Short Breaks Around Europe

It looks for now as if that’s the bad weather taking a bit of rest. After all the news reports of stranded airport and chunnel passengers, finally things are starting to move again. For some, the journey home for the festive season couldn’t be made by air so other modes of transport prevailed. The Irish Independent, in a story headlined "Waves of emotion as weary expats arrive home by ferry" tells today of how the ferries have been kept busy by the snowy weather.

Hopefully this year will just be some kind of meteorological anomaly that we’ll remember for decades. It’s hard enough getting to work in the mornings never mind trying to get back from abroad. All the Christmas markets across Europe will be looking their best though, snow-covered and bustling with customers - I’ll look forward to seeing the pictures on Flickr, just as soon as the sight of snow is a bit less ubiquitous.

Anyway, anyone who’d planned on using the ferries for their festive travel this year was likely to have a smoother move along the route than by other means. 

When you get to Amsterdam you may be surprised how accessible some other cities are by car - there’s more than enough to occupy you in Amsterdam, but there is also ample chance for a day trip away if your holiday base is in the city. So I’ve compiled this list of cool places and their driving time/ distance from Amsterdam.

All driving times and distances from Amsterdam in the list that follows are based on the AA Routeplanner - but remember driving times are a guide only since traffic conditions can’t be predicted. 

Within Holland: 

Amsterdam to Rotterdam - 45.9 miles, 59 minutes.

Amsterdam to The Hague -  39.5 miles, 54 minutes.

Amsterdam to Utrecht - 26.4 miles, 41minutes.

Elsewhere:

Amsterdam to Düsseldorf - 140 miles, 2 hrs 22 mins

Amsterdam to Brussels - 126 miles, 2 hrs 19 minutes

Amsterdam to Frankfurt -  275.2 miles, 4 hrs 13 minutes

So next time you’re in Amsterdam, just remember that the rest if Holland is nearby, and that a couple of major German cities aren’t far off.

It might not be the first reason you’d give for why you went on a particular short break or holiday, but food is nearly always one of the very best things about going to Europe. And while the UK has improved to a great extent in the last three decades, it’s still not European standard for food.

Holland may not be famed for its cuisine, but in the bigger cities the food is definitely on a par with the best in Europe.  The service in Holland is also exemplary - people have a natural efficiency that is never overbearing and a friendliness that again is natural and likewise never ‘in your face’. Food in Holland is actually pretty varied - there is the occasional good ol’ American outlet,  some very nice streetfood served from vans that is mainly seafood such as Maatjesharing (soused herring) mmm healthy!, and in the bigger cities you have all the restaurant options you’d expect - from the small relaxed Italian places right up to the snooty michelin starred places.

 So, Holland was a surprise. Denmark perhaps less so, not in a bad way, just it was more along the lines of what I expected. Loads of seafood on offer - never a bad thing in my book. Although I’m not entirely sure that smoked eel would be any good.

 France, when it’s on form, can be the best place in the world to eat, and it doesn’t have to be expensive. A meal at Restaurant Chartier in Paris is great and reasonably priced. Definitely a place to remember. In France they also of course have chevaline, which would be a mega-rarity in the UK, and some great foods sold at the market from live mussels to roast garlic chicken. Sensory overload for gluttonous, is France.

 Of course, if you take advantage of cheap ferry deals you can go from place to place at your leisure, and maybe fill the boot full of great produce to eat when you get back home (don’t try taking cheese home though unless your car has a refrigerated boot. Cheese can get well stinky otherwise!).

There are some types of holiday where all you want to do is lie on the beach, have long dinners in the warm outdoors and generally chillax yourself so much that you become a new person, and these holidays are good. But what with the amount of vacation time we get from work these days, we don’t need to spend all our annual leave on those two weeks on the beach. This means that our other, smaller trips away can be anything we want, from short city breaks to a few days in wilderness. I always like to keep an eye on history wherever I go, so a break with a bit of history is good for me. Wandering round wrecked castles and mediaeval buildings is for me probably better than lying on a beach all day.

One area that would make for an interesting holiday would be the Ypres area in West Flanders, Belgium. Tour of the battlefields bring many thousands of visitors each year and there are museums and cafes nearby. If you know any of the history of Ypres and Passendale you’ll know why it’s little wonder why these areas get so many visitors each year.

Other themed cruises to Belgium include Christmas markets where you can go to the incredible markets and do your Christmas shopping. One Belgian cruise break I’d like to see would be one for the fans of the film  In Bruges, with an itinerary taking in visits to each of the notable scenes in the film. I can only guess that Bruges will be feeling the economic benefits of the film for some time yet - it’s one of those films that makes its host city look genuinely magical.

