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Hi Everyone,
My wife and I are planning to travel to Europe at the end of September and was hoping I could enlist some TLers on some ideas for things to do while we are there.
Some background:
We will be gone for 2 weeks, planning on flying to Frankfurt first (cheapest flight at that time of year), and stay in Paris, Brussels, Geneva, and Rome for 3-4 days each. My wife has been to Spain and lived in Ireland for a 6 months, so she knows some things. I on the other hand have never been to Europe  .
Besides some of the obvious things (Colloseum, Eiffel Tower, etc. - feel free to mention those too) what are some great things that tourists can do while in those cities?
Thanks for the help!
p.s. If my wife lets me, I'll post a picture of us sometime
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Easy, must go to the original meltdown bar in paris.
otherwise it depends what kinds of things interest you, are you into the really touristy stuff or do you want to just walk around and see the city? obviously there is le louvre, or you can go and visit versailles, or a bunch of dead famous people in père lachaise, spend some time down in the metro smelling the stink of urine and unwashed bodies. yeah, public transportation in Paris, not great. If you want to just see some of the beauty of the city, but try to stay away from too many other people (won't be completely possible) maybe take the metro to jaures and go for a walk along the canal, you'll still see some beautiful architecture, but it makes for a nice romantic walk, i find. I also really like the parc des buttes chaumont in the 19ème. If not for the tons of people, you could forget you were in a city. It seems so enormous for what it is, and here and there you can see a beautiful building cresting out of the trees. really cool. Oh, and of course, must do Montmartre, absolutely beautiful view of the city, worth the walk if you don't do it the lazy way :D
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On June 28 2013 15:14 HotShizz wrote:
Easy, must go to the original meltdown bar in paris.
otherwise it depends what kinds of things interest you, are you into the really touristy stuff or do you want to just walk around and see the city? obviously there is le louvre, or you can go and visit versailles, or a bunch of dead famous people in père lachaise, spend some time down in the metro smelling the stink of urine and unwashed bodies. yeah, public transportation in Paris, not great. If you want to just see some of the beauty of the city, but try to stay away from too many other people (won't be completely possible) maybe take the metro to jaures and go for a walk along the canal, you'll still see some beautiful architecture, but it makes for a nice romantic walk, i find. I also really like the parc des buttes chaumont in the 19ème. If not for the tons of people, you could forget you were in a city. It seems so enormous for what it is, and here and there you can see a beautiful building cresting out of the trees. really cool. Oh, and of course, must do Montmartre, absolutely beautiful view of the city, worth the walk if you don't do it the lazy way :D
HotShizz even been to Paris? 
Paris public transport is pretty damn awesome. If you want to make most of your visit, definitely make use of the metro.
I'd say don't try to visit the Versailles if you're only there for 3 days (and even the Louvre might not be worth your time, a day isn't nearly enough to properly visit it). If I were you I'd spend my time walking between the Pd. Etoile/Eifel tower and Bastille, stop at every bakery in between, visit some of the smaller museums (perhaps Les Invalides, Napoleons last resting place), and make sure you finish each day at a delicious restaurant (the only thing that's relatively cheap in Paris other than public transport). Butte Chaumont is a beautiful park, but not sure it's worth it when you're there for such a short period (it's just a nice park in the end).
And I'd pick two other cities to visit instead of Brussel and Geneve.
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Baa?21242 Posts
I like your username. That is all.
Have fun in Europe.
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On June 28 2013 17:13 Passion wrote:Show nested quote +On June 28 2013 15:14 HotShizz wrote:
Easy, must go to the original meltdown bar in paris.
