Journey along the Eastern Coast of Spain Part V: Murcia

With all its honey-coloured stone houses and grand cathedrals, Murcia is actually a very picturesque and sweet city. About two hours by train from Alicante, this little inland city offers some interesting sights, most notably its medieval Cathedral and its arrays of Spanish Baroque houses. Known for its mild climates in winter, Murcia is a good place to spend a few days in the sun if you happen to find yourself touring around the south-eastern coast of Spain.

The beautiful town hall of Murcia lies right on the bank of the Segura River, close to the Puente de los Peligros, a 18th century bridge and the oldest bridge in Murcia. Just like in neighbouring Cathargena, metal sculptures of fish can be seen 'swimming around' in the river.

Journey along the Eastern Coast of Spain Part VI: Cartagena

Cartagena - this name always reminds me of Carthage, the once significant maritime power whose sphere of influence stretched all the way from northern African coast (modern day Tunisia, parts of the coast of Libya, Morroco, and Algeria) to southern Spain, the Belares Islands, as well as Sardinia, Corsica and parts of the island of Sicily.

 

Founded by a Carthaginian general in 228 BC, the city of Carthagena has been long an important naval base throughout its long history due to its strategic location and the natural deep-water harbour. The town is now the main military seaport of the Spanish Navy, and is home to a big naval shipyard and a regular port-of-call of several renown cruise lines.

Cafes of Vienna: Cafe Bellaria - Fin de siècle Elegance

If you ask me which is my most-preferred cafe in Vienna, I would definitely name Cafe Bellaria as my all-time favourite. It has such an irresistable charm and such enduring elegance, I could spend the whole week in the cafe without feeling bored. 

Just a short walk from Vienna Natural History Museum, Cafe Bellaria has everything I look for in a cafe: history, tradition, friendly service, delicious cakes and tasty food at reasonable prices, and a genuinely Viennese atmosphere unmatched elesewhere.

Cafes of Vienna: Cafe Eiles - Truly Authentic Cafe in Josefstadt

Josefstadt is a very lively and interesting business and residental district close to the city centre of Vienna. Barely five minutes away by tram from Vienna's Ringstrasse, this district is a whole world away from the touristic kitsch of the city centre. It makes a refreshing change to stroll along the narrow streets of Josefstadt, brushing shoulders with locals, admire the window display of independently-run fashion boutiques, jewellery shops, florists, household gift stores etc. 
 

Cafe Eiles is a very well-known local cafe in Josefstadt, just 300m from Vienna's City Hall. The cafe is amongst my favourite Viennese hangouts. It evokes a feeling of nostalgia, with its slightly faded  carpets and floral-pattern seatings, spacious interior, high ceilings which allow natural lights to illuminate the whole salon, round coffee tables with marble surface top, and the obligatory staples of newspapers and old black-and-white photos from the bygone eras.

Cafes of Vienna: Cafe Schwarzenberg - Some Things Are Better in the Past

Cafe Schwarzenberg was once amongst my favourite coffee houses in Vienna, but that was more than fifteen years ago. I used to be very fascinated by the splendor of its decor, the spirit of its grandiose ambience, as well as its palacial elegance, smooth coffee, and heavenly cakes. But how things haved changed since the early 1990s!!

During my latest visit to Vienna, I made it a priority to visit Cafe Schwarzenberg in the hope of reliving that heavenly hazelnut cream with chocolate cake again. But to my utter disappointment, the whole place has become a mega touristic magnet now. Virtually more than half of the people sitting inside speak no German at all, many of them are obviously first-time foreign tourists to Vienna, who choose to come to Cafe Schwarzenberg because their guidebooks told them to do so.

Cafes of Vienna: Cafe Frauenhuber - where Mozart used to Perform

Most of the well known traditional historical cafes inside Vienna's historical city centre (Innenstadtbezirk) are packed with tourists seven days a week. Although some of them are popular amongst foreign tourists because of hype, but some of them do have something special about them.
Cafe Frauenhuber, founded in 1824, is one of those famous old Viennese cafes that has something truly unique about it. First of all, the service is exceptional - this cafe has one of the most friendly waiters I have ever met in Austria.

Secondly, the cafe is located in a building with a truly special history: it is the place where Mozart and Beethoven used to give live public concert performance during their active years. Very few other cafes in the world could have claimed such honours. Mozart made his last visit to this building in March 1791, shortly before his death six months later.

Cafes of Vienna: Cafe Tirolerhof

This is the only cafe in Vienna's city centre which is not full of tourists during peak hours. Located right at the corner of Albertina Museum, this cafe is a place of refuge for those who are looking for a quiet spot to escape from the crowds in the middle of the city centre.

