Sightseeing is a term used for sightseeing and cultural attractions.
Our no - sightseeing tips will introduce you to small discoveries away from the sightseeings that we have discovered during our travels and would like to share with you.
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I admit I am a chocolate lover. I believe there are hardly any chocolate flavours that I don’t like. Add marzipan or nougat into the mix and I will have a hard time saying no. This leaves no doubt whatsoever that going to confectionary café Viba in Erfurt was exactly the right activity for both my soul and my tastebuds. And I also got to make chocolate lollipops myself.
Continue Reading about A first for me: Making a chocolate lollipop at Viba in Erfurt
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A trip to Radeberg and a visit to the brewery just belong together. As part of our research trip to Radeberg, we, too, visited the Export Beer Brewery Radeberg.
Continue Reading about A trip to the Export Beer Brewery Radeberg
A short trip to the north of Germany brought us to Flensburg. Of course, this also had to include a beer tasting to try Flensburg’s beers.
Flensburg’s brewery is not far from the old town. Beers have been brewed here since 1888.
A light pilsner and a dark beer were the first two kinds of beer that were manufactured here. The brewery continued brewing beer even during the Second World War, despite some difficulties. After the war, it was given the status “Official NAAFI Brewery” and was allowed to continue brewing. However, the precious lager was only handed out to members of the allied forces whereas the German people were only given the lesser, light whey beer.
The Brewery expanded their range in 1950: Flensburg Export, Bock Strong beer, Ouick (a fruit juice), Doppelbock and Export Pils. The distribution of the beer was regulated by anti-trust laws. They were allowed to sell their beers from the Danish border to the Kiel Canal, including the North Frisian Islands. Individuals were allowed to bring their own jugs to the brewery and purchase their beer directly but over time this practice was replaced by selling beers in bottles. They used steinie bottles with clip-locks that were sold in wooden boxes of 24 bottles each.
Initiated by Hans Dethleffsen the brewery went through drastic changes in 1974. The company expanded beyond the Kiel Canal and became a well-known brand. The bottle with the clip-locks remained their signature feature. After the release of the “Werner” comic, in which the main character consumes the beer out of the characteristic bottles, the beverage became well known far beyond their previous sales territory and target group.
Before our test began we sat out to purchase as many different beers as possible. Fortunately, many shops in Flensburg stock a great variety of beers.
And these aren’t even all of the different kinds of beer that are brewed in the Flensburg brewery. But enough for a first test.
My personal favourite was the spring bock beer, pleasantly smooth and light in taste. As a contrast, I tried the dark beer which was a bit too heavy for me.
The wheat beer I didn’t like at all. I know other wheat beers that I, personally, like a lot better.
The Flensburg mixed beer (Radler = beer with lemonade) was really tasty, a fantastic summer drink. I shall go and pick up some bottles of that when I am back home.
All in all, we liked it, the Flensburg beer!
If you’d like to learn more about brewing in Flensburg you can join a guided tour through the brewery. Unfortunately, one has to sign up for a tour way in advance which is not really possible during a spontaneous trip to Flensburg. That means that I will have to come back a second time!
Fans of the brand can pick up all sorts of merchandise products in the “Plop-Shop”. Happy shopping!
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Learn more
Flensburger Brauerei Emil Petersen GmbH & Co KG
Munketoft 12
D-24937 Flensburg
call to book about four weeks in advance
Monday to Friday between 08.00 and 17.00: 0049 (0) 461863 122
Or send an email to brauereibesuch@flens.de
Monday to Friday between 10.00 and 14.00, 9.50€ per person
Monday to Friday, 18.00, 12.50€ per person
Saturday, 10.00 (between May and September only) 12.50€ per person
Near the brewery entrance
Opening Hours Monday to Friday
11.00 – 13.00 and 15.00 – 17.00
When we planned our trip to Budapest we knew we just had to make it a Christmas market trip. There is nothing I like more than discovering a new city in the winter with all the Christmas lights up. And if there is snow, that is the icing on top.
Okay, there was no snow. But it was cold and there were Christmas lights. It was “almost perfect”. Anyway, it was wonderful and really worthwhile.