No, not tickets to a cheap Europe but cheap tickets to Europe.

These tips are designed to ensure you get the cheapest tickets possible

1. Book online - this saves you the money you’d otherwise spend adding to your phone bill, and means you avoid any telephone booking fees that companies may have.

2. Book in advance - often the more in advance you book the more savings you can make.

3. Go off-peak. It stands to reason that prices will be higher in high summer, so watch the ticket price get cheaper the further away from peak season you are.

4. Look out for special offers. 

5. Be flexible about when you travel - avoiding weekends can often mean savings.

So if it’s cheap rail tickets, coach tickets or cheap ferry tickets you’re after, there’s a whole world of savings just waiting to be made!

If you’ve not been to Amsterdam yet, I thought I’d compile a short list of reasons why this is an essential city for your collection of world travel destinations.

1.  Culture - Amsterdam has museums, galleries, history, cinemas, bookshops aplenty. It really does feel like a cultural centre as well as a capital city.

2. Nightlife - with great bars, nightclubs and what seems like whole areas of the town centre dedicated to nightlife, this is a city with a real buzz about it. 

3. Food - the French and the Italians may have a bigger name in cuisine than the Dutch, but I have to say some of the best restaurant meals I’ve had lately have been in Amsterdam. Admittedly some of them were in French or Italian owned establishments, of which Amsterdam boasts a fair few, but the traditional Dutch food has always been fantastic too.

4. Ease of travel. Amsterdam is so nearby it’s often a first choice for a short trip. By booking a ferry to Holland you can relax and be there in a short while, all rested and ready to enjoy yourself when you’re back on land.

5. People - the Dutch are a friendly bunch and you will always feel welcome in the Netherlands. They don’t much seem to mind when you don’t speak a word of Dutch (as I don’t), and will 99 times out of 100 happily convert into English, and they often speak English so well that you’d think they were language experts.

 All in all, one of my favourite cities and one I need little in the way of encouragement to go visit.

All European countries can rightly claim to produce some good lagers, but some countries are more famous than others for their lager. While I’m more than happy to drink a pint of Tennents, I’m also fairly certain that it’s a lager that someone from, say, Budapest would never have heard of.

Personally I’ve aways favoured Czech, German and Danish lagers. Budvar, Furstenberg and Carlsberg resopectively. Oh what fun it is to do a bit of european travel in your own living room, or local pub, via lagers.

According to Wikipedia (so it may or may not be deadly accurate but it’s interesting anyway)  the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen, which was an international center for theoretical physics during the 1920s and 1930s, when quantum mechanics was being developed, was largely supported by the Carlsberg brewery. Wow - this means that (in a roundabout kind of a way) - a brewery was responsible for quantum mechanics! Maybe they could get stuck further into the quantum mechanics and develop a self-replenishing beer can

Football Abroad

Been a big football fan myself and watching  games from all across Europe I decided that I was going to experience a game abroad and see the difference of atmosphere from Scottish football to a foreign country.

So I decided on going to watch Ajax over in Amsterdam, everyone knows the history connected with this club and it will be a great stadium to experience. Trips to Amsterdam are quite easy to come by so I’ve decided to book up on a ferry and head over for the start of the season.

If anyone has ever visited the Amsterdam Arena or is planning to the same as me feel free to leave a comment and let me know how it was or how you’re getting there.

Never Ending Eruption

As you may know on the 21^st of March the volcano over in Iceland called Eyjafjallajokull erupted and has caused total mayhem with aeroplanes and people travelling around the world.

It’s now coming into the middle of May and the problem doesn’t seem to be ending Airports in the UK and Ireland seem to worst affected by it and have had to close two times already for a week then a couple of days which leaves you with a lot of unhappy passengers either stuck in a foreign company or can’t get away on Holiday.

Scarily the last time this specific volcano decided to erupt it lasted for more than a year back in December 1821 it went on until January 1823 and in today’s world I don’t think we could deal with that with the airlines already badly suffering if this was to go on for a year it would be chaos.

Denmark For The Summer

Recently I’ve been trying to plan out a destination for my long awaited summer holiday and thought to myself I would try somewhere a little different to the usual places I visit like Spain and Portugal. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with these places but I thought I would go somewhere in Scandinavia and decided Denmark was my chosen destination.

 After checking out the different ways to travel here and price options I’ve decided with going on a ferry to Denmark. Going by planes probably a bit quicker but the hanging around in the airport before the flight really does my nut in so ferry from Harwich it is.

So that’s me booked up for Copenhagen over in Denmark if anyone out there’s been before and has any places for me to pay a visit I would be more than happy for you to leave a comment for me or even tell me how your holiday was across the water.