London (2)

Going to Greenwich by boat is fun! Thanks for this marvellous idea, Larissa.....

On our way there the weather was typically British, cool and rainy, but once we got there the sun came out and we could enjoy this nice little town, which actually still is a part of London, situated in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

Getting off the boat the first thing you will see is the CUTTY SARK. Impressive, impressive, I loved it! Built in 1869 she was one of the last and fastest tea clippers ever built, transferred to permanent dry dock only in 1954! "All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by...." (John Masefield)

Greenwich Park is a lovely green area which hosts the Royal Greenwich Observatory, and on the side you have a really nice view from up the hill.

Hasi on prime meridian - between the worlds. As the UK grew into an advanced maritime nation, British mariners kept at least one chronometer on GMT to calculate their longitude from the Greenwich meridian, which was by convention considered to have a longitude of zero degrees. I was especially surprised to learn that between 1600 and 1700 hundreds almost each English family had a member in the Royal Navy.

The entrance fee is quite dear, but we were amazed to learn that it includes earphones and a guided tour. If you have the chance and time I would highly recommend it. You learn a lot about clocks, times, time zones, meridianes....

In the evening it was time to meet Mr. Benedict Cumberbatch in "Hamlet" at the Barbican. I was lucky enough to exit the theatre almost right at the moment when Mr. C exited too to meet his fans, and I have a couple of great pics, but I don´t dare to put them on my blog because I don´t want to get mail from Mr. Cumberbatch´s lawyers. But fact is, we had a great evening! (Even though I still do not understand what is the big fuss about Hamlet acutally....)

The British Museum is something I also can recommend when you have the chance to travel to London.

The building is fascinating. And the collections are great too. We spent most of the time in the Egyptian/Mesopotamian collection, and we could have stayed even longer.

This human-headed winged lion is the twin of somebody I knew from the NY Metropolitan museum where I used to disappear on weekends.  I thought, "Don´t I know you?" And Iamassu nodded and thought, "You met my twin brother across the ocean"...

We really loved the place. I am not much into architecture, but it was fab!

And then I got a celtic cross from the Original´s collection. I always wanted one, but never wanted to order it on the internet but get it when visiting a special place. I have been wearing it since.

And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, please meet my favorite sweet I have been addicted to since my last time in London: Red Velvet Cake. You can also get it as cupcakes, and I have tried to bake them at home, and they are like heaven....

London was brilliant as always. I just feel extremely sorry that I did not have a proper curry at Curry Lane and no Bangers&Mash and no Bubbles&Squeak. Need to go there soon again.

Oh, and before I forget: This is our hotel in Kensington. I love Kensington! It is a quiet area usually with good connection to the tube. Try to find a hotel there if you are around! And now have fun. And happy Halloween!

London (1)

Always when the plane touches down at London Heathrow I feel this wave of relief and "Gods, I am home!" washing over me. Suddenly everything is the way it should be, the accent, the attitude, the understatement - even the sun and the colours are not as bright and sometimes annoying as you can find them in Central Europe.... To put it all short: I love England, and I certainly LOVE London.

It is so good to be back!

I don´t know if you have been, but I know I won´t ever be - namely up there. But the Shard definately is programmed for Hasi and David next time. I prefer to stay on the ground having a good chat and a drink, since I am not sick of living.. Not a cat´s chance in hell you can get me up there!

After a trip down Memory Lane like seeing the Tower Bridge and the Tower it definately was time for a visit at the local pub.

Our Sunday visit at Buckingham was a bit boring. Seen it too many times, and HRH was not there anyway. Should we have told the hundreds of tourists waiting? There was this tiny little sign in front of the palace that there would not be any change of guards on Sunday...

I have a new favorite quarter which is Shoreditch! It is the former East End, now a place full of little shops and little markets, singers in the streets and plenty of good food. Next time I will be definately saving some appetite to try the Brick Lane Bakery there. And of course there is Curry Lane... I so would love a nice Curry now....

Hasi and David went up the eye (after a brisk and long march through the city from Shoreditch to the Thames). Larissa and I had a good chat at the river banks, while the guys probably had a good time up there too. I am sure it was a great ride, but I am also happy I did not have to do it myself and simply can enjoy the pics.

Yeah, we are all back together, and we all survived! And now off to some good food...

Great evening at Wagamama´s! We all love Asian food, and the food there is lovely and tasty. Oh, and because mine came 5 mins late I got mine for free, how cool is that.

Afterwards we walked for a while to get back to Towerhill Station. The air was mild, and there was just the best sing-a-song-writer playing his guitar beneath the Eye. What a perfect evening it was!

Krakow

Krakow is holding the 2nd oldest university of Central Europe und is Poland´s "secret capital". When you arrive you instantly get the feeling that this little town might not be "typically polish" - it is hip and trendy, all is newly renovated and decorated and you see a lot of young people here who definately have a little bit of money in their pockets.

We came here to visit an old friend from University who had been teaching in Krakow for a semester, otherwise I probably would have never gone to Poland, but it was a surprisingly nice experience. (Even though I am still not sure if I have seen the "real" Poland. Maybe I will look into this some more some other time, who knows.)

In medival times Krakow was the capital of Poland and in war it almost had not been destroyed, therefore the historical centre remains almost untouched. You meet at the Rynek Glowny (the main square), where you also find the Koscial Mariacki (St. Mary´s church) and other places of interest, it is a busy, lively area where you can spend a lot of time if you want. (Guys: I do not have a clue about the Polish language and I try my best, but please just ignore my missing accents here and there, I do not know where to put them and I am too lazy to look it up.)

