Rome in 48 hours

Decided to do Rome in 48 hours even-though just 2 days in Rome wouldn't be doing it justice. Landed in Fuimicino airport early morning, which is quite far off from Rome centre. I took the fast Leonardo Express train into the main city station (Roma Termini). My Hotel was well situated just couple blocks off the Termini station, and a short walk to all of Rome’s central sights. I  didn’t use any public transport  in the city, pretty much did walk extensively in order to see everything I wanted in a short period of time. 

Crossing the road in Rome is not something for faint hearteds..loads of tiny scooters paying scant attention to the road signals, treating them as suggestions, taxis  who honk at every opportunity... You just have to "Go for it!" and the vehicles will stop.

On the first day I explored the Colosseum and Roman forums , Pantheon,  Spanish Steps and Piazza Navona areas. First, a visit to the Colosseum, perhaps the one must see attraction. The Colosseum ticket includes Palatine Hill and the Roman Forums, which are more ruins. 

After spending the entire morning here, it was lunch time, so time to try some Roman food. Not sure where to go and to avoid the typical tourist trap restaurants that are around the Colosseum, I decided to head back to the main train station, Termini. Termini, being a major transport hub, has many cafes and restaurants that are open 24/7.  We went into one of the pizza restaurants. As my hotel was near Termini, I  ended up coming here for dinner also. Termini at night is dodgy...Lots of shady characters, policemen walking around, homeless people, beggars, all the weird and wonderful things one might expect from a big city train station. Not the best location to wander around aimlessly.

Afternoon, it was to the world famous Trevi fountain. An extremely huge and striking fountain, it is perhaps the world's biggest wishing well. Loads of people and everyone seemed to be more interested in throwing coins into the fountain! Walked around the area surrounding the Trevi Fountain and towards the Spanish Steps, lots of shopping and eating around this area. 

The pantheon was up after that- basically a church with a huge hole in the middle. It was fascinating to take a step off the main streets and explore the side squares and alleys around this area

Next day I visited the Vatican City. The Blog post is here

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La Boqueria market - Barcelona

La Boqueria market is right on La Ramblas. Any tale of roaming around Barcelona must include a stop for snacks at the La Rambla de Sant Josep Boqueria . This is quite a bit more than just a street market . It is a great experience for a foodie or not

I enjoy visiting such markets when I travel abroad, that way I could feel and see what the local do and eat. We went to  La Boqueria 3-4 times and it always seem to be colorful, lively, crowded. It’s a maze of stalls selling  everything you can imagine, from meat, seafood, produce, fruits and everything in between.There are several restaurants, cafes, tapas bars inside the market as well.

Entrance to the Boqeria market

The displays of fresh fruit are bright and inviting with personalized forks, clearly just waiting to be eaten by hungry tourists.. Make sure you buy a fruit smoothie and a tub of fruit salad, but don't buy from the first rows as they're 50 cents cheaper if you walk 10 metres inside .

Fruit stall with all kinds of fruit juices

Lots of cured meat stalls  like these

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A week in Barcelona

It has always been my dream to visit Spain. Recently we took advantage of our 250K British Airways miles by hopping over to Barcelona for a week long vacation.  Barcelona is an amazing city. I’ve been to many European cities but I can say that Barcelona is definitely one of my favorite city.  Its a great place to visit if you are interested in art, architecture, design  and food. One of my quirks of travel is I feel compelled to explore and seek out the local food scene anywhere I travel. See my separate blog on Barcelona food scene here.

Among the main impressions from Barcelona other than the unorthodox Gaudi architecture and the famous Barcelona sights, I’d like to mention such things as plenty of motorbikes, trees all around the city, and a lot of Catalonia flags on the balconies.I was not aware of the extent of the Catalan pride in this area of Spain until I landed here.

We stayed in an apartment in the Eixample district. The Sagrada Familia is located in this area and admittedly, we spent a lot of time in this neighborhood.  The eixample district is predominantly  a residential neighborhood. It gave us glimpse into the everyday people of the city on a weekday morning & evenings .Sagrada Familia, the Roman Catholic Basilica designed by Antonio Gaudi  is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was good to see in a sense but not really my idea of anything amazing to look at ! It is such an ugly eyesore that should just be torn down. That said, throughout our stay we mostly ate at the restaurants around Sagrada Familia , so we got too see it at various times of the day. Still, something about it is so wrong.

Adjacent to the eixample neighborhood is Parc Guell. It is someplace you must go if you are visiting Barcelona. All that Gaudi stuff in the park makes the place so surreal.  It is crowded but the park has fantastic panoramic views of Barcelona.