In the city centre of Budapest, there are two Christmas markets every year, starting in November. They are within walking distance to each other and not terribly big so that one evening is enough to explore both of the markets.
One of the markets is on the Vörösmarty Square, the other one is in front of the St. Stephen's Basilica.
Personally, I liked the market at the Basilica a little bit better. That was partly down to the fact that we arrived at the market just as they turned on the Christmas lights on the tree for the very first time this year. And the Basilica in the background made this picture of Christmas perfect.
I noticed that the focus on both markets was clearly on foods and drinks. I did see a handful of traditional arts and crafts stalls but I had hoped for a bit more of that. But still, a stroll over the two markets is very worthwhile and some Christmassy gifts made their way into my bag quite quickly.
I am a huge fan of mulled wine, eggnog, mulled beer, punch or similar hot drinks that are primarily consumed in winter. So the first thing I check on every Christmas market: What drinks do they have!
In Budapest, they had a lot of punch, hot wine and tea. The first wine that we had was more water than wine, though. Hardly tasted of anything and was actually just hot. Thankfully there were other stalls with better hot wines, but none of them really swept me off my feet.
My verdict on the hot wine – I had better ones elsewhere!
Also very interesting was the food. Every county has its own traditions and I ate very well on the Christmas market in Budapest. Meat lovers will certainly find something that they fancy – sausages, pork legs, skewers, steaks… hard to resist temptation.
We picked something traditional to begin with: Goulash soup with bread. The goulash was very good but very different to what I expected. Almost not hot at all, only a little bit of liquid, a lot of vegetables and meat that took a little time to get used to. But overall very good. The bread got soggy over time and we hardly got through the soup. We shared one portion and didn’t even finish the bread and were still really full afterwards.
Potato fritters were also offered on the market. We were hesitant as we watched them prepare the dish and saw how much oil went into them. The fritter was gently floating in oil and got deep-fried until golden and crispy. They were fished out of the oil and sold almost immediately. If desired they added toppings to the fritter: Peppers, cheese, sour cream, sausages – some of them looked more like a pizza. We did go for one after our initial reservations and shared a fritter with sour cream and cheese. Why did we never eat that combo at home? It was so good!
Thankfully we spent more than a day in Budapest so that we were able to come back to the market again and try even more of the food. Obviously, we had to go for Lángos next (deep-fried yeast dough with garlic, cheese and sour cream). We picked the sour cream version again. I had already eaten that dish on Christmas markets in Berlin but it was never that good before. The dough had a far more intense taste.
The grand finale of our Christmas market treat tour was a Kürtőskalács. I already had this type of pastry in Prague but the ones in Budapest were a lot bigger. They tasted very sweet and definitely moreish.
What the Christmas market in Budapest lacked in hot wine it definitely had in terms of food. We were full and very happy.
For a good long while Formula One car races were an integral part of our weekends. We were thrilled while we were watching countless races on TV.
But, as with many things in life, over time it got boring. Cars were going fast, but spectacular manoeuvres disappeared gradually from the races. At the moment, we’re rather surprised when a Formula One car race is taking place.
When I was in the middle of planning our Barcelona trip I noticed that we would be there during the race weekend between the 13th and 15th of May 2016. I admittedly only noticed when I looked up the opening hours of the race track. After thinking long and hard about it, we decided to pick up some tickets - despite the fairly high price point – for the free practice on Friday. We purchased the tickets for visiting the Formula One car race online in advance.
The choice of seating is rather limited for visitors that only come for one day. Most of the stands are only open for weekend visitors and we didn’t want a space on the open-air stands. Luckily the booking system with its panorama pictures gave us a good idea of the bit of the race track that we would actually be able to see from any given seat. We chose area E. The stands of area E are close to the end of the home straight – we had good visibility of the first turn, the pit lane as well as of other parts of the race track. Two big screens were right opposite of the stands and showed further information about the practice.
Once on site, we realised that this was a smart choice.
