Montezumas Revenge(r)?

Although my cousin complained already that we just write about food, once again we moved from pub to food... First we met with a Polish couple that is friends with us in the "The Red Lion" in Soho.

Funnily enough Mitza met her in language school in Germany - all these contingencies support my feeling that Europe is more and more like one big country, and I hope the current crisis won't destroy this! But back from politics to the real thing! As Londoners love there Friday evening beer the whole pub and the street in front was crowded, but we still find a place to seat and they even had wheat beer - yummy! 

As drinking makes hungry, we just crossed Oxford Circus to enter Benito's Hat to grab some burritos. Luckily I went to the toilet after eating, otherwise I might have been scared away by their weird decoration - probably the sauce of some customer was to hot?

Being a tourist in London: Southbank + St. Paul's

The path we took: from London Bridge station to the Tate Modern

It was in one of these rare blue sky Sundays and already fresh winds that we decided to visit the Tate Modern, a famous (and huge) modern art gallery in London. The Tate Modern is located in the south side of the River Thames. To get there, we took the underground until the London Bridge station and the remaining path we went by foot, making stops along the way and of course, taking some pictures. In my humble opinion, this walk was more interesting than the gallery itself, as I'm not a big fun of modern Art myself, but Sven enjoyed it quite a lot. 

As soon as we came out of the London Bridge Station, we could already see the highest building in the city; although in the final construction phase, it's already part of the London's skyline. It's called "The Shard". 

The Shard

We then crossed the street and found ourselves in the Borough Market, one of the biggest in London, where it's possible to find a big variety of food from around the world. There are big pans everywhere and all those food looked very delicious. You can find from Paellas to Apfelstrudel there. It's quite a big difference when you come from Stratford (where we live) and there people usually eat crappy fried food on the streets and suddenly you land in a place where people are eating mostly healthy and tasty (yet simple) food. In that day, people were celebrating Apple day and many were even wearing costumes. We ate something prepared by a french guy: roasted duck with apple and salad. Very good! 

After lunch, we went down the street, walked a few blocks and then turned right to check out the "The Golden Hinde" a replica of the Ship belonging to Sir Francis Drake at around 1577 - 1580; it moors at the riverside. People can even go inside of it, of course you would have to pay, because nothing is free or cheap in this city, except for clothes (girls heaven)!

The Golden Hinde

Going back the same way, one can see the ruins of the Winchester Palace. In the medieval times, it used to be the residence of the Bishops of Winchester.

Winchester Palace Ruins

Back to the original route towards the Tate Modern, we found ourselves facing the river Thames one more time, close to the beautiful Southwark bridge. 

Southwark Bridge and the Thames

A few steps later, there's the famous Shakespeare's Globe, a reconstruction of what it would have been the Globe Theater in 1599, where the works of the renown poet that lived during Queen's Elizabeth I Reign were staged.

Shakespeare's Globe

The Tate Modern is right besides the Shakespeare's Globe. For people that enjoy modern art, I believe it's a paradise, as the gallery is really big. 

Tate Modern

In front of the Tate Modern there's the "Millennium Bridge", in which we crossed over and found ourselves in the north side of the Thames. Right in the back, the imposing cathedral of Saint Paul's can be seen, where Lady Di and Prince Charles got married. 

St. Paul's e Millennium Bridge

Behind the Cathedral there is a underground station, from where we took he tube to go back home, as we were a little bit tired of walking already.

If you have enjoyed this post and want to know more about the places we have visited, you can click on their names and a official website will immediately pops up! 

Thank you very much for reading, I hope you liked it! :o)

The Greenwich Meridian

The Greenwich Meridian is the meridian that passes through a part of London also called Greenwich, at the Royal Observatory. It divides the globe into Occident and Orient and it serves as a reference to calculate the distances in longitudes and to establish the time zones. The time at Greenwich is also called GMT - "Greenwich Mean Time".

At night, a green laser comes out of the Royal Observatory and shines throughout the sky in London and it marks where it supposedly passes, and one can see it from many parts of the city and from very far away, just like in the images below:

Laser coming out of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich

The Royal Observatory is located inside of a park in the Greenwich area, beside of the also famous University. It was there, that around three months ago we visited both of them and took some pictures: 

Greenwich Park

University of Greenwich

I hope you've enjoyed this post and 'till the next one! :)

A man on a mission...

...or how to get to know a city by eating!

As we haven't been posting for a while, it is time to write a small update!
Because London is quite a big city, and sometimes you are not so keen to hang out in another touristic hotspot, where do you start?

