Madrid, Valencia, Berlin, Budapest, Prague, Amsterdam, and a few cities in between

[00Syd]

I'm going to be traveling to all of these cities, and maybe a few more in between, during May. Since a few traveling threads have popped up recently, I thought this would be a good time to throw mine in.

Anyone know any cool places to go, good things to see, good places to eat, good music to hear, etc, etc. in Madrid, Valencia, Berlin, Budapest, Prague, and Amsterdam?

Thanks so much in advance!!

 

[sinnocence]

All I get to do is go to Disneyworld. I am SO jealous of you right now. Hope you have a great time though.

 

[00Syd]

All I get to do is go to Disneyworld. I am SO jealous of you right now. Hope you have a great time though.

Oh, f'real, Disneyworld is one of my favorite places in the world. Of course I wouldn't trade my trip to go to Disneyworld... but I wouldn't be able to help but consider it. DISNEY IS SO MUCH FUN.

But, ahem, yes, thank you!

 

[sinnocence]

Oh, f'real, Disneyworld is one of my favorite places in the world. Of course I wouldn't trade my trip to go to Disneyworld... but I wouldn't be able to help but consider it. DISNEY IS SO MUCH FUN.

But, ahem, yes, thank you!

LOL. You're welcome.

I know. I've been to Disney SO many times and I'm still getting VERY excited to go again. It's an awesome place. But psshh, I'd still take your trip any day. Wanna trade?

 

[00Syd]

LOL. You're welcome.

I know. I've been to Disney SO many times and I'm still getting VERY excited to go again. It's an awesome place. But psshh, I'd still take your trip any day. Wanna trade?

*considering... considering...*

Mmmmmm.... nope.

 

[JMohegan]

: envy :

 

[00Syd]

The way we managed this trip is kinda funny. I was accepted into my school's month long summer film program in Prague, which I mostly wanted to go to just to go to Prague, not for the film classes. I looked to see how much it was, and it was over $11,000. I think I actually laughed when I saw how much it was. I called my mother and was like, can we afford this? And she said she would do taxes and then get back to me, and a few days later she called and said "yeeeaaaahhh we can just afford it, but you better hope we get a good financial aid package this year." so I said "you know, we could probably go to Prague on our own for less than half of that" and she was like "that's true." and then the next day she called me and said "you know, I've been thinking, we could probably travel all over Europe for about half of that." and I said "we could."

And so, now, we are! Most of the places we're going are places where we know people and so have a place to stay, which really helped bring the costs down. Right now we're still working out the exact travel plans and what exactly we want to do everywhere we go, which is why I'd love it if anyone who knows any of these places would give a few suggestions.

I'm so excited! I just hope hope hope hope hope my passport gets here in time. *fingers crossed*

 

[Netzach]

No offense to Valencia, but there's not a lot there. Keep it kind of short. Go to the beach for a day. Definitely eat fruit for breakfast every day. If you are in "staying with people and just kinda soaking up Spain" mode it's a good place to just walk around and see what happens.

 

[00Syd]

No offense to Valencia, but there's not a lot there. Keep it kind of short. Go to the beach for a day.

We've been to Valencia before (in 2003) and absolutely loved it. It was so beautiful, and there was so much good food, and we know a crap ton of crazy Spanish rock and roll freaks there who throw really good parties But, yeah, we're not spending a ton of time there. Most of our time in Spain will be spent in Madrid, which we've never been to.

 

[Netzach]

We've been to Valencia before (in 2003) and absolutely loved it. It was so beautiful, and there was so much good food, and we know a crap ton of crazy Spanish rock and roll freaks there who throw really good parties But, yeah, we're not spending a ton of time there. Most of our time in Spain will be spent in Madrid, which we've never been to.

I loved it, actually. We were staying with friends of friends, a cool old lady, and the pace of the visit was kind of old lady ish, but that was really fantastic by me. My co-travelers were bored by lack of major tourist highlight reel stuff. I loved it.

 

[tenedave]

If you really want to bring the cost of your trip down get a euro rail pass.great way to travel and keep cost down by booking over night trains and also great way to meet other people.
Enjoy your trip.

