Favourite City

[tongue_tied_danny]

On 03/12/2020 at 19:29, virginton said:

 

For eastern Europe Gdansk and Wroclaw are my picks from Poland; Olomouc is Prague without the tourists and Plzen is seriously overlooked as well. Trnava is a much better base than Bratislava but Slovakia's all about the natural scenery rather than great cities. Budapest is good to visit for a few days but I can't deal with their century of beetroot-faced injustice politics any longer than that. The beer is gubbins as well. 

 

 I've only been to Gdansk out of that lot and I do agree that it's a beautiful place, with interesting history and a lot of good places to eat and drink. The WW2 museum is worth a visit although I got the impression that it wasn't quite finished. I believe that there was some political issue with the funding for it.

23 minutes ago, Boostin' Kev said:

Berlins my favourite although as time goes on with gentrification that'll probably change my opinion. Fancy visiting Leipzig. 

Someone mentioned Naples, loved it there. planning to go back there and sail to Sicily. 

I do love Berlin, but as you say, it is quickly changing, with new generic shopping malls etc.

I've always enjoyed visiting Flemish cities, like Ghent and Antwerp. Beautiful architecture, incredible beer and they have a really laid back atmosphere. 

 

[8MileBU]

Amsterdam. 

Pubs, drugs and ‘hoors. What more could you possibly want?

 

 

Spoiler

In all seriousness; Rome, Budapest or Marrakesh would probably receive my votes.

 

[stevieKTID]

2 hours ago, 8MileBU said:

Amsterdam. 

Pubs, drugs and ‘hoors. What more could you possibly want?

 

 

They're all closed mate, the canals are still pretty though.

[welshbairn]

2 hours ago, 8MileBU said:

Amsterdam. 

Pubs, drugs and ‘hoors. What more could you possibly want?

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

In all seriousness; Rome, Budapest or Marrakesh would probably receive my votes.

 

Tacky, poor man's version of Utrecht imo.

[8MileBU]

53 minutes ago, stevieKTID said:

They're all closed mate, the canals are still pretty though.

I wonder if the Roger Moore’s get furlough

[stevieKTID]

51 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Tacky, poor man's version of Utrecht imo.

Utrecht is lovely, my girlfriend's parents live in a town in Utrecht province so we're through that way regularly, i know what you mean about Amsterdam, I'm rarely in the centre but have cycled through it a lot recently as there are no tourists and it's gorgeous, quite cool cycling though the red light district and seeing it completely empty apart from locals going about their business, some really beautiful little spots to sit and admire the buildings etc. 

50 minutes ago, 8MileBU said:

I wonder if the Roger Moore’s get furlough

They had a little protest outside city hall during the first lockdown, claiming that they could work safely whilst keeping within the covid guidelines, not really sure how that would work

[8MileBU]

2 minutes ago, stevieKTID said:

Utrecht is lovely, my girlfriend's parents live in a town in Utrecht province so we're through that way regularly, i know what you mean about Amsterdam, I'm rarely in the centre but have cycled through it a lot recently as there are no tourists and it's gorgeous, quite cool cycling though the red light district and seeing it completely empty apart from locals going about their business, some really beautiful little spots to sit and admire the buildings etc. 

They had a little protest outside city hall during the first lockdown, claiming that they could work safely whilst keeping within the covid guidelines, not really sure how that would work

Sanitised williams?

[The Mantis]

15 minutes ago, stevieKTID said:

Utrecht is lovely, my girlfriend's parents live in a town in Utrecht province so we're through that way regularly, i know what you mean about Amsterdam, I'm rarely in the centre but have cycled through it a lot recently as there are no tourists and it's gorgeous, quite cool cycling though the red light district and seeing it completely empty apart from locals going about their business, some really beautiful little spots to sit and admire the buildings etc. 

They had a little protest outside city hall during the first lockdown, claiming that they could work safely whilst keeping within the covid guidelines, not really sure how that would work

Took Mrs Mantis over for Euro2017 and had a couple of nights in Bunnik just by Utrecht. Hired bikes and went into Utrecht the day after the Scotland game. Avoided Amsterdam altogether (been before) and made our summer holiday out of the trip. As well as the games in Rotterdam and Deventer we had visits to Groningen and Volendam and we were up north near Dokkum and took the ferry over to Ameland. 
Groningen is known as "World Cycling City" and apparently 57% of the residents use a bike.
Absolutely wonderful time and everywhere we went people would tell us "Amshterdam ish not Holland!"

[stevieKTID]

50 minutes ago, The Mantis said:

Took Mrs Mantis over for Euro2017 and had a couple of nights in Bunnik just by Utrecht. Hired bikes and went into Utrecht the day after the Scotland game. Avoided Amsterdam altogether (been before) and made our summer holiday out of the trip. As well as the games in Rotterdam and Deventer we had visits to Groningen and Volendam and we were up north near Dokkum and took the ferry over to Ameland. 
Groningen is known as "World Cycling City" and apparently 57% of the residents use a bike.
Absolutely wonderful time and everywhere we went people would tell us "Amshterdam ish not Holland!"

