Durham, North East England

Durham is a small university town in north-east England near Newcastle. It is home of the University of Durham, one of the ancient universities in England. On any train along the north east railway line running from London to Edinburgh, the train pulls into the small Durham station to the view of the splendid Durham cathedral and castle. Both castle and cathedral are on the Unesco World Heritage list. Durham has a beautiful medieval charm with a famous cathedral, castle and a cozy city center.

Durham Castle & Durham Cathedral 

The Durham Castle sits atop the hill adjacent to the Cathedral. It is both an ancient castle and student accommodation.The Castle is a university student residence during the time Durham University is in session, but functions as a B&B when the  university is on break with rooms available for anyone to stay. It is very cool and quite an experience to actually stay in an ancient castle which is about 1000 years old. Apparently one of the Harry Potter film was filmed in the Castle's Dinning Hall. I am not a Harry Potter fan, so no idea which movie it was. The downside of Durham castle is that you can't just explore it by yourself, as it is a fully functioning part of the  university.

View of the castle as you approach

River Wear

Narrow cobblestone street around the Durham Castle

Durham Cathedral and the Palace Green

The center of Durham is very, very small and surrounded by the wear river on the three sides forming a peninsula with the Romanesque Durham cathedral sitting on the top dominating the view. Durham is very hilly, so be prepared for inclines and cobbles. There are many small stairs and shortcuts to take to get to the top. The majority of the city center along with the castle is part of the ancient University of Durham.It is made up of magnificent cobbled streets that run between Georgian houses, most of them are now university student halls, and ancient bridges crossing over the river.   They house the university library. The students take classes in the castle, so sometimes the castle is closed for visitors. Although small, still very enjoyable to wander around and relax. 

Durham Market square

The other significant point of interest is the Durham Market Square. Just off the square is the Town Hall, and some sort of open air market . The city itself is doesn't have a lot of people, except for the the university students who tend to stay around the center.The small streets around the market square has lots of shops and cafes.There are lot of good pubs and restaurants that are frequented by students. 

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At the Vatican City

First up in the morning, I headed to the Vatican City to see the St Peter’s Square,  St. Peter’s Basilica and Vatican Museums. I was quite intrigued by The Vatican City. It is kind of in  middle of  the city of Rome, but not part of EU (but they do take Euros though!). It happens to be the smallest country of the world.

St Peter’s Square is a huge place with the obelisk, wonderful columns and statues all around. Don't bother planning a special trip to the square if you're planning to visit the Basilica -- you get to check it out while you're in line! 

First I headed towards the St Peters Basilica. Thankfully, there were almost no crowds (perhaps 9am was too early) . I walked right in. It is  brig and magnificent. The interior must have millions of dollars of statues, paintings, mosaics and marble columns. The main attraction for me was the Michelangelo's Pieta

Thereafter was a visit to the Vatican Museums. It was still early in the day and while there were lots of tourists, I would not call it crowded and luckily I got in with minimal queuing. Full cost was €16. Vatican Museum is absolutely huge, with various different rooms filled with mostly paintings and sculptures.They were all great, with amazing awe inspiring artwork. But, t o be honest, they started to look the same halfway through. Anyways the main attraction obviously being the Sistine Chapel and Raphael Rooms.  If the Sistine Chapel is your main goal, expect to have to walk forever to see it, which they strategically place at the end. 

Apparently photography is not allowed in the Sistine chapel ...but I didn't know till I snapped this shot and few more.

The famous Raphael bits are toward the end, i.e this fresco: 

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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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