Dave

 

[ShyGuy68]

If you decide to make a stopover in Denmark, do let me know

 

[CurlyKat]

In Prague I can help you out with a few places to go and restaurants. I know of a couple cool bars and clubs if you're looking for that there, too. There's one great restaurant on the main pedestrian shopping area near the train station. One of the things that area of Europe is known for is the Bohemian style schnitzel (breaded pan-fried pork typically served with cranberry sauce), so definitely try that. Most of the good restaurants will be in any of the pedestrian zones. Many are around the astronomical clock. If you plan on going to the monestary brewery near the castle, they have decent food, too. The church in the castle is more worth seeing than the actual castle itself, though, and they do a changing of the guard thing kind of like in London. Not as elaborate, but still cool.

They have walking tours of the city, like most European cities, but most will be about all the revolutions that happened. If you like communist history, there are a few museums devoted to how it affected (and how they're still dealing with the after-effects) that area.

If you decide to add in a few other cities in Germany (like Munich, Regensburg, Nuremberg, Heidelberg, or anywhere like that), let me know and I can give you a ton of recommendations. That offer's good for some Italian cities, too.

 

[00Syd]

If you really want to bring the cost of your trip down get a euro rail pass.great way to travel and keep cost down by booking over night trains and also great way to meet other people.
Enjoy your trip.

Dave

We're looking into that now

 

[00Syd]

If you decide to make a stopover in Denmark, do let me know

Will do!

 

[00Syd]

In Prague I can help you out with a few places to go and restaurants. I know of a couple cool bars and clubs if you're looking for that there, too. There's one great restaurant on the main pedestrian shopping area near the train station. One of the things that area of Europe is known for is the Bohemian style schnitzel (breaded pan-fried pork typically served with cranberry sauce), so definitely try that. Most of the good restaurants will be in any of the pedestrian zones. Many are around the astronomical clock. If you plan on going to the monestary brewery near the castle, they have decent food, too. The church in the castle is more worth seeing than the actual castle itself, though, and they do a changing of the guard thing kind of like in London. Not as elaborate, but still cool.

They have walking tours of the city, like most European cities, but most will be about all the revolutions that happened. If you like communist history, there are a few museums devoted to how it affected (and how they're still dealing with the after-effects) that area.

If you decide to add in a few other cities in Germany (like Munich, Regensburg, Nuremberg, Heidelberg, or anywhere like that), let me know and I can give you a ton of recommendations. That offer's good for some Italian cities, too.

I'll definitely try that schnitzel! Sounds delish. I will also be sure to look into the museums of communist history, which I find to be completely fascinating. We were thinking about stopping over in Munich but decided that we just wouldn't be able to fit it in, unfortunately.

Do you know any of the specific names of restaurants? Are there any super old hotels with neat old bars we could check out? We like old stuff.

 

[jockdom]

I'll definitely try that schnitzel! Sounds delish. I will also be sure to look into the museums of communist history, which I find to be completely fascinating. We were thinking about stopping over in Munich but decided that we just wouldn't be able to fit it in, unfortunately.

Do you know any of the specific names of restaurants? Are there any super old hotels with neat old bars we could check out? We like old stuff.

Having traveled to prague twice in the last 6 months, let me give you one bit of advice, be careful with taxis the drivers are not adverse to ripping off tourists.
P.S Schnitzel is indeed the bees knees!

 

[00Syd]

Having traveled to prague twice in the last 6 months, let me give you one bit of advice, be careful with taxis the drivers are not adverse to ripping off tourists.
P.S Schnitzel is indeed the bees knees!

Ah, good to know. We'll try to get places w/o taxis. Thanks for the tip!

 

[satindesire]

I want to go on our honeymoon to Madrid. Mister is fluent in Castillian Spanish, so he'll probably fit in really well (except for the white-looking girl on his arm)...

Take lots of pictures you lucky dog you!1!!