Like most of the traditional cafes, the interior design is simple and classic, perhaps not as glamourous or impressive as Cafe Schwarzenberg or Cafe Central, but nevertheless still radiates that distinctive Viennese flaire.

Cafes of Vienna: Cafe Raimund

Cafe Raimund is located right across the Volkstheatre on the Museumstrasse, the nearest subway station is U-Bahn Volkstheatre. It is a beautiful old-school Viennese cafe with lots of mirrors, old photos, soft red plush interiors, and a gentle, subtle elegance. It is not as touristic as the cafes on the Ringstrasse, but its convenient location right across the road from the Museum Quarter and the Volkstheatre makes it a favourite hangout for theatre-goers and art lovers who want to have some food and drinks before or after the shows and exhibitions.   

I found this place so much more congenial and authentic than most of the big-name places inside Vienna's Ringstrasse.

The interior of the cafe has that trademark 19th century Viennese cosmopolitan touch, with warm rays of sunlight seeping through the large windows. The tastefully decorated salon, although a bit old-fashioned, has such an airy, cosy feeling, it makes you feel like staying there for the whole afternoon.

Cafes of Vienna: Cafe Sperl

Someone recommended this cafe, so I decided to give it a try. The history of Cafe Sperl dated back to 1880, at a time when Vienna was the political and cultural centre of a vast multi-ethnic empire and the birthplace of various intellectual and artistic movements. 

The cafe is housed in the 6th district of Vienna, near the popular shopping miles of Mariahilferstrasse. The interior decoration radiates a classical elegance typical of the now bygone Fin de siècle era. A snooker table, full of newspapers, await the customers inside the spacious lounge. There are far more locals inside the cafe, much less tourists. I chose a place next to the large windows and ordered a regional speciality available only in the autumn months - pumpkin soup with pumpkin seeds and pumpkin oil.

Cafes of Vienna: Cafe Hummel in Josefstadt

For those in the know, some of the most popular and best cafes in Vienna are located outside the touristy inner city district. In Josefstadt, a colourful and lively multi-ethic district just a short ride by tram from the Ringstrassen, there are several marvellous family-run cafes with plenty of tradition and history, whose owners have continued to serve authentic Viennese cuisines and good coffees to a demanding public for decades.

Cafes of Vienna: Kleines Cafe

This little place is tucked away at the corner of Franziskanerplatz inside Vienna's central district (Innenstadt). The cafe, true to its name, is indeed a very small one, with barely ten sets of chairs and tables inside, but it is a truly warm and intimate place to have your daily round of coffee and cakes, especially on a beautiful sunny autumn day or in the quiet hours after the evening meal.

Being at a part of Vienna's old town some distance away from the usual beaten tourist tracks, this small cafe is a popular hangout of local students and the general public. As it is not as crowded or well-known as the other big name historical cafes in the city centre, one does not have to queue up for hours before gaining admission to the premises. Once inside, one can spend as much time as one fancies reading, writing, or sampling the coffee, without the need to feel obliged to give up the seat for those waiting at the door. 

Cafes of Vienna: Cafe Prückel

Founded in 1904, Cafe Prückel is one of my favourite traditional Viennese cafes. Located near the Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien (University of Applied Arts and Design), this cafe has been a favourite hangout for lecturers and students of that institution for ages.

Although Cafe Prückel is considered one of the best known Viennese Kaffeehäusern, the place has retained its sense of authentic charm, in spite of its location on Vienna's prestigeous Ringstrassen. Its airy, sleek modernist interior, designed by famous Viennese architect Oswald Haerdtl in 1954, introduces plenty of natural light into the interiors of the cafe. This classic example of 50s' modernist design has been a trademark of Cafe Prückel for more than half a century.

Eating Out in Bozen: Specks, Knödels, and More Specks

Remeber you are now in an extra-territorial region of Austria, so don't expect any typical Italian food while you are in Sudtirol. Instead, be prepared to embrace Southern German cuisines and lots of high-calorie fatty specks.

This is not to say the quality of food available in Sudtirol are bad. It is just that the majority of them are essentially German /Austrian country cuisines. If you love fried pork cutlets (schnitzels), sauerkraut, pickled  cucumbers, grilled sausages or potato/bread dumplings, then you are in safe hands.

So, what are the regional specialities of Sudtirol?

1. Knödels with Speck
One of the most famous regional specialities of Sudtirol is the Sudtiroler Speck Alto Adige PGI, a special kind of dry-cured ham whose production is regulated under the protected geogrpahical indication (PGI) status. Unlike other cured hams in Italy, Sudtiroler Speck is manufactured by combining two different meat conservation methods - curing and smoking. Speck is an important ingredient in Sudtirol's cuisines, you will find it everywhere from breakfast to noodles and soups and oven-baked dishes. It also makes good gifts as they can be easily stored if unopened in its original vacuum packaging, and adds that extra creamy, savoury taste to your spaghetti carbonara.  