otherwise it depends what kinds of things interest you, are you into the really touristy stuff or do you want to just walk around and see the city? obviously there is le louvre, or you can go and visit versailles, or a bunch of dead famous people in père lachaise, spend some time down in the metro smelling the stink of urine and unwashed bodies. yeah, public transportation in Paris, not great. If you want to just see some of the beauty of the city, but try to stay away from too many other people (won't be completely possible) maybe take the metro to jaures and go for a walk along the canal, you'll still see some beautiful architecture, but it makes for a nice romantic walk, i find. I also really like the parc des buttes chaumont in the 19ème. If not for the tons of people, you could forget you were in a city. It seems so enormous for what it is, and here and there you can see a beautiful building cresting out of the trees. really cool. Oh, and of course, must do Montmartre, absolutely beautiful view of the city, worth the walk if you don't do it the lazy way :D HotShizz even been to Paris? Paris public transport is pretty damn awesome. If you want to make most of your visit, definitely make use of the metro. I'd say don't try to visit the Versailles if you're only there for 3 days (and even the Louvre might not be worth your time, a day isn't nearly enough to properly visit it). If I were you I'd spend my time walking between the Pd. Etoile/Eifel tower and Bastille, stop at every bakery in between, visit some of the smaller museums (perhaps Les Invalides, Napoleons last resting place), and make sure you finish each day at a delicious restaurant (the only thing that's relatively cheap in Paris other than public transport). Butte Chaumont is a beautiful park, but not sure it's worth it when you're there for such a short period (it's just a nice park in the end). And I'd pick two other cities to visit instead of Brussel and Geneve.
Yeah, while "interesting" cities Brussel and Geneve are not exactly known for their beauty.
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In France, Pigale can be worth visiting but be carefull where you go from there because there is some neerby neighbourhood not really nice in the area. (Don't go in Barbes at night...)
So for Paris you can see
- Eiffel Tower
- Montmartre (but it's really crowded and don't go there to late).
- Pigale (same thing as above. Don't go there to late).
- The meltdown (i think they are moving to Auber ? Or something).
- The louvre is cool but you can't visit it entirely.
- Versailles is quite a long trip for Paris if you don't knnow how to get there but it's nice.
- You have some museum and the "jardin des plantes".
- And of course the "champs élysés"
But lookup all the places that posters mentioned on google, see if you want to go there, if it's worth your time.
Italy, if you hit Rome, maybe you can hit Venise or Milan. There's nice places there. Never been to Roma though.
Germany, i don't know if it's far from Frankfurt as i don't know really germany but Nürnberg is a beatifull city. And Burger King ! (but maybe you have it in canada and you're lucky) :p (and eat shnitzel. Because it's good).
Belgium i don't know. I think "Anvers" is a nice city but really can't give you advide.
Have a nice and safe trip
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Having been in paris for a while now. Definitely check out the marais and the latin qurter. Theyre less touristy, and a lot of fun to just walk around.
Day tripping in to versaille is doable if you do your homework on how to navigate the trains (they go everywhere), but as others have said, you may not want to commit most of a day to doing that.
For museums musee d'orsay > the louvre. Its less crowded and easier to navigate, and the art is just ad good. If you like modern stuff definitely check out the pompidou center. Its the best modern museum I've been to.
Dont know anything about the others. Glhf with your travel
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Also, investing a bit of time learning some french phrases is a good idea. A little effort goes a long way towrd making you not seem like an ugly american (speaking as an ugly american )
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Are you staying at all in Frankfurt? If yes, you should take a look at the ECB building and maybeeee the Senkenberg Museum (its friggin awesome if you like dinosaurs/science). I know a good spare ribs place if you're into that where you can also watch some Football if you're into that.
Edit: Also, if you go to Paris, a trip to Eurodisney is recommended if you're into that.
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I can give you a few hints for Rome:
- A lot of people don't know english well.
- Pedestrians have no rights. Better not challenge incoming cars.
- A lot of pizza is sold in square pieces, fast-food style. You should rather go to a restaurant, the prices might even be better and the standard pizza is for sure.
- In certain (mostly popular) places you can't eat or drink alcohol outside cause the mayor of this city is a jackass. I'm not sure about the concerned places though.
- Never buy umbrellas from street vendors without habing them test them in front of you.
As for monuments and places, I think you got that already covered. Have fun.
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The biggest thing I would advise is to pick a few places to visit. Wanting to see as much as possible, as many cities as possible, is perfectly understandable. However, I find that policy questionable on multiple counts. Personally, I like delving into a city or country to just learn, experience, take advantage of as much as I can and of what it offers, respectively. Trains that zip between all the cities and countries may make this point moot (cheap! yay!) but having been to many continents in one year, I am speaking from both pleasurable and missed opportunities.
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I do not think you can go to europe, in a metaphorical sense. You can go to germany, you can go to france, belgium, switzerland and Italy. But even though they are geografically as close as the states or canadien provinces and territories, they are actually unique countries. Having their own languages, cuisine, laws, religions, media, just make sure to not miss the different mentalities of their people.
