
- salmon with beans in tuna broth and wasabi
- snail foam with wasabi, goose liver mousse with millefeuille
- brioche, white toast, herb
- cucumber sorbet on king crab, king crab with cumquat ice, crab with wasabi jelly
- monkfish with fried sardine and langoustine and blood orange
- blood orange ice sorbet
- quail with truffle sauce and sardines and lobster in its own gravy
- pineapple rollup, curried pineapple soup, crème brulee parcel with caramelized pineapple
- mint marshmallow
Copenhagen -> Malmo -> Copenhagen -> London
Highlight
- After a leisurely breakfast, walked to Central station to catch the extremely nice and quick train to Malmo.
- Going over Oresund Bridge was not very spectacular as we were stuck in the bottom level and couldn’t really see anything.
- Malmo was a dead town when we arrived at 10am.
- Strolled around the central square, Stortorget, the largest city square in Northern Europe (which was not really that big) to see the statue of King Karl X Gustav and the city hall, among other things.
- Observed the families at work, with the designer strollers, at Folkets Park. The park itself wasn’t too pretty, but there were a few ponds for the water effect.
- Malmohus Castle was pretty boring, we didn’t even bother walking up to it, you can get a good view of the Turning Torso, a funny twisted building, though.
- Tried to find the market they talked about on Wikitravel but it was closed.
- Dropped by the supermarket to pick up our Swedish chocolate bars.
- Walked down the major shopping street. By now it was 12 noon so I was expecting more shops to open, sadly it was not the case.
- Started to feel sick, so I rested while the guys ate at a family oriented steakhouse, Jensens Bofhus. I actually was so bad that I didn’t even try the food.
- Was feeling even worst, so decided to cut the trip short (well, we’d seen almost everything anyway, just missed <> street and the Turning Torso building).
- Spent most of the afternoon sitting or leaning against various object, until we made our way to the airport.
- Arrived at the airport 4 hours early, wandered around the shops, sorted our photos, sat around being bored, and was finally able to board our plane.
- Luckily plane was on time so we got time just after midnight.
- Don’t get me wrong, Copenhagen was an extremely beautiful city, it was just that when the major attractions were not open and the weather not that beautiful, there was not that much to see and do.
Food
- Hotel Savoy breakfast:
- soft-boiled eggs
- muesli with peach and raspberry yoghurts
- Danish ham, salami, cheese with rye bread
- chocolate croissant
- chocolate cinnamon scroll
- seeds bread with herring in curried yoghurt sauce
Copenhagen
Highlight
- After a hearty breakfast, checked out to find someone has already paid our bill!
- Quick visit to Nationalmuseet, did “the history of Denmark in 60 mins) tour…it did give you a sense of why Denmark is what it is. I would’ve liked to have visited the rest of the museum as it looked very interesting.
- Met up with PJ at her hotel, then off to see the Little Mermaid. There was not that large a crowd, so that was great, but the statue was very small, as everybody said.
- Walked around Kastellet, the star shaped fortress. Some good view with the swams and cherry blossoms.
- Dropped in Frihedsmuseet for a very quick browse around, about Danish resistance during the German occupation in the 1940s.
- Walked to Amalienborg Slot to see the not so grand royal palace, but we managed to catch the changing of the guard.
- To Nyhavn to see the colourful hosues and the tourist attractions of café and restaurants.
- Found a smorrebrod place and got very delicious food for lunch.
- Didn’t rush back to Marmorkirken (marble church) in time to climb the dome. The exterior is like St Paul, but the interior was not that interesting.
- Walked back to hotel via Stroget again, this time stopping at Bodun and picked up some cool vacuum glasses.
- Got some Danish butter biscuits from supermarket. Couldn’t buy herrings as we can’t check in any luggage.
- Early dinner at a Vietnamese place. Everything looked great but tasted only average. We should’ve stuck with Danish food!
Food
- Connect hotel breakfast:
- scrambled egg, sausage, bacon
- muesli with figs, raisins and yoghurt
- cheese, spreads, meat on bread
- pain au chocolate, croissant, Danish
- muesli pot with grapes
- fruit
- apple juice
- pickled herring
- dinner at Le Le Nha Haeng:
- pigs ears
- poached fish with peanut sauce and rice paper wrap
- spring rolls, rice paper rolls, prawns
- banana sticky rice
London -> Copenhagen
Highlight
- Flight only slightly displayed.