As for knödels, well, they are basically dumplings made with bread, potato, semolina, flour etc. and boiled or poached in water. Usually they serve as side dishes to meat main course but can also be eaten on its own.

I am not a fan of knödels - as they tend to be too filling, even fatty, for my taste - and certainly not someone  who goes to a Paulaner beer garden restaurant while on holidays (I don't even go there while not on holidays). But this is Bozen, and there are not that many places which are still open after 9pm, so I had to make do with Paulaner.

The blue-and-white tiles of the decor ensures a distinctive Bavarian touch to the whole place - Paulaner is from Bavaria and they make sure you are aware of it :)

Bozen/Bolzano: A Provincial Town with an Acute Identity Crisis

What comes to your mind when you combine pristine Alpine scenery with Teutonic efficiency and Italian flaire? Lush green valleys, vineyards in autumn colours, delicious local cuisine with smoked ham, tasty cream pies and cakes, tidy towns and villages yet with such irresistable, romantic charm?

Unfortunately, Sudtirol is not quite what I had expected it to be. Instead of a region which combines all the advantages of Teutonic efficiency and sweet Italian dolce vita, it turns out that Sudtirol has managed to accomplish quite the opposite and ended up with the worst of both worlds: Teutonic aloofness (sometimes almost bordering on rudeness) and Italian efficiency.

As soon as I stepped out of Bolzano's train station, I thought I had already crossed the border into Austria. The streets, the cathedral, the atmosphere, the way houses and things are built and organized in Bozen are all so teutonic, there is almost nothing Italian about the whole town, except for the street signs with Italian names and the occasional splattering of Italians spoken on the street.

The problem with Sudtirol is, they are suffering from some kind of acute identity crisis. They refuse to be seen as Italian - fair enough, since I can imagine ten thousand reasons of not being wanted to be seen as Italian as well - but they are neither German nor Austrian too. In spite of their efforts to crave out their own cultural identity over the past 90 years, the population and the villages still seem to be at a loss about who they really are.

Cafes of Turin: Some Places where Ordinary Folks have their Coffee and Lunch

The thing I love most about Turin is, the locals take their coffee seriously. And they do it in style too, with healthy salads, delicious pastas, fruit salads and other goodies on the side.

1. EXKI, Turin 
Around the corner of my hotel near some of Turin's most exclusive shopping areas, is a self-service cafe-restaurant which offers tasty food made of organic ingredients and good coffee made with Illy coffee beans.

Although Italy is well known for its gourment culture, the concept of organic farming and bio-food have only recently taken hold in the social consciousness of city-dwellers in Italy. Maybe that's because most Italians still eat relatively well - nutritious and healthy - compared to their Northern American counterparts, and the taste and variety of agricultural produces available in Italy's markets are still very 'local' in terms of origins, unlike some other industrialised countries in western Europe such as UK or the Netherlands, where a large proportion of fruits and vegetables are no longer home-grown; hence there is no such great urgency in Italy to convert to the religion of organic supremacy, or to promote organic foods by all means.

Value for Money in Turin: Follow the Students

As someone once told me: the best way in Italy to find a value-for-money place for great food at bargain prices is to follow the students. And I have been following this rule for years, so far it has almost always been proven right. In fact, this rule applies to many places all over the world, but that is another story ....

I simply have to recommend this nice little place in the centre of Turin, on the glamourous shopping boulevard of Via Po, near the university buildings. Given its location on one of Turin's busiest and most well-patronized throughfares, I would have expected the prices for a decent meal in this locality to be quite steep. But no, thanks to the presence of a sizeable student body attending lectures in university buildings nearby, many small cafes and restaurants are present which offer delicious buffet dinners at inexpensive prices. And they are really good value for money, even by my stringent standards (and I can be a very fussy customer, mind you).

The cafe with self-service dinner buffet is located at the long arcade that runs along both sides of Via Po. I was first attrcted to it thanks to the sign outside the entrance, which says 'A Drink and Buffet for 8 euros'.

Espressamente Illy, Turin: Illy Caffe in the Heartland of Lavazza

Italy's contribution to modern civilization comes in the form of its roasted coffee beans. Italian coffee beans are known throughout the world, and are the preferred beans of choice amongst coffee experts from Barcelona to Rio.There are dozens of coffee bean roasters in Italy, and each region has its own preference in terms of strength, aroma, and crema. For me, my favourite brand of roasted coffee beans is Illy Caffe, with its elegant aroma and nutty, caramel-like velvety texture and smooth, subtle aftertaste. 

