To many people St. Vitus Cathedral is Prague Castle. While the Prague Castle complex houses many buildings, St. Vitus is the one that dominates the skyline wherever you are in city. This Gothic masterpiece was commissioned by Charles IV and it took almost 6 centuries to complete. As well as being the largest and most important temple […]
Prague Castle, founded in 870 AD, is the largest medieval castle in Europe. It was the seat of the Kings of Bohemia for centuries, and today the President of the Czech Republic rules from here. It is also the premier tourist attraction in Prague. Prague Castle (Pražský Hrad) is located in the Castle District (Hradčany), […]
Charles Bridge (Karlův most) is a 14th century stone bridge linking the two sides of Prague. This magnificent structure is one of the city’s finest attractions, and is the main pedestrian route connecting the Old Town with the Lesser Town (Malá Strana) and Prague Castle. This is also a great place to watch unsuspecting tourists go for a swim when […]
There is no better place than Prague to have fried cheese. We had it for lunch, all 300g of it. That was a single portion. Fried potatoes, salmon tartar, espressos and a bit of bread completed this wonderful lunch.
For when money is no object. The beautiful St. Nicholas Church at the Old Town Square was completed in 1735, and replaced a parish church mentioned in records dating back to 1273. St. Nicholas is a Baroque church, the interior of which was inspired by the chapel of St. Louis-des-invalides in Paris.
Our tour of Prague today is starting with another look at the Old Town Square and its many architectural wonders – ranging from Gothic to Baroque there is something for everyone here. From the 600 year old astronomical clock to massive statues, plenty of churches and museums and a lot of tourists just like us.. […]
We got out for a walk around Prague this morning to see the sights. This turned out to be a nice 10 hour walk with a lot of breaks, some street food, lots of fried cheese and coffee and pastries. It seems that everywhere you go there is something better and nicer and more beautiful […]
Traveling means three things really – looking at great buildings and overeating and taking pictures of good food we eat. We got a suggestion to go to the Beer House for a good traditional Czech dinner and that is what we did. The beer is brewed in houses in a dizzying array of crazy […]
We are wasting no time sitting around in the hotel. About 15 min walk from the hotel is the Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, Old Town Square, the Jewish Quarter, and Petřín hill. At almost 1100 years old this city is full of treasures which we are eager to find, explore and experience. It promises to be a great weekend. […]
After a short 2.5 hour drive, and a couple of traffic jams we arrived in the centre of Prague at out hotel. We have a little apartment in a small boutique hotel, which will serve as our home base for this weekend. We are looking forward to going and exploring this lovely city.
We are heading out for the weekend as part of Europe exploration tour.
Our cousins that came and went are back from their holidays to Poland and Austria and are here with us on a quick 4 day stopover before they go back to Canada. The weather is not cooperating much, it’s raining a fair bit but we are making the most of it. After all there are […]
The drive is very slow. It seems everyone in Italy is sticking to using two lanes at the same time. Austria is all under construction so most of the drive through Austria was at 100 km/h – shame. We stopped for a quick dinner in Austria in Tyrol then set off on our way. Finally, […]
It is hard to show in pictures what makes Tuscany so beautiful – you simply have to see it and experience it and take it all in day by day. We certainly can’t wait to get back here for our next trip. We were in a bit of a shock when we got back to […]
We are leaving Italy today to go home. What better way to start your morning than with a good breakfast. While we were having our omelettes the children opted for hot chocolate and some pastries. We never imagined that hot chocolate is actually hot melted chocolate whipped with hot milk. It’s more of a meal […]
It is true – we are those people that photograph our food before we dig into it. But not all of the time. We only do this when it is absolutely exceptional. We found this little place, on the side street in San Gimignano. It turns out, La Mangiatoia, was featured in Bon Appetite magazine as […]
Another favourite of ours from last year was Siena. Siena is famous for a lot of things. The two main ones that impressed us the most are the Piazza del Campo, and the Siena Cathedral. One famous for its annual horse race, and the other for it beautiful black and white marble architecture. There is also a great […]
Getting off the beaten path can be so rewarding. We found this place on one of the side streets in San Gimignano. La Biscondola, has great service and even better food. Off the menu, we tried the goose liver pate and the bruschetta as appetizers, wild boar ragout with white Tuscan beans in wine, truffle mushroom […]
We are back to Italy to our favourite city we visited last year. San Gimignano know as the Town of Fine Towers had, at one point 72 towers in the city built by the rivalling families. San Gimignano has a number of fine restaurants and a gelato place which won the best gelato in the […]
Its morning and we had a good long rest. We are now venturing out to see what this place looks like in the daylight. 2 minutes later we fall in love. We sit down by the pool and start planning our next trip here. This place is perfect, it’s in the middle of nowhere, it’s […]
As planned we arrived just outside San Gimignano around 8:00 pm about 10 min drive from our hotel. We put in the GPS coordinates in and drove off into the darkness looking for our place for the night. Soon the road turned to gravel, and then the gravel turned into big sharp rocks. 14 km […]
We are off to Tuscany. We were hoping to make a quick stop in Monaco but because of the late start and a long drive we are heading straight for our hotel just outside Sam Gimignano – our favourite and the most beautiful city we saw in Italy last year.
