Quote:
Originally Posted by golddog
Sorry to hear about the shitty travel experience, leon. If it suits you (even though it's not what this thread is about), I'd be interested in hearing about the trip.
For sure- zero gambling content ahead and no pics- my wife took all the photos and when I'm not doing a Vegas TR I actually prefer to just live in the moment rather than trying to document everything in pics/videos.
As I may have mentioned, my wife is dual French/American as are my kids. She grew up in Paris and my MIL still lives there, so that's like home base in Europe for us. My wife and kids went for 3 weeks, they hit London, Vienna, Paris. I could only join for 2 and went with my mom for Vienna and Paris. From this point, I'll just mention things I found interesting/other people may find helpful rather than trying to describe everything top to bottom and not do the cities justice.
Vienna
We stayed for 6 days (5 for me since I lost 24hrs trying to get there). Vienna is an awesome city to visit, small enough that a week will let you see lots of things, most people speak English, etc. If you're going for the first time, I'd recommend staying in InnerStadt which is central to 90% of the tourist attractions etc. This was our first time, but I made the mistake of booking a hotel outside of InnerStadt. It was only a mile away and I figured we'd be walking a lot and I know the public transportation is awesome, but I didn't take into account that we'd be traveling with 75 and 85 yr old women, and how much of a drag it would be to walk back at the end of each day. We used public transport for the vast majority of our outings, but even that can be a pain in ass depending on the circumstance (eg, we get out of dinner around 11pm and just want to head back to the hotel).
Music lover/pianist that I am, I was really looking forward to Vienna. We hit the Music museum which honestly is no big deal, but it's good for an hr or so if you want to dive a little deeper into music history/Viennese music history. I booked a practice studio twice while I was there- easily findable online and I was shocked that "anyone" could just for a few euros bang away on a grand piano if they wanted. There are a ton of dinner/concert packages available- if you go that route, I'd look around and try and find a concert that you actually care about. I booked one with Mozart/Strauss and just stopped reading, but it ended up being a little boring. I wish I did my homework more and found artists that I'm much more into (eg, Beethoven, Chopin), but it was a package museum tour, dinner, concert... what can you do?
Transport- already mentioned, but the public transport system is the nuts and easy to use. Highly recommend. Plus, not once was my pass checked or scanned- I honestly think my party of 6 could have gotten around for free the entire week if we wanted to scam the system.
Food- decent... not great. We tried as much as we could to avoid touristy stuff so let's start there. We ate street food and classic Viennese cuisine as much as we could (eg, Schnitzel, Sachertorte, etc) and booked a couple Michelin or near Michelin restaurants as well. The desserts were good but not overly so. We even went to one of two places that claim they invented the Sachertorte (so much so that they've had a lawsuit over who invented it)- it was good but nothing to die for. Nothing was ever bad, I guess I was just expecting to be overwhelmed and wasn't. Any decent restaurant on the Strip is going to be just as good or better. The street food was as good as street food can be, if I go back I'll mostly stick to that and just eat things that are hard to find in the US.
Other stuff- general lack of A/C everywhere. Plan accordingly. One can probably see most of the Innerstadt stuff in 3 days, plenty of time to see other things Vienna has to offer (which we basically didn't).
Paris
I know Paris much better and have probably been about 20 times in my life. When we go, it's more like visiting a second home or in the case of my wife, outright coming home. We got an airbnb right by my MIL, my mom stayed with my MIL. Because we've been so many times, we found ourselves actually cancelling or modifying plans much more so than making them. There's always next time, we don't feel like XYZ this time, etc. Very untouristy. That said, here are some things I can offer-
We walked a ton and used public transport a ton too. Paris might be the most walkable city in the world IMO. It's still pretty small, subway system is the nuts, and every block there's some amazing attraction/something 300 yrs older than the US. If you're visiting, you can probably stay anywhere in the city and you'll be fine.
We were going to go to the Army Museum (for probably the 5th time, my youngest is a huge military buff), but for some reason day of he wasn't up for it. I'd definitely go if you've never been. Walking from the Arc de triomphe to Trocadero or beyond is easily doable. You basically can't go wrong, honestly. There's so much to see and do that I would recommend at least a week for anyone who hasn't been. I also got a piano session in at a Bechstein gallery (rooms for rent just like in Vienna).
Food- eat everything. Do NOT get anything on the Champs