Getting to the race track from Barcelona is easy on public transport. For 2.50€ (single ticket, per person) the R2 train took us from Sants Estacio station to Montmeló. The gates opened at 9 o'clock in the morning, the first free practice was due to start at ten. So we set off bright and early and shared the train with some English motorsport enthusiasts. The train ride took about 25 minutes. There are different options to get to the racetrack from Montmeló. One option is to take the bus (for another 2.50€ single per person) or a 30-minute walk following the signs for the race track through a pedestrianised area of the city.
We arrived a little early and used the extra time to walk along the race track before the free practice began. We noticed that access to the stands wasn’t really checked on that day and most of them appeared to be open to everyone. Where we were seated was check, however, as only day pass holders booked their seats in these stands.
Next, the elements of the free practice were introduced. We did not know that after the 1.5 hours of Formula One free practice, Formula Three practice and qualifications were going to be held there as well. For almost 8 hours straight cars were going to be flying around these curves at high speed.
The practice began and we were really lucky. The drivers were keen that day and completed many laps on the track. That meant that we got to enjoy how the drivers scorched down the home straight at 310 km/h and only about 100 meters before the first turn slowed down to 135 km/h. Many drivers took this turn in very noisy second gear at 135 km/h. A left-right bend followed that was still within eyeshot from our seats.
Naturally, only very few overtaking manoeuvres occur during free practice. But seeing the cars leaving the pit lane was also fascinating. Many times the drives had to come to almost a complete stop because a blue flag signalled that they had to let another driver on the track pass.
The second free practice needed to be stopped due to a burst tyre until a crane – also very clearly visible from where we sat – had lifted the car off the track. Thankfully, that was the worst accident on that day.
After the first practice session, we walked around the whole race track to get a better understanding of the circuit. In some areas around the track, different activities and entertainment for the visitors were taking place. Merchandise, a drummer band and much more mixed things up for the guests.
We enjoyed the day in Montmeló. The weather was good, the drivers showed off their skills and my first time at a Formula One free practice was good fun.
If I will be doing it again in the future remains a question for another time.
The view of the track is, after all, better from in front of the telly and you’re fed more info about what is going on in the race. Visiting the track means hearing the sound of the engines and smelling the burning rubber. Let’s wait and see if there is going to be a second time.
There is nothing worse than having different preferences for eating times than the locals at your destination. Whenever we became hungry, most restaurants were closed.
I have to admit that the times we like to eat at are a little bit different than they would be for normal travellers. But we are not normal travellers as we are working on our trips. That means that we get up at 7 the latest, work for 3 to four hours, explore our surroundings and then work for another couple of hours. Normally, we like to eat breakfast at around 10 am, our main meal at around 4 pm and another snack in the evening, like fruit or veg. And exactly this pattern failed us in Barcelona.
We made our own breakfast in the apartment – no problems here. But when we were out and about in the city and felt the appetite coming it became more difficult. We didn’t want to eat in the tourist areas as prices are higher there than they are elsewhere. We ventured into the little side streets and found ourselves in front of closed doors. Many restaurants in Barcelona are closed between 15.00 and 20.00. So we often times had to look a little bit harder to find food.
In the beginning, it was also hard for us to see whether the shop we found was a bar, a snack bar, a fast food store or a restaurant. Many shops had big signs at the door with pictures of their dishes, like the ones you find almost exclusively at the doors of snack bars in Berlin. Or they had pizza boxes by the door so that we assumed they were a food delivery or takeaway place. Only very slowly we warmed up to the idea to be a bit braver and just try something new. We ate where other guests sat and ate or where the prices were reasonable. We never really failed with this tactic. With the exception of one tapas restaurant that didn’t really win us over, we were always happy with our choice.
vegan Pizza
Sangria
We tried wonderful tapas in many different, small tapas bars.
We found a vegan pizza restaurant where I had the best pizza in ages and also found a great burger place that wasn’t only quite stylish but also had delicious burgers.
My wishes for paella and sangria were granted in a little bar that was only frequented by locals.
The highlight was the meal at Jamon Enrique Tomas, a ham speciality shop, that also serves food. We observed how the waiters cut the ham. I also ate ham that actually tasted of something. The price was a little bit on the higher end of the scale and for many a little ham with bread would not have been a sufficient meal. But that was exactly what brought us back three times to enjoy the food there.
I would have liked to take some ham back home with me but it was rather bulky.