Just as we thought that the Roman aqueduct was the be all end all sight we were going to see on this trip, we were soon proved wrong. Quarries of Light is an extraordinary site. It was once a bauxite quarry in the bowels of the awe-inspiring landscapes of the “Valley of Hell” that inspired Dante, […]
We got home really late but still had a bit of time to snap some night pictures of our pad for the night.
Perhaps one of the most awe inspiring and jaw dropping structures we have seen to date is this ancient Roman aqueduct bridge in Vers-Pont-du-Gard near Remoulins. Built in the 1st century AD, the Pont du Gard is the highest of all Roman aqueduct bridges and is the best preserved. Standing almost 49m high and spanning […]
Perhaps equally as stunning but much more less opulent are the city defence walls with its 7 gates and 36 defence towers as well as the Pont Saint-Bénezet bridge of which only 4 sections remain. Numerous palaces, churches, a theatre, the city hall, many old stone houses, and narrow streets that connect them all is what […]
Today we are exploring Avignon – the city of Popes. While not as large as Lyon, Avignon has a different more medieval charm. Actually it looks more like an Italian city than French but this could be due to a huge Roman influence on its development. First on the agenda was the stunning Papal Palace […]
In the next village, Villeneuve-lez-Avignon, about 6km away is a little bistro which is set up in the old olive oil press shop. This place was suggested to us by the couple who run the chateau. They did say that this is not a gastronomic restaurant but a bistro not knowing what this really means […]
Perched on the top of the hill in the small village of Sauveterre is a quaint little Chateau that is going to be our home for the next couple of days as we explore Avignon and the surrounding countryside. The Chateau was originally built in 1610 and then occupied by the first mayor of Avignon […]
The island in the middle of Lyon is interesting. The tip of the island where the two rivers confluence is a place of modern architecture that is simply as breathtaking as any of the old 1000 year old cathedral we have seen.
No French town would be complete without the Sunday flea market. Since stores are closed on Sundays, people flock to these things to find their treasures. This flea market happens to be the second biggest flea market in France. While 80% of what we saw was junk, and 20% were little treasures, we managed to […]
We are on the way to Avignon today. We did a quick stop at the Docks in Lyon and now are heading south. Incidentally we are taking the same roads as we did on our trip last year.
Another great find in Lyon is the ancient Roman amphitheare – or rather its ruins. In its glory days this place used to seat about 11,000 spectators now the shows hosted here sit about 4500 people. Despite its age, the world wars and time which has taken its toll on the buildings, this place still […]
It seems every large French city has its own rendition of Norte-Dame. The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière is perched on the Fourvière Hill in Lyon, it seems that no matter where you are in Lyon you can see it towering over the city. Being on time budget we took the funiculars to the top […]
We are exploring Lyon, the second largest city in France after Paris. The city is equally as busy and beautiful and charming as Paris. From Roman times to modern times there is bit of of something for everyone here. We managed to see both rivers, and a few churches, the opera house, the Roman ruins, […]
We have arrived in Lyon just a bit past four. The drive was not very enjoyable, that is to say it was not as fast as I thought it ought to be, but we are here. We checked in and decided to take the rest of the day off and relax before we set out […]
We are off for a little holiday today. We are off to France for now then we will see
We are back to Bamberg for a closer look. This time we are taking our time to explore this city properly. We were here in the early spring but did not have a lot of time to really enjoy this great little city. Today we changed all that.
There are now 11 people in this house! It seems like that is a lot but we still have sleeping and sitting room available.
We finished the tour of Munich in the old town. After some sight seeing and a nice dinner we left for Nuremberg at 9:30 on the train.
This is the best way to see the Olympic Park and the city with the least amount of walking.
Next to the Olympic Park is the BWM world and the BMW Museum. The nicest car here was the M6 Grand Coupe.
Olympic Park sights.
We are off to Munich for a day trip on the train. The Bavaria pass which is €26 allows our family to travel anywhere in Bavaria on the public transportation for a whole day. Deal of a century.
We are back at the happiest place in Germany – at least according to Boris and Evelina.
This then is the middle of nowhere we were looking for yesterday. A desolate country road cutting across the villages and vineyards of Burgundy. Peppered with family run Chateaus on each side of the road – each making their own great wines. We stopped at a quiet restaurant at the edge of the vineyard where […]
Chateau de Meursault was our next winery of choice. This one offered a self guided tour of the property which is now a small museum. The roots of the family that owns this Chateau are traced back to the 12th century. The main Chateau is still being used as the primary residence, but the cellars, […]
On the way to Chateau de Meursault, the next winery on the list, we stopped at a typical French village to visit another bakery, for more break and pastries and to take a bit of a break after the wine tasting. Quaint, quiet and beautiful. Serenity now.
The best part of the tour was of course the wine cellars or the caves. The sheer volume of wine stored in the nice cool cellars underground is simply staggering. After the tour we had our first taste of some fine wines, including 1st Cru, and Chateau de Pommard. Naturally we acquired some of them […]
First on the list, purely by chance, was Chateau de Pommard. It was close to where we were staying and seemed rather interesting. The Chateau had a wine museum and a great restaurant, an exposition of modern art was well as great collection of originals by Picasso, Matisse, and two sculptures by Salvador Dali. We […]
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