In Germany we once read about some nice ways to get to know your city, but due to the sheer size these are no real options here! (Just ride one tube line to the final destination and look around there - in London it takes 2 hours and you are either in no-mans-land or favelas; get a map, mark two streets in the overview and walk from one street to the other - again this can mean a few days walk)

As I am always hungry and kind of into burgers (Poor Elmar...), I convinced Mitza to check out some burger shacks. As a reminder for us and to give you an idea what we do on our weekends, I will list our experience here... To increase comparability I always went for a burger with cheese and bacon!

The order of appearance does not reflect our ranking, it is just the order in which we visited them:

Byron in Canary Wharf (http://www.byronhamburgers.com/)
Unfortunately we did not take any pictures, but as usually Canary Wharf on a weekend was quite empty, so no problem to find a seat. I believe this was Mitza's favourite place, for me they came in as number two. To get a few impressions find below the link to the page of the designer of this particular branch.
http://www.michaelisboyd.com/#/byron-canary-wharf/4543714561
The burgers were quite good, although the sauce could have been more. Overall I can suggest to go there, and there are quite a few locations all over London.

Hache in Camden (http://www.hacheburgers.com/)
Right in the heart of Camden, from the station just across the street we find Hache, not one of the big chains (The only have 3 restaurants in London). First I was a little bit sceptical about a restaurant with a French name serving American food in England... But, after sitting down in the cosy restaurant and ordering the standard meal, we received in my opinion the best burger. Perfect chips, tasty sauce and bacon and the patty just great! Will definitively go there again!

Ultimate Burgers in Tottenham Court Road (http://www.ultimateburger.co.uk)
We wanted to go to the one in the New Oxford Street, but were unable to find it, a check afterwards suggested that we should have walked just a little bit down the street. But whatever, then we walked 10 minutes to the Tottenham Court Road branch. As this was on a Saturday and off the main tourist routes it was also quite empty. The service seemed overall a little bit half-hearted and the location in general a little bit cold. I found my patty to thick and the bacon was not the crispy one, but this weird English one. So in general just an mediocre experience!

Gourmet Burger Kitchen in Stratford (http://www.gbk.co.uk/)
Basically I can just repeat what I wrote about Byron. Also a chain with several branches over London with a self-order system, so they just deliver your food to the table, but don't take the orders. Have been there twice now (The first time also in Canary Wharf), and I remember that didn't like the first time that much /More like Ultimate Burger - might be because of the fact that they crammed so many tables in the branch that I hardly could get onto the bench), but the second time it was good. Again no picture...

Home Kitchen in Stratford
As making burgers is quite easy we also did at home - bought a pre-made patty with cheese on it (The second try I had to squeeze it, so it was thinner and fitted better on the bread), a little bit of lettuce, massive amounts of ketchup and mustard-mayonnaise and a dark bread (Less carbs, you know!) - et voilà!

Unfortunately chips at home are never as good as in a restaurant...

Cultural Differences #2: Italians x Germans

Va bene!!! To close the Subject La Bella Italia, I would like to post a video from the Goethe-Institut that my former Italian teacher sent to us last year about the cultural differences between Italians and Germans. It's a very funny video and I'm sure you'll like it, especially if you're one of them. :-)

I just feel like I should make a small comment here... I have to admit that Brazilians are just like Italians in most of the examples given on the video! humm maybe a tiny little bit less messy... As most of the Brazilians have an Italian relative on their Family History Records, it's not to wonder why we're so similar!

Hope you enjoy it!

In time, for those who haven't been in Italy, don't speak any Italian but still wish to visit it, my advice is to be prepared! Don't count that they will understand and talk English to you, as they don't appreciate it and are really proud of their language. As an example on how "good" their English can be, please watch the following video, which, in my opinion, you can consider yourself lucky already if you find someone that talks like this there!

Hope you had some fun watching the videos! Bis zum nächsten Mal!!

La Bella Italia: Venezia

As most people know, Venezia (Venice) is a city located in north of Italy, in the Veneto Province and it's famous for its architecture, canals and gondolas. Some people consider it one of the most beautiful cities in the world. 

Well well, as I have been there already last year, I decided to go again this year and try to get to know it in a different perspective. I have to say, for the people that have never been there, it's absolutely mandatory to go by boat through the Grand Canal (Canal Grande) and have a view of the beautiful Palaces, the Rialto Bridge, until you finally reach the Piazza San Marco. As I've seen this perspective before, I decided to go on foot from the Railway Station to the the Piazza.

First thing I did was to get a map at the tourist Info center, after struggling with the Italians cause - no matter where in Italy - they will always try to squeeze themselves in the queues before you, and pretend they haven't seen you. As I became too German in some senses, I couldn't let that happen and as a good Brazilian that I am, I complained a loooot. "Scusaaaaaaaaaa, Signore!"

The map can be helpful when you want to check where you are, if you're close or not to the Piazza, but you can live without it. There are signs everywhere pointing to the Piazza San Marco or to the Rialto bridge, so you can't really get lost, unless you decide to take another very different way. And you can just follow the tourists and you will eventually end up there! To go back to the Station is the same, just look for the Ferrovia signs. 