Also, since you are canadien: The differences in income and wealth are becoming more extreme in europe by the hour, and there are lots of refugees, immigrants and homeless people - not that immigrants are per se bad - just, pls don`t trust people here, many just struggle to survive and will take advantage of anyone that looks nice enough to care about another human being.
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On June 28 2013 19:50 packrat386 wrote:Also, investing a bit of time learning some french phrases is a good idea. A little effort goes a long way towrd making you not seem like an ugly american (speaking as an ugly american )
This. Frenchies are not good with language (so not a lot speak english) and not really patient (we are douches we know :p). So learn a little on how to read signs for exemple
Also BEWARE of the taxis ! They are known for pricing night price in the day to foreign people.
Aslo if you want to visit disneyland, it's not that far but it will take you the day. It's not in Paris. It's in "Marne la vallée" 1hour from Paris.
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On June 29 2013 00:08 FFW_Rude wrote:Show nested quote +On June 28 2013 19:50 packrat386 wrote:Also, investing a bit of time learning some french phrases is a good idea. A little effort goes a long way towrd making you not seem like an ugly american (speaking as an ugly american ) This. Frenchies are not good with language (so not a lot speak english) and not really patient (we are douches we know :p). So learn a little on how to read signs for exemple Also BEWARE of the taxis ! They are known for pricing night price in the day to foreign people. Aslo if you want to visit disneyland, it's not that far but it will take you the day. It's not in Paris. It's in "Marne la vallée" 1hour from Paris.
I'd say that avoiding taxis altogether in Paris might be a good idea (Maybe an exception for airport to hotel). They're pretty expensive and taking a bus/subway is way cheaper (sometimes faster too)
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why not munich or berlin instead of Brussel or Geneva.
They both have lots of stuff to see and near munich there is also Neuschwanstein and Linderhof palace.
Also, Vienna is a really nice city with just as much to see.
If you are in germany, you can take trains, they are a major form of transportation.
German taxis are really expensive.
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On June 29 2013 00:16 Linwelin wrote:Show nested quote +On June 29 2013 00:08 FFW_Rude wrote:On June 28 2013 19:50 packrat386 wrote:Also, investing a bit of time learning some french phrases is a good idea. A little effort goes a long way towrd making you not seem like an ugly american (speaking as an ugly american ) This. Frenchies are not good with language (so not a lot speak english) and not really patient (we are douches we know :p). So learn a little on how to read signs for exemple Also BEWARE of the taxis ! They are known for pricing night price in the day to foreign people. Aslo if you want to visit disneyland, it's not that far but it will take you the day. It's not in Paris. It's in "Marne la vallée" 1hour from Paris. I'd say that avoiding taxis altogether in Paris might be a good idea (Maybe an exception for airport to hotel). They're pretty expensive and taking a bus/subway is way cheaper (sometimes faster too)
RER connection to airport is fine. Metro is almost always faster.
About learning French phrases - to be honest - don't bother. If you have even the slightest accent to your french, the kind Parisians will lovingly curse at you for being foreign scum or whatever and truly won't understand a word you're saying. I was lucky enough to experience this multiple times.
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Thanks for the input guys!
A lot of the trip is up in the air still, we've only gone as far as booking the plane tickets to Frankfurt. As for speaking like an ugly American, no worries there, I am an ugly Canadian. Which could be worse, as we have our own version of french that I have heard repulses natives of France.
If not Brussels or Geneva, where would be a better choice? We would still kind of like to make our way down towards Rome, and thought that those would be interesting spots along the way.
We plan on taking as few taxis as possible while over there, as we enjoy walking and I think it is neat to see a city at a walking pace.
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I understand your choices looking at where you land and where you want to end up with Paris in between.
However if you land in Frankfurt it might be worth it to investigate the possibility of skipping Brussels and going straight to Paris. From there you can go to Geneva and before hitting Rome I would recommend spending some time in Florence.
Florence is a very beautiful city and has the advantage of lying nicely on the line from Geneva to Rome.
http://wikitravel.org/en/Geneva
http://wikitravel.org/en/Florence
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Don't rent a car in Italy, unless you know where to drive. My parents did that and got a nice little traffic violation fine few months later. You can google up more stories. Basically it's about driving in a restricted zone (i read something to prevent pollution?), but the thing is, only locals know these things unless you've done your research.
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EPT