- Train from airport broke down, and we had no idea what the announcements meant, but we still got to the hotel quite early.
- Tivoli was closed because of the winter.
- Walked past Borsen (former stock exchange), Christiansborg (church), which was getting renovated, Folketinget (parliament), but not that interesting since it was overcast and I’ve seen much better before.
- Visited some churches, Christians Kirke (boring), Vor Frelsers Kirke (being renovated so completely closed), we wanted to climb the spire too
- Walked along harbour before a very extraordinary and very tasty lunch at Noma. They kept on delivering extra courses, everything was beautiful and innovative, and the waiters were super cute!!
- We left the restaurant at 4pm, super full and super happy.
- Took a walk around Christiania, which is totally unlike the rest of Copenhagen. It’s totally hippy, and there are huge signs up that says not to take any photos.
- Walked along the Moat, visited some shops, including the department store, Magazin du Nord and its basement food fall.
- The mannequins here have much bigger boobs, but their H&M is not up to par with Sweden’s
- Vor Fruekirke (cathedral where Princess Mary of Tassie got married) was pretty boring.
- The shops were not that interesting so we went to H&M again.
- Walked down Stroget, the longest shopping street in Europe, to see Caritas Springvandet (fountain), Helligandskirken (another church).
- Rundetarn, another tower, was closed by the time we got there.
- It started raining heavily so we headed back to the hotel.
- Teaser buffet was very good quality food, but I was too full to take full advantage of it.
- Since the weather was bad, we basically just relaxed at the hotel, and even managed to book another holiday!
Food
- green apple
- smoothie
- Lunch at Noma (1900 DKR):
- birch sap water
- smoked ostrich egg
- new season herbs on crust
- rye, roe and chicken skin
- spring root vegetable with egg sauce
- pickled cucumber
- beef tartare with juniper berry and tarragon sauce
- Razor clams and horseradish ”snow”, Parsley and dill
- Salsify and milkskin, Rape seed oil and truffle from Gotland
- Monk fish and seaweed, Stems and roots of vegetables
- Ramson onion and onions from Læsø, Onion-cress and onion bouillon
- Pork from Dronningmølle and leek, Malt, seeds and fresh leaves of acidic herbs
- Toasted jerusalem artichokes and seabuck-thorn, Malt and vinegar
- Dried berries and dried cream, Walnuts and dust of walnuts
- coffee with chocolate coated beetroot meringue
- Connect hotel teaser buffet:
- curry squid
- corn cob
- tuna with sauce on toast
- cauliflower and picked berry
- duck cassoulet
- French onion soup
- sunflower seed bread
- salad with olives, feta, tomato, beetroot
- fruit
- gazpacho
- rice salad
- brie, goats camembert, blue with grapes, figs and apricots
Stockholm -> London
Highlight
- Got a later start than planned, but the weather was much better today.
- Walked around the harbour to Vasamuseet. Quite a lot of tourists (must be very crowded in peak times, but the ship was absolutely magnificent.
- The displays were great and the architecture superb. It was definitely worth the money.
- Went to NH (the David Jones equivalent) to get excellent pastry and lingoberry bread.
- Ate lunch by the river, the sun was truly out then, but we didn’t have time to wonder to bjurgarden, although all the locals seemed to be heading there (with their walking sticks).
- Finally made it to Gamla Stan (old town). Reminds me of the hill town of Tuscany. Highlight was seeing Kungliga Slottet’s guards who don’t stand still and march randomly.
- Palace itself was the most spectacular.
- Made our way to Storkyrkan, one of the more interesting and pretty churches, whereas the Tyska Kyrkan was less interesting.
- Walked through the narrowest street of the old town, Marten Trotzings Grand.
- Most of the shops were closed because it was Sunday, but some were still open, with the most interesting being Ekovaruhuset, selling only organic stuff, with some very pretty organic clothes, and Kalika, selling toys including Pippi Longstocking dolls and finger puppets.
- Stocked up at the supermarket on herrings, salads, bread, gravalex before our flight.
- The Arlanda express was efficient, we hadn’t caught a late train yet in Stockholm.
- Airport was very boring though ,no Swedish shops like at the Revjavik airport, just international labels, and not interesting ones at that.
