Short city break, where to go?

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Postby pault » Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:25 am

I came to this one late but - no-one's mentioned Madrid which I think although being a capital city is under-rated

I find if you speak very loudly and slowly and point a lot - the language thing is not an issue (joking!!!!)

otherwise I suggest going to Vatican City so you can practise your Latin :lol:
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Postby MKSwing » Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:35 am

pault wrote:I came to this one late but - no-one's mentioned Madrid which I think although being a capital city is under-rated


Going to Spain, I'd rather go to Barcelona first.
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Postby Raf » Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:35 am

Oy, speaking of Spain: Salamanca is really nice (I think they have an airport), and there's a few good restaurants and tapa bars (El Bamboo, near the Plaza Mayor comes to mind, as do its croquettas, insalata russa, huevos and patatas bravas... YUM). Coffee sucks, of course, but that's Spain for you.
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Postby pault » Fri Jan 28, 2005 12:00 pm


Going to Spain, I'd rather go to Barcelona first.


but that's not Spain - it's Catalonia!! (cue separatist argument, Paul running quickly off to the hills ...)
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Postby Beanie » Fri Jan 28, 2005 8:24 pm

simonp... a couple more links - for cheap air fares http://www.skyeurope.com/start.php?lang=en and www.smartwings.net/en

I went to Budapest with skyeurope - just keep checking the site for flight updates because rather than delays, our flight was moved UP 3hours!!

Would have tried smartwings but KLM happened to have a nice deal when I went to Vienna.
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Postby larsb » Tue Feb 01, 2005 1:12 pm

You should manage quite well in Rome with English, possibly augmented with some body language. There's a coffee shop near the Pantheon that is known for its good espresso.
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Postby simonp » Tue Feb 01, 2005 1:14 pm

gouezeri wrote:Ok, sorry to change the topic, but Simon, isn't it about time you modded your Bodum.... it's the only thing you haven't done in your sig! ;-)


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Postby MKSwing » Tue Feb 01, 2005 2:12 pm

larsb wrote:You should manage quite well in Rome with English, possibly augmented with some body language. There's a coffee shop near the Pantheon that is known for its good espresso.


I think there are a lot of places where you can drink great espresso in Italy. I could name several of them in Tolentino but nobody will never go there ;)

In Roma, you certainly wrote about Tazza d'oro. I didn't try it but most of the roman think it's the best place.

http://www.tazzadorocoffeeshop.com/

I tried Sant'Eustachio and found it very good.

http://www.santeustachioilcaffe.it/

Remember Sant'Eustachio is putting sugar in the espresso by default, so don't forget it before ordering one.
Last edited by MKSwing on Tue Feb 01, 2005 2:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Raf » Tue Feb 01, 2005 2:29 pm

Re Tazza d'Oro, the article on pods has a short interview with Massimiliano Fiocchetto, the CEO of Tazza D'Oro roasteries.
This week I am eagerly anticipating the first god shots from my La Spaziale machine....

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Postby josh_robb » Thu Feb 03, 2005 11:47 am

+1 for Tazza. I lived in Rome and it is certanly the top of the pile. Their espresso blend is to die for also.
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Postby Beanie » Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:53 pm

Hey SimonP... where did you end up going?
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Postby simonp » Mon Apr 11, 2005 9:39 am

We went to Paris in the end. It was a last minute thing as work wanted to cancel the time off I had booked :evil: . In the end we compromised, so we still had time to go.

espite the best efforts of the British train network we got on the Eurostar 4 minutes before departure :shock: (an hour later than we should have been there, bloody trains!).

The hotel was nice, about 100M from The sorbonne.

We did find the food and drink expensive (£2 for a can of Fanta in a cafe :!: ), but very nice, particularly the cakes 8) .

We found a fantastic cheese shop, and we stank out the Eurostar bringing some Brie and Camambert back :lol: .

We went to L'epi Dupin, recommended by Raf, very nice, my desert especially - mmmmm. Jess wasn't quite sure about her main dish, well the meat anyway as it was quite fatty lamb, but it tasted good to me. The wine was pricey (5 Euros for a small glass), but excellent.

The espresso we had (only tried it twice) was pretty grim though, the usual stale and over extracted fare :cry:

Lovely city though, we did the usual tourist stuff: Eifel tower, Notre Dame, Louvre, Musee D'orsay, Arc de Triomphe. I'm afraid to say it made London look rather nasty. The Merto and RER were impressive, so regular, we never waited more than 2 minutes. We got Carte Oranges which give unlimted travel for a week for around £12, fantastic!

We got by with our very limited French, but we found it easier in English, as when we tried French we got very fast replies in French which we couldn't keep up with! We need to learn more I think :)
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Postby Mathias » Tue Apr 19, 2005 7:30 pm

Living in Paris I often avoid order a coffee after a meal. Food is in general very good but the whole meal can be spoiled by the coffee afterwards. Amazing though to walk around and look into all the bars with their beautiful machines that nobody seems to care much for or know how to use. What a pity.
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