In recent years, Illy has been busy setting up a series of modern and stylish concept coffee bar/bistros all over the world known as Espressamente Illy. I am a big fan of these Espressamente Illy bars, and have always made an effort to locate them wherever I go. The good thing I love about Espressamente Illy is, in addition to wonderful espresso and coffee at reasonable prices, they also have simple yet tasty bistro lunch, savoury hot snacks and pasta, as well as freshly prepared salads, desserts, pastry and cakes on offer.

Verona: Pretty City but Overrun by Tourists

The city of Verona is the prime example of how a provincial town of modest size, thanks to the good fortune of it being the main setting of a piece of well-written literary work, could attain global immortality and tap the enormous tourism earnings that come along with such free publicity. To put it in a less flattering way, Verona is living off its reputation as the hometown of Romeo and Juliet, and the city has probably one of the highest density of tourists per sqaure meter in the whole of Italy - probably on par with Rome, Venice and Florence. The warning signs are up when, no matter where you go, you hear English and Mandarin Chinese everywhere, and expensive non-Italian boutiques such as Louis Vuitton or Burberry are situated right next to the town's central landmark. 

Granted, Verona has a quite well-preserved medieval town centre, and the city has several sights worthy of a visit, even by European standards. But somehow I found the city, although pretty, lacks an authentic charm and the atmosphere is very a superficial one. At many places within the Old Town, it simply smells of gross commercialisation. Everywhere you go within the city centre, you see shops, restaurants, bars and establishments which are geared towards the tourist trade. You need to venture into the unmarked side streets in order to experience how locals go about with their daily chores in Verona, but even then, prices are steep for a provincial town and service not always friendly.
Somehow I was relieved that I did not opt to stay two nights in this town.
 

Piazza Bra is the main square near the Roman Arena of Verona. It is one of the places favoured by both locals and tourists alike, to see and to be seen. Countless bars and restaurants line the side of the square, menus are available in all major languages, and some of them remain open late. You can enjoy your meal or drinks al fresco and enjoy the sight of the Roman arena and the busy flow of tourist traffics on the square until late in the night.

Located at the end of Corsa Porta Nuova which links Verona's old town with the train station, Piazza Bra is also conveniently located near the main shopping districts of Verona, as well as the Opera House, the Tourist Information etc. 

The Many Harbours of Rhodes: A Simple Guide and Some Basic Orientations

There are several harbours in Rhodes Town: 

1. the Commercial Harbour (again divided into an International Arrivals Area and a Domestic Port)

2. the Mandraki Harbour

3. the Piraeus Port where normal passenger ferries operated by ANEK Lines, Bluestar Ferries, and Hellenic Seaways disembark. Do not confuse this harbour with the Domestic Port within the Commercial Harbour currently used by Dodecanses Seaways. This harbour is the furthest and most isolated of all harbours in Rhodes, located about 1km outside of the Old Town.

1) The Commercial Harbour: 

The Commercial Harbour of Rhodes is divided into two parts, the International Arrivals harbour, and the Domestic port. This paragraph deals with the International Arrivals areas of the Commercial Harbour. Passengers who arrive with catamaran, hydrofoil or normal car ferries from Turkey all disembark at this harbour. Passport control facilities are located in the white building with red curved roof in the centre of the photo. After disembarkation, passengers are required to proceed to international arrivals to have their passport stamped, after which they will pass through the customs and exit the Commercial Harbour areas through the main gate.

Shopping in Italy: Turin

For me, there is no other better place in Italy to squander money than in Turin. This city is meant for serious shopping. From international luxury boutiques (e.g. Hermes) to independent small retailers to family-owned leather shops, Turin offers excellent shopping opportunities for those who know what they want.

This being one of the most important cities in Italy, needless to say all the major players in Italy's fashion industry are present. On Piazza San Carlo and the adjacent Via Roma, as well as Via Giuseppe Luigi Lagrange parallel to Piazza San Carlo, one can find international boutiques and prestigeous names such as Hermes, Max Mara, Ferragamo, Mont Blanc, Louis Vuitton, Armani, Gucci, Prada, Chanel, Dior, etc., as well as many other Italian brands. The advantage of shopping in Turin is, being somewhat off-the-beaten-tourist-track, you can look around the shops at your own pace, nobody will try to hassel you, coerce you into buying something, or attempt some aggressive selling tactics on you. And you don't have to push you way around the boutiques amid masses of package-tour tourists from the US and Asia, nor fight your way through the shopfloors till you reach the cashiers. Unlike Florence or Venice, shops in Turin in general do not carry much tourist stuffs. Which is good as I am sick of seeing precious shop spaces in prime locations stocked up with cheap Made in China tourist souvenir and memorabilia.