Utrecht stadium has a Bunnik end, the girlfriend's parents live in Wijk bij Duurstede which is lovely it has a castle and a windmill that goes over the road, it's close to some wonderfully named towns like Langbroek which means Long trousers and Driebergen which means 3 mountains - its really flat

Edited December 6, 2020 by stevieKTID

[vikingTON]

You could spend an entire weekend wandering about the Drie Gezusters pub on Groningen's Grotemarkt. There's about 27 different rooms to the place - including a fucking ice bar - when I was there ten years ago.

 

[Bonksy+HisChristianParade]

On 30/11/2020 at 09:40, MixuFruit said:

 

15 years ago I'd have smugly said Edinburgh was my favourite city, but nowadays I'd say Arles in France, dripping in history, great for access to all the nice places in the south and I ate the best sandwich of my life there.

 

Had you not visited any other city in the world at this point?

[amidst-tundra]

I was lucky enough to visit Hong Kong before everything started to go to crap. I generally don't enjoy megacities but there was something about Hong Kong that felt more alive.
For me I love the architecture of Eastern Europe. I really enjoyed Tallinn, especially its old town and old Soviet history, and Kiev. I really enjoy visiting old Soviet states, but I don't much care for the politics.
Haven't visited many places in America, but I've always wanted to visit New York but I suspect I wouldn't enjoy it as much as I think I would.
A much smaller city, but I really like Luxembourg City as well.
I have a bit of an interest in Nordic Saga's. We were due to visit Reykjavik prior to lockdown. For my missus it was more about touring where Game of Thrones is filmed. Either way, Reykjavik looks like a pretty cool city.

Edited December 9, 2020 by amidst-tundra

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Always love Brussels, Nice, Rome, Paris and Barcelona but my favourites are still Marrakech and Havana.

 

 

 

 

[Granny Danger]

Barcelona.  I’d happily move there when I retire but the missus wants somewhere less frenetic.

[Gus Setsniffer]

On 30/11/2020 at 16:35, Torpar said:

As a tourist and in my first few years living here it was Toronto by a mile and it still has it's appealing qualities, my brother loves visiting. But I'm now sick of the city and can understand why the rest of Canada seems to hate it. As soon as I can move I will. 

Paris for me is just a magnificent city. The history, the architecture, the food and for me the people, the majority are nice if you aren't an arsehole and at least attempt a little french, I used to be a fan of PSG but don't like what they have become so now I'm a hipster fan of Paris FC    

i was in Paris with 3 friends before travelling on to Nantes for a Champions League tie many years ago i found older french people are c***s, didn't make any difference if you attempted or didn't attempt to speak to them in their language, they took either as a personal offence, 

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

On 10/12/2020 at 17:42, Granny Danger said:

Barcelona.  I’d happily move there when I retire but the missus wants somewhere less frenetic.

Could look at badalona or even Casteldefells , a few pals who were fed up of Barna moved to sitges as well which is lovely. Even some areas in the North of the city, Guinardo/Horta/Vall d'Hebron are lovely but much more quiet. Feel like their own wee towns which are 20 mins away from the centre by metro.

 

[welshbairn]

59 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

Tallinn's nice though it is a bit of a picturesque old town surround by anonymous concrete.

You can say that about every Eastern European town that got in the way of either the German or Soviet war machines. You have to admire the way they rebuilt them, look at Coventry.

[amidst-tundra]

On 13/12/2020 at 18:55, welshbairn said:

You can say that about every Eastern European town that got in the way of either the German or Soviet war machines. You have to admire the way they rebuilt them, look at Coventry.

To be fair, the same can be said about most cities. Paris is a bleak dystopia the moment you step out of the centre. Few cities are picturesque throughout... Dubrovnik? Nuremburg has an amazing medieval old town that's a little bigger than most, but the rest is very much like many medium sized German cities.

[welshbairn]

1 minute ago, amidst-tundra said:

To be fair, the same can be said about most cities. Paris is a bleak dystopia the moment you step out of the centre. Few cities are picturesque throughout... Dubrovnik? Nuremburg has an amazing medieval old town that's a little bigger than most, but the rest is very much like many medium sized German cities.

Just remember I left Bomber Harris out of the thing you quoted. Haven't been, but the centres of Hamburg, Dresden and Cologne are supposed to be nicely rebuilt. Our town planners and developers did more in the 60's and 70's than Hitler could ever have dreamed of.

[atfccfc]

Another vote for Naples from me. I've lived in Italy (Bologna and Milan) and loved it and Italy is a fantastic country. But the south is a lot different from the north and I found Naples to be just the most vibrant and colourful and authentic city I've visited in that country and in fact anywhere. It's big, it's dirty and it's poor. But the people are fantastic and down to earth. It's not a touristy city but it's a city worth a visit. It's also a cheap city and I found hardly anyone spoke English. So for me who wanted to learn Italian when I first moved there it was Ideal. 

In other parts of the world I Loved Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia as well Queenstown and Auckland in New Zealand.