The next couple of days, we mostly spent walking around the La Ramblas area.  We really liked this area, other than the fact that it’s very touristy. The famous La Boqueria market is here (See my separate review here ). La Rambla is a popular tree-lined street that starts at Plaça de Catalunya and leads to the old harbor.  It is packed, full of people, predominantly tourists and street vendors trying to sell all kinds of stuff. It’s not the most pleasant place for walking. But there were many adjoining streets connecting to the Gothic quarter or the Old city, and it was really fun to walk randomly into one; The Gothic Quarter is a maze of small streets and alleyways in which one could easily get lost. This is a very concentrated area of gothic architecture with interesting little nooks and streets to explore and you never know where you’re going till you get there.

Within walking distance from the Gothic quarter is Paseo de Gracia. the grand shoping avenue of Barcelona. We walked straight along Paseo de Gracia number 43 where you’ll find Casa Batll, a unique looking building by Gaudi . We did not go inside the building. As you continue by foot walking up Paseo the Gracia , you will get the second famous building of Gaudi,  Casa Mila. These two sites are one of the highlights in Barcelona, so you got to see even if you think they are ugly.


The next day , we visited the Barceloneta or little Barcelona.  We walked here from Las Ramblas, nice stroll, quite clean and but was very busy. Many bars and restaurants are along here. It is well worth a visit if you have the time.

On our way back we saw the The Arc de Triomf. It was simple and underrated and we had a chance to see it but it is not worth a special visit.

Our last day in Barcelona and we decided to spend the entire day strolling around  Mount Monjuic.  Montjuïc is a hilly area and where the Barcelona Olympic park venues were built on. At the entrance, sitting atop a hill is the Catalunya Palace.With the fountains and stairs rising up to the palace this is a very scenic area and the view of the city from the palace is incredible. Plaça d’Espanya is  one of the important square and junction in Barcelona. The towers are more or less like Venetian Tower. 

We continued on checking out various Olympic venues including the main stadium, then headed back to our apartment to pack and getting ready for our 7am flight to London.Till next time Barcelona.

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Barcelona food crawl

Barcelona is a food city and most especially good for eating yourself into a coma. Barcelona has been an experience....the sangria, beer and tapas.We spent most of our time wandering from various tapas bars  sampling more tapas than were probably healthy. Go hungry and open-minded as spontaneity can lead to both hits and misses, as long as you are willing to take the risk. Here are some of my experiences with the Barcelona food scene.  

Xocolata, as called in catalan is  easily the best hot chocolate that I have ever tried in my life.But you can't drink it like a typical hot chocolate, as it is very thick, rich and dark, but not that sweet and is always served with churros for dunking.

Churros con Xocolata

Churros filled with caramel, cream and what not!

There are many types of tapas bar, in most you just order from the counter or the waiter.  Few tapas bar and 'montaditos' kind of bars, the food will be set on the counter with toothpicks, you take a dish yourself and fill it with whatever tapas and 'montaditos' you like, but don't remove the toothpicks from your plate – this is how the bartender will tally up your bill. You  pay a certain amount for every toothpick on your plate.

Tapas at one of the tapas bar

Montaditos or little sandwiches

Throughout the trip, I’ve tried Paella from different restaurants in Barcelona. But sadly, I could not find the best one as they all tasted exactly the same. I suspect they were the pre-packaged frozen paellas or maybe we had unreasonably high expectations.  To drink, we practically had Sangria, Cava and Estrella beer everyday. 

Estrella , the local favorite brand which is served everywhere

 We also ate very well at our apartment. There was a grocery store and bakery nearby .

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Hofbrauhaus @ Munich

Hofbrauhaus is a Must See/Do in Munich!Sure its a tourist trap, but its one of those touristy places that is worth getting caught up in. Munich's oldest beer hall is one of the best experiences in Munich, tradition and history along with great beer, oompah band and decent bavarian food.

 

 The beer hall is is enormous and can seem intimidating at first. The atmosphere is loud, joyous, chaotic, but not always friendly. The been hall is very open with the standard large tables and bench seating. The place does get very busy so find a bench and just sit on it! . There are 3 floors so you can normally find somewhere to sit. You just need to find a spot and claim it! No tables to yourself. Long communal tables basically force you to sit with people you don’t know. But, everyone's fine with that, since people come here to drink and socialize to their heart's content. . Finding a seat is hard work but you can always squeeze in somewhere

It took about 15 minutes to find a spot and another 5-6 for a server to come by. Don’t go here expecting Haute cuisine and attentive service. It is unlikely to be awarded Michelin Stars anytime soon. 

Apparently the locals have their own beer bugs which they lock at the Beer Mug Lockers which was a bit difficult for me to understand, but I don't know the whole story either.

Beer Lockers

We tried the pretzels,  the Hofbräu München Dunkel (dark lager) and  radler (half beer half lemonade). All were amazing

Radler & Dunkel

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