Food
- Connect Hotel breakfast:
- bread
- cucmber
- tomato
- pate
- ham
- cheese
- hot chocolate
- cappuccino
- peach and apple yoghurt
- roll with pate
- NH cardamom scroll
- NH lingoberry bread
- salmon gravalex
- pickled herring
- prawn salad with dill
- prawn, mushroom salad with dill
- wafer chocolate bar
Stockholm
Highlight
- The weather was quite bad, being very cold and overcast and it even snowed!
- The hotel breakfast was very boring, but they had some very nice bread.
- Caught the train to wonder around as things don’t open that early.
- Skogokyrkogargen Cemetery, the most picturesque cemetery I’ve been to, with tall pine trees and fresh flower beds. It’s famous for its architecture and Greta Garbo’s grave, which was really unexciting.
- Continued on the Garbo trail, to the place where she spent her childhood at Blekingegatan 32. There was a bust there to commemorate her, but otherwise, there was nothing there. At least you could observe suburban life though.
- Back on the tourist, past the seaside, to Katarina Kyrka, where you can observe some of the “old style” houses before they were knocked off.
- The church itself was yellow and beautiful, but it was burnt and rebuilt.
- Another church, Maria Magdalena Kyrka, was just about the same as the other one, so that was boring.
- Stockholm’s Stadmuseum is one of the only free museums left in the city, but the displays were modern and interesting. We learned about Stockholm’s history.
- Up Katarina Hissen for a view of the city. Had to walk though as we didn’t want to pay money for the lift.
- Wanted to go to Ostemalms Saluhall, the famous foodmarket for lunch, but a misprint on Lonely Planet meant we went on a wild goose chase instead, waited for ages for the bus, only to find that the stop we were supposed to go to turned out to be a museum!
- Bumped into Linus, who was here for the weekend, and he invited us to drinks.
- By the time we got back, it was 1:30, and sat down to an extremely good meal. We didn’t want to eat too much as we had booked dinner, but we did get a coffee at a recommended place (which turned out to be not that great).
- The 40 minutes we wasted on the wild goose chase meant that we had less time to shop as most close around 4-5pm and don’t open on Sundays.
- We managed to hit:
- Judits Secondhand - v cool and hip, with the whole SoFo area vibe.
- 10 Swedish Designers – funky fabrics
- Designtorget – closest to Ikea we found
- Nitty Gritty – very expensive and out there, combining clothes, music, books, a hairdresser and a cafe
- Byt this time a lto of stores were closing, so we wondered around a few clothing stores (btw, H&M are everywhere, but it’s quite popular and stock different stuff to what you get in the UK).
- Made it to Chokladfabriken just before they closed, got a very good hot chocolate and some truffles. The place was very full and very happening.
- Back to more wondering the streets…Ahlens (the Myer equivalent) and tried to get a hair cut, but we were too late and they were closed.
- We finally got kicked out, so headed early to F12 via yet another church.
- As usual ,we were the most underdressed of the lot. The wait staff were excellent, with very good English as can be expected. The place was very stylish, green being the dominant colour. They explained everything. We had the “innovative” tasting menu. While creative, some of the flavours were too strong and didn’t work well together, but it was very fun and different nevertheless, plus the waiters were very cute.
- Went back to change for the bar, but we were still the most underdressed, not to mention the ugliest. Everyone was blond, tall and skinny, and all seemed to be having a good time.
- We got to O’Baren just before midnight and had to line up. The place was packed and the drinks very expensive (well, the whole of Sweden is expensive, but their alcohol is outrageously so)
- We met quite a few of Linus’ friends and had a pretty good time.
- We left after 1am and got back after 2am, and was dead tired.
Food
- Connect Hotel breakfast:
- bread
- cucmber
- tomato
- pate
- ham
- cheese
- hot chocolate
- cappuccino
- pineapple and papaya yoghurt
- tasta mari lunch:
- herring plate with potatoes (80)
- saffron seafood soup(110)
- Roberts coffee latte (29)
- Chokladfabriken passionfruit truffle
- Chokladfabriken cardamom truffle
- F12 dinner:
- bread and bread sticks
- sour - onion pickle, salt – clavier, sweet – oyster crème brulee
- celery and apple drink
- .....
London -> Stockholm
Highlight
- Plane was delayed by 1.5 hours, but no announcement was given. There were lots and lots of people at London City airport, with absolutely nowhere to sit.
- The airport at Stockholm was completely different of course, it was completely deserted when we arrived.
- We were really confused by the train for ages, before finally figuring it out.