We did a free walking tour, the "food tour", and it was a great experience. Our guide dragged us around in the little streets of Krakow and introduced typically Polish dishes to us. At the end you paid what you felt was right, and I really can recommend this kind of tour. We tasted wonderful food - sausages, pierogi, cakes, soup.... delishious and fun-filled!

Afterwards we needed a break and rested at the "barka" at the river "Wisla" or "Weichsel" in German. We were trying to pull our strength together for a visit to the famous "Schindler´s factory" which is close by in Kazimierz, the jewish quarter right on the other side of the Wisla. Actually "Schindler´s list" has been filmed here, and it is a place full of history. Unfortunately the photos of Kazimierz did not turn out really well, so I have nothing to post here.

There are many things to see and do in Krakow, for example they have a remarkable number of historical and new war monuments. They seem to be scattered everywhere over the city and you find them when you least expect it.

Then of course there is the famous Wawel, the castle and cathedral overlooking the city, the former residency of the Polish kings, where many of the kings and queens have been laid to rest.

And of course we had to visit the university area, which is friendly and newly decorated. It must be great fun to study here! 

It definately were a couple of interesting days, special thanks to our tour guide who scheduled the perfect tour for us as if we were VIPs and who (being a historian) had many interesting things to tell!

What also was remarkable that coming from a "Western" country staying in Krakow is wonderfully low-budget even though you eat lovely food and see lovely things. The food you get everywhere is definately high quality and the entrance fees to museums and sights are absolutely affordable. I especially recommend the famous pierogi - we were taken to a tiny little place where they offered more than 50 kinds of pierogi - Heaven for a carb lover!

And of course don´t forget the Zapiekanki, basically the Polish version of a baguette, mostly with a layer of tomatoes and mushrooms and then all other sorts of toppings. They are nice to-go food and will definately fill you up for a while!

Krakow is great fun. If you are in doubt - go anyway, it is worth a trip. Even Benedict Cumberbatch was here, and he cannot be wrong, right? ;-)

Dinner at the Danieli

Since it was Hasi´s "round" anniversary surprise dinner should be something really special. After a lot of hesitating back home, chosing between the Gritti and the Danieli, I had finally booked a table at the Danieli - and I am glad I did! They claim to have the best view over the Canale Grande, and I am sure they do. The Gritti is up the Canale, with lots of traffic right in front, and it does not have the wide view you have from the Danieli. For us this was the perfect choice.

Talking about the food there: It was very good, like it should be in a place like this, but I have eaten in other good places before, and the food was comparable but not overwhelming. But just let me say I have never been pampered by a more caring and attentive staff.

The Danieli, like all the other grand hotels in Venice, is actually quite small, so especially if you are from the US do not expect one of the huge newly built 5*-hotels you find in the US or Asia. But the special flair here will definately catch you in an instant.

Hasi loved his surprise dinner and claimed this evening to be "the best evening of his life". Of course I was very happy to hear this! We stayed there until night came with a phantastic blood moon, enjoying all the different shades of light as the sun went down. The view definately is breathtaking! I am not sure if we ever go there again - this evening was so special and such a night to remember, it definately cannot get any better. Happy birthday, Hasi!

Venice - Murano and Burano

Our appartment definately was a lucky strike! It was situated in S.Croce, comfortably away from the masses of people in San Marco, and we lived the easy life of the few Venetians who still can afford to live in Venice. Population is dropping constantly, most locals live e.g. in Mestre and commute into the city every day to work here.

The very best thing about our wonderfully quiet appartment was the little balcony where we enjoyed a lovely view over the rooftops of the city, and where we had breakfast each morning before diving into the huzzle and buzzle just a few steps away. I am convinced you cannot stay anywhere better in Venice, even the famous hotels with their balconies onto the Canale Grande are right in the middle of the - let´s say it frankly - usually very loud Italian life. The vaporetto stop was like two minutes away, and it took us just a short while to ride to San Marco.

One day was reserved for "the islands". Since it was extremely tricky to figure out the vaporetto schedule (and even to FIND the proper line taking you to the islands) we only managed to go to Murano and Burano on this one day. We were so absolutely done in the evening when we hoped to catch a boat to Torcello the captain obviously had decided that he did not want to go there, so all we heard was "oggi non Torcello", so we decided what the heck, called it a day and went back to San Marco.

Murano actually was a bit of a disappointment. It is mostly about shops selling glass, and the glassware you find in the windows are not even pieces of art but made for mass tourism and rather trashy. No doubt you can find masterpieces inside the factories in case you want to order something really special for your villa, but strolling around Murano was not the big thing. I had been here years ago on the Saturday of the Carnevale and remembered a quiet, picturesque island (of course, everyone was in San Marco to party and the shops were closed) and I had been afraid that Murano might be completely different with the shops open. But Hasi really had wanted to go there, so we did. We did not like it, so we decamped very soon  - only to find ourselves in the confusion of the local vaporetto system again. Since we were not able to find the proper direct line to Burano we went back to San Marco and took a boat from there.

As you can see, Burano is a totally different ride. Whilst Murano is just a few minutes from Venice it takes you almost 45 minutes to get out to Burano. But it was so worth it! Burano is absolutely lovely...

 

It is famous for its colorful houses and for its lace and embroidery. And even though you find many shops there the atmosphere is peaceful and easy-going. We instantly fell in love with the place.

Leaving was hard, but we had planned to round the day off with Torcello - where we did not make it, due to the unsolved vaporetto secret.

So back home in S. Croce we dragged ourselves to our favorite pizzeria "Rosa" - one of the places where the locals go, and where you can sit and watch life passing by for hours....

Oh happy day...