The walking way is not as beautiful as when you take the boat through the Grand Canal because you see the back of the houses and palaces and they are not the same as in the front, but it's still interesting if you wanna get to see the little canals and get to know the city as it actually is. It took me maybe one and a half hour to reach the Piazza San Marco and one hour to go back to the Ferrovia. Of course you can go faster when you don't take lots of pictures and eat a peace of pizza on the way!

Here are some pictures I made... I hope you enjoyed reading this post!

 Canal Grande

 Ponte di Rialto

  Basilica di San Marco

 Palazzo Ducale e Basilica

Canal Grande

La Bella Italia: Vicenza

Vicenza is a lovely city located in the Veneto Province, north of Italy. My cousin Mirian lives in the outskirts of it, in a town called Altavilla Vicentina. In the end it's more or less one big city cause you don't really have a division between the two of them. 

Mirian and I went on Sunday to visit the historic Vincenza. It is a very cute and preserved place. There were no people walking on the streets that day, except us and a few tourists. The shops were all closed, except for the ones selling Ice Cream, which by the way, was a great thing to help against the 35°C of that day. 

            

There is not that much to visit in Vicenza, but it's quite nice to walk on the streets and to admire the houses - their beauty and architecture. But there's one place to visit in Vicenza that is truly unforgetable: the Teatro Olimpico (Olympic Theatre).

The Teatro Olimpico was constructed in 1580-1585 and it's one of only three Renaissance theaters remaining in existence (the two others are located in Sabbioneta and in Parma). The theatre was the final design by a famous Italian Renaissance architect called Andrea Palladio but it was not completed until after his death. It is built in an old fortress, and the rests of it can be seen right at the entrance. As I read somewhere (and I think it is one of the best ways to describe it), it is a roman theatre in a converted medieval building. When you enter the place, you have goose bumps because of the geniality of the work. It's just like if you are in a roman arena, with lots of marble statues around you. The most remarkable thing is the stage. Behind the white arches, a city can be seen, with houses and streets, and in the very back a painting to give the perspective that it continuous further. The city is perfect, the beautiful houses have detailed facades, with doors, curtains, windows, statues, etc. Try to look at the picture of the stage below, what you see of the city on the stage area is not a painting... It's truly an amazing place to visit. 

Stage

Audience

Walking through the old city, we could see many messages on the glass window of the stores, informing that their owners and workers are out for vacation. That is a very common thing to do in Italy by August, when everyone wants to have their holidays...

Mirian and I took the car and she drove to a church up on the hills, where we could see Vicenza and the nice landscape. My cousin showed me a castle from far away and she expressed her desire to go check it out, and that was what we did. We drove then all the way to Marostica and visited the castle ruins and its thick walls. 

The nice day ended up with a very pleasant meal. As we've seen too much of Italy that day, we decided to go to a chinese restaurant! :-)

La Bella Italia: Milano

Last Saturday I decided to make a day trip in Milan. Milano is the main city of the Lombardia region. It's quite big, it has around 1,5 million inhabitants.

It took me around 2 hours with the Eurostar train to get from Altavilla to there. Once I arrived, I got instantly excited because the Station itself looked so beautiful, so I wondered how the rest of the city would look like. 

I bought an underground tkt and went straight to the most famous place to visit in Milan: the Duomo (cathedral). You see it right after you leave the Duomo station, slowly walking up the stairs and it sort of hypnotizes you. Well, it is amazing, I have to say. It is the largest Gothic Style cathedral in Europe. It is also very beautiful on the inside, with some huge panels hanging between the pillars, which I found quite unusual for a cathedral. A small red light bulb in the dome above the apse marks the spot where one of the nails reputedly from the Crucifixion of Christ has been placed. 

                                        Duomo                                               Inside of the Duomo

Beside the Duomo, there's the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Basically, the street was covered over by an arching glass roof and the result was this beautiful Gallery. After taking a few pictures, I walked a few blocks until I reached the Castello Sforzesco, a huge castle with a nice fountain in the front. You buy one ticket and you can spend the entire day walking around the museums located inside of the Castello. 

                       Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II                               Castello Sforzesco

As I had only a few hours to get to know a little bit more of the city, I bought one of these tickets for the Sight Seeing Bus, which in Milan, have two different routs and each one lasts around one hour to be completed. In the end of the second ride it was slowly time to leave and I went straight to the Train Station, where I took the Eurostar back to Altavilla. 

As I always wanted to visit Milan, I thought it was a great day, as I could see a lot of it in my opinion. But I have to warn the readers that haven't been there, that it is a city that you see most of it in one or two days, so staying there a week would be already too much time, except if the person wants to get to know more of the area around it as well.

Thank you very much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post!