 

[Tabea]

As you are interested in communist history, you might want to visit Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. Do you plan to visit any other cities in Germany? Potsdam is close to Berlin and really worth a visit. There are many historic sights e.g. Sanssouci and plenty of other castles.
While you are in Germany I would recommend going to a bakery, buying lots of chocolate at a supermarket and drinking some German beer or wine (the legal age for this is 16).

In Amsterdam I liked Anne Frank’s house. If you go, it would be a good idea to buy your tickets online so you don’t have to wait in line for an hour. If you like art, you should definitely visit the Rijksmuseum. It`s brilliant.
If you stay in Amsterdam for a few days you could take the train to nearby Haarlem. There are many very old and very cute little houses.

 

[00Syd]

As you are interested in communist history, you might want to visit Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. Do you plan to visit any other cities in Germany? Potsdam is close to Berlin and really worth a visit. There are many historic sights e.g. Sanssouci and plenty of other castles.
While you are in Germany I would recommend going to a bakery, buying lots of chocolate at a supermarket and drinking some German beer or wine (the legal age for this is 16).

In Amsterdam I liked Anne Frank’s house. If you go, it would be a good idea to buy your tickets online so you don’t have to wait in line for an hour. If you like art, you should definitely visit the Rijksmuseum. It`s brilliant.
If you stay in Amsterdam for a few days you could take the train to nearby Haarlem. There are many very old and very cute little houses.

Wow! Thanks so much for all the wonderful tips. We were already planning to go to Haarlem, but we haven't thought about any of this other stuff. Thank you! I'll look into all of this stuff.

 

[CurlyKat]

I'll definitely try that schnitzel! Sounds delish. I will also be sure to look into the museums of communist history, which I find to be completely fascinating. We were thinking about stopping over in Munich but decided that we just wouldn't be able to fit it in, unfortunately.

Do you know any of the specific names of restaurants? Are there any super old hotels with neat old bars we could check out? We like old stuff.

There are LOTS of old places to stay around there... unfortunately I don't remember the names of some of the fun ones I've seen. I live about a two-hour drive from downtown Prague, so I've only spent the night there once and don't remember the name of that hotel, either. If you're looking online for hotels, you can try looking on bookings.com to search for specific areas of the city to stay in. If you choose either the pedestrian area or the old city (altstadt), chances are you can find some fantastic older hotels, most with a bar.

It sounds extremely common sense, but pick up a good map as soon as you get there. The streets don't really make a whole lot of sense until you're really used to them, making it more likely to get lost than find your original destination.

 

[00Syd]

There are LOTS of old places to stay around there... unfortunately I don't remember the names of some of the fun ones I've seen. I live about a two-hour drive from downtown Prague, so I've only spent the night there once and don't remember the name of that hotel, either. If you're looking online for hotels, you can try looking on bookings.com to search for specific areas of the city to stay in. If you choose either the pedestrian area or the old city (altstadt), chances are you can find some fantastic older hotels, most with a bar.

It sounds extremely common sense, but pick up a good map as soon as you get there. The streets don't really make a whole lot of sense until you're really used to them, making it more likely to get lost than find your original destination.

We aren't looking for a place to stay, we just like hanging out in old hotels and their cool old bars If you think of any, I'd love to check 'em out.

 

[CurlyKat]

We aren't looking for a place to stay, we just like hanging out in old hotels and their cool old bars If you think of any, I'd love to check 'em out.

For sure! This weekend I'll see if I can look them up online for you, since I can remember exactly where some of them are, just not the names for some reason!

 

[IrisAlthea]

This place is interesting to visit in Prague:
http://www.frommers.com/destinations/prague/N24186.html

We fell in love with this place:
http://www.myczechrepublic.com/prague/cafe-slavia.html

The Kampa island is beautiful:
http://www.virtualtourist.com/trave...ue-400455/Things_To_Do-Prague-Kampa-BR-1.html

The old Jewish Cemetery in Josefov, the Jewish Quarter in Prague is really interesting to visit and there is a museum too:
http://www.jewishmuseum.cz/aindex.htm

I really like Prague and I hope you have a great trip!