- We were confused again by the hotel, and couldn’t find the entrance for ages.
- Needless to say, it was very late before we got to sleep.
Gdansk -> London
Highlight
- We had a later start than most days, but the same old breakfast.
- It was snowing very heavily, the road was very slippery but extremely pretty.
- No line on the plane, and even managed to buy some Chopin vodka for 79 PLN.
Food
- La Petite Hotel breakfast:
- cherry yoghurt
- muesli with pineapple
- boiled egg and mango
- cheese
- ham
- bread and breadstick
- sausage
- rye bread with cottage cheese, tomato, cucumber and olives
- apple juice
Gdansk -> Sopot -> Gdynia -> Gdansk
Highlight
- Stuck in another traffic jam on the way.
- We couldn’t get to the concentration camp at Strutthof, as we had to cross a river by ferry, which was nowhere to be seen. It was supposed to be running but obviously it was not, so we wasted all that time, and had to drive back to Gdansk, where we were stuck in another traffic jam.
- The New Synagogue was very ugly.
- Oliwa Park and the cathedral were the nicest in Gdasnk, with pretty autumn leaves and landscaping.
- Sopot was much more resort like and residential. There was quite a bit of English around the place and was touristy, but nothing compared to the big cities.
- We started at the beach, which was very nice but cold. That would be my first trip to the beach in a down jacket!
- Walked along the very long pier, great view, saw the lighthouse.
- The Hippodrome was very boring, just a patch of grass with nothingt o see…I was hoping there would be some sort of marking or something.
- Walked along another touristy street from the pier. There were a lot of construction going on, a huge Sofotel complex was due to open soon…so even more tourists to come I suspect.
- Passed the statue of Parasolnik – very weird as Parasolnik is a clown!
- Past the famous crooked house, which was just that…a crooked house.
- Lunch at Bar Elita. It was a very quiet and cheap place, with another charming waiter. Things were a little salty, but nice!
- Couldn’t find: Garrison Church of St Jerzy, Sopot Castle, St Andrew Babola Church, but I’m sure we can live without seeing them.
- Gdynia – we walked up another hill, Kamienna Gora, which had another cross on top. The Polish sure are religious.
- This time we had a view of the town and the ocean. There was an excellent park attached to the hill too.
- Down to the beach and the naval museum, but we didn’t go in. They had the only ship, Dar Pomorza, that was built before WWII that survived.
- Church of the Scared Hear of Jesus – grey and ugly on the outside, but surprisingly different and pleasant on the outside.
- Couldn’t find:
- Church of St Michael the Archangel - after driving for 40 minutes because we were stuck in a traffic jam)
- Domek Abrahana – small museum in nondescript looking house
- Saw a huge traffic jam on the highway back so took the scenic route. It was dark and long, and very scary, but at least there was no traffic jam.
- We then couldn’t find the perogi restaurant (I guess there’s a theme here), we went to Matarnia to go shopping instead. Went to a hardware store, Obi, to get duskpan and bath mat, but couldn’t find a soap dispenser or command hooks.
- Ikea was very small and very disappointing. They didn’t have the bathroom stuff I wanted. The complement drawers didn’t have black and they had no square frames.
- Toured another supermarket with very cheap Lindt chocolate (2.8 PLN) but it was sold out, so we didn’t buy anything.
- Nothing else of interest, so we went to the hunting lodge restaurant.
- It started snowing heavily so everything was covered in white.
- They mis-interpreted our order but was nice and gave us one for free anyway. They didn’t accept credit card though so we had to go to an ATM to get money out. We gave them a large tip anyway.
- Slokky managed to make me mad by being absorbed with the internet.
Food
- La Petite Hotel breakfast:
- cherry yoghurt
- muesli with pineapple
- boiled egg and mango
- cheese
- ham
- bread and breadstick
- sausage
- rye bread with cottage cheese, tomato, cucumber and olives
- apple juice
- Bar Elita lunch:
- flaski (tripe soup) (5.4 PLN)
- placeki (potato pancake with gouliash sauce) (7 PLN)
- golanka (pork knuckle (24 PLN)
- Mysliwski dinner:
- bigos mysliwski (hunters bigos) (8 PLN)
- rosol muysliwski frykase (chicken broth with noodles) (6 PLN)
- picen z dzika (wild boar neck) (20 PLN)
- apple
Gdansk
Highlight
- There was a small selection at breakfast, which was good so I didn’t get too full.
- It snowed in the morning, though only lightly, so the landscape was speckled in white
- We got a tram to Central station, and discovered all the bread shops located underneath, and the roaring trade they were doing.
- Started our city tour of one of many many brick churches, which everyone was going to for mass.
- Went to the “Road to Freedom” exhibition, which was an excellent display of Poland break from communism, which all started in Gdansk of course. The exhibit was made all the more poignant when you realised that it wasn’t that long ago.
- Met a very nice Polish guy when we were walking on the street, who talked to us about his life in Gdansk and helped us to find our way. He worked for some company with dealings with America so his English was quite good, and he displayed his pride in his town.
- We certainly attracted a bit of attention as we were the ONLY Chinese in town.
- Docks area to see the memorial to the fallen protesters and “the gates” where the dock workers separated themselves from the rest of the authorities.
- Down Long Lane, the old town, which had been completely rebuilt, and was very much like Munich.
- Lots of amber and jewellery stores, who display their wares on little tables out on the street.
- By chance, met an Aussie from Brisbane. They were part of an expat community who were out and about preaching Jesus to us and even gave us a copy of Awake!
- Lunch was a great find. It was a little pub situated below ground. It was full of people and the food was cheap and tasty. I just didn’t get the pictures of male naked bums that was hanging everywhere?
- Walked around the Marina, saw some unrepaired ruins of WWII, which were really the only remnants you can see from the war.
- Viewed “the crane”, but didn’t pay to go in, and the boats.
- Got tickets to go to a concert (Chopin of course!) at the concert hall.
- Climbed up the hill to a cemetery (with a cross of course) with great views over the city, which we actually managed to cover most of in one day.
- People eat very early here. We were there at 5pm and some people were already finished. The venue today was a perogi specialist, and I have to say, their perogi was very very good indeed. I was really tempted to try the perogi dessert but I was too full.
- The concert was in a small hall, but it was classy, and lots of kids go too. The pianist was excellent for a small hall in Gdansk. He even gave us two encores. He played a mixture of Schubert and Chopin.
Food
- La Petite Hotel breakfast:
- raspberry yoghurt
- muesli with pineapple
- boiled egg and mango
- cheese
- ham
- bread and breadstick
- sausage
- curried egg
- apple juice
- paragon fiskanlny (fried donut with apple filling and icing sugar) (1.80 PLN)
- <>lunch:
- zurek (sour soup) (4.5 PLN)
- bigos (stew) (10 PLN)
- forest fruist chocolate (.9 PLN)
- <>dinner:
- mushroom soup in rye bread (12 PLN)
- pierogi with cabbage and mushroom (17 PLN)
- pierogi with game (22 PLN)
London -> Gdansk -> Malbork -> Gdansk
Highlight
- Managed another very smooth run to the airport, again timed exactly right.
- Lots of people again, but we moved quickly.
- Gdansk doesn’t have a lot of signs and definitely no English, so it was a bit of a struggle. A small percentage of people seem to speak English, so it was not TOO bad.
- We finally found our car, amid the snow, a little red Renault.
- Managed to check in early. The hotel was basic, but comfy and quite cute.
- Drove to the shopping mall to get some supplies. Their huge Carrefour certainly doesn’t pale compared to others.
- Ate our goodies in the car, on the way to Malbork Castle – but got stuck in a traffic jam, and of course Slokky stalled the car, but he didn’t actually get lost!
- The weather got colder and darker, with light rain as we drove along.
- Malbork Castle is the biggest brick castle in the world, with a river and moat around, as expected. However, it was pulverized after the war and almost completely rebuilt.
- The castle was very cool and scary, with many dark passages. And since it was dead season, there weren’t many people visiting, so at times we had the whole place to ourselves and the guards. You can definitely get lost.
- The reason for our rush was that everything closed at 3pm, so we drove to Fashion House, another one of those fashion outlets, complete with a fake lighthouse, because we needed to stock up on winter clothing!!
- Well, there was no designer brands here, just high street, but we were surprised by how steep the prices still were, after hearing that everything is cheap in Poland. Well, don’t believe it, and the people are very stylish as well!
- We spent ages looking for a winter coat, but luckily the place is quite small and the assistants are very helpful. We ended our trip with gore-tex gloves and a down jacket.
- We chose a small, hard to find restaurant with Polish only menu, with a great waiter, of which only one spoke English and great food. We also almost had the restaurant to ourselves too!
- Back to hotel for that very fast free wi-fi, since we still didn’t have Internet at home (thanks BT!), then sleep.
Food
- Muller rice yoghurt apple, vanilla custard and strawberry
- orange juice (5.79 PLN)
- Cebularz (onion bread) (2.10 PLN)
- chleb bread (195 PLN)
- Leczo (sausage stew) (13 PLN /kg)
- toffee chocolate bar (3.65 PLN for 4)
- dinner at Restauracy jka U Babuni:
- red wine (8 PLN)
- barszec ezlpiero (beetroot soup with dumplings) (8 PLN)
- Piecrony schab po (pork with apricot sauce) (29 PLN)
- Pierogi ruskie (18 PLN)
Valencia -> London
Highlight
- We checked out without any problems, unlike check in.
- Took the bus to the old town and walked around some more sights.
- Glorieta – park with lots of trees next to the Puerta de la Mer – big archway roundabout thing. Slokky took ages to take pictures.
- Went to Santo Domingo and finally found Palacio Cervello, but it was closed
- Carmen – the hippy, graffitied part of town. It’s much less buzzy than I expected, with only a few old people, but they did have a secondary market outside, before winding our way to the central market again.
- We picked up spices, ham, bread, pastries and antipasto after a long deliberation, but we didn’t get any mushrooms or fruit.
- Tried to go to <>, the only reason for going to town, but it wasn’t even open, it must be very low season, so it was a waste.
- Did manage to find another horno patissier with very good pastries and olive tarts.
- caught the bus back for more photos of the Science Centre, then spent the rest of the time, until 7pm in fact, there.
- We spent most of our time looking at the display of the complete genes, as we had seen other displays recently. There were lots of interactive displays: Amazon, space, addictions, light, wind, sports. Our favourite was the sports section with heaps of activities.
- Just had time to get to the supermarket and food shop before heading to the airport.
- Our Bono metro ran out, must be because we spent more than 1 hour retrieving the laptop.
- Ate our food on the metro, straight to airport and on plane
- Slokky didn’t get lost once today!
Food
- chocolate croissant
- empanada with tomato
- mini pastry with fish paste
- mini pastry with chorizo
- jamon
- stuffed peppers with anchovies
- palmier
- olive and tuna tart
- baguette
- marinated artichokes
- lollies
- stuffed peppers with tomatoes
- dried muscat
- white anchovies
- orange juice
Valencia
Highlight
- Sunday of course means that all the shops were closed. We walked around the Arts & Science Centre, really grand and different and magnificent, there were lots of joggers about.
- Took 20 minutes to find the Museo de Fallas. Slokky didn’t even look and it was right next to where we were going, and he took us on a big walkaround.
- We got stuck behind 2 tour groups as a result. We tried to follow the English one around, but they were too slow.
- The puppets stuff was very cool, including a few movie themes. There was no English again. We’ll definitely try to go to a festival one year in March.
- Finally, some shops were opened, we went to a bread shop for some pastries and we were actually able to buy Bono Bus.
- Bullfighting Museum – actually some English (yeah!). Very inhumane to bulls but the costume were grand and the displays were good. Unfortunately we couldn’t go into the ring because there was an event going on.
- Got metro to the seaside, but couldn’t find the Royal Shipyard – finally asked someone and made it 10 mins before it was supposed to close. A modern arts and design exhibition, but all in Spanish.
- Had to find the Museum of Semana Sena (Easter), the other of the big festivals in Valencia. Asked more people again. We did stumble upon the rice museum, so went in, as they had a repaired rice machine. We watched them prepare production rice, but as usual, everything was in Spanish only.
- Finally got to the Easter Museum, again, all in Spanish, but it was fun to look at all the floats and displays.
- Finally got to go to the beach, which was very flat with beautiful sand, some waves, a wide boulevard and a whole row of restaurants and bars.
- We did a walk through before deciding, only to find out that All of them were full and won’t serve you. There were HEAPS of reserved tables for 2:30pm, but also a lot of people leaving. Still, we tried every single one and they all said no. I guess they have enough business and don’t want more. In the end we had to give up and eat chocolate for lunch instead.
- Went to Pio Turia park and played on equipment of a giant man, quite fun but the slide hurts.
- Walked around the City of Arts and Science again and got combo tix to museum and Imax. Walked around the outside of the Oceangraphic and to the greenhouse for more pictures.
- Saw Secrets of the Titanic, but the sound was stuffed. We had to sit up and not move, otherwise we couldn’t get English. We complained afterwards and managed to get a refund.
- Bought some xuju juice – very yum, from the cart outside.
- Had an early dinner (7:45) since we didn’t have lunch. We ate with all the people there having their pre-dinner drinks, at a chain in the shopping centre of the hotel. At least the guy spoke English and the food was decent.
Food
- beer
- orange and pineapple juice
- palmier
- mini croissant, mini brioche
- chocolate croissant
- chocolate
- xuju juice
- dinner at Canas y Tapas:
- San Miguel
- mixed cheese (Manchejan, Idizabal, Cubra) (6.46)
- croquette combo (ham, cabrales)
- grilled wild mushrooms with garlic oil sauce (4.49)
- potato in hot sauce (3.48)
- white anchovies in vinegar with natural tomato (3.75)
- pan of broken eggs and potatoes chistorra and green pepper (5.30)
London -> Valencia
Highlight
- The bus ride to Stansted was very smooth. We timed it just right again.
- The flight wasn’t full, but it was very hot, as though they make you sweat so you will spend money on drinks.
- We decided against getting the Valencia card as everything seems to be free on Sundays.
- Slokky realised he left the laptop on the plane, 20 minutes into our Metro ride out of the airport, right after I asked if he left his scarf, since he did the same thing on the bus to Stansted. Of course he said yes but he didn’t think about his laptop.
- So had to go all the way back to try to get it. Luckily it was still there as all of our stuff since we left Oz were on it and we had no backup!
- After our big delay, we finally made it to our hotel, after stopping off to buy ham and bred on the way.
- The hotel was situated in Aqua, a new age shopping complex. That was cool in a way, but it took us ages to find the entrance to the hotel.
- We had to wait 20 minutes at the check in, and then we couldn’t even get a room.
- Got the bus to the city, but we couldn’t buy the Bono Bus (a 10 trip pass), so we had to pay the full fare.
- Central market – was very good, so much fresh food and spices, but it closed for the lunch break, so we had to be quick. Managed to pick up some pastries before we were kicked out.
- La Lonja – was closed. Impression? Squarish with some animals on the door.
- Church of Sasntos Juares – pink building, also closed.
- Plaza Redonda – was being renovated. If it was not being done up, it certainly would’ve been impressive, a square with a fountain in the middle.
- We weren’t having any luck. Santa Catalina was also closed.
- Had our lunch at the park opposite the cathedral, with beautiful flowers and yummy ham.
- The Cathedral was the only touristy thing that you have to pay for (and probably why it’s opened!), but it had the “holy grail”, so we had to see it. Included with the entrance fee was an audio guide, which used some very complex English words, so naturally I didn’t really understand what they were talking about.
- Climbed the gates of Torres de Serranos for very good views – and for the clear glass floor where Slokky screamed every time he had to walk over one.
- Watched people playing football from the bridge on the way to the Museum de Belle Artes.
- The museum had no English at all, so we couldn’t really appreciate what they had.
- Observed some more architecture at Plaza de la Virgin, Roman ruins and the palace.
- Couldn’t find Palacio Cervello, so went to Plaza de Patriarca (a uni), where they have a modern art display, very cool.
- Musee de Ceramicca is housed in this beautiful historic restored Palaccio de mardhesde Dos Aguas.
- Slokky made us run to the bull ring even though it was 7:55 and it closed at 8, needless to say, we didn’t make it.
- Watched people have beers, coffee and chocolate & churros before dinner.
- Walked everywhere to try to get a Bono Bus but we couldn’t find any at all.
- We wanted to eat at restaurant Aquilia, but we couldn’t find it (probably closed), so ended up walking back to the hotel, finding a semi-full restaurant and eating there. Luckily the food was good.
- Back to the shopping centre, (now 10pm), and found it was in full swing with people eating dinner. We got some churros and chocolate before retiring to our room.
Food
- Espresso breakfast:
- croissant
- baguette with bacon and sausage
- cappuccino
- Spanish ham
- mini empanada with tomato and pesto
- milky bread
- jam filled pastries
- palmiers
- Ciencias multi-vitamin juice
- Exemari dinner(basque Cuisine):
- chorizo in cider
- Northern cockles stew
- salt cod Basque style
- orange juice
- churros and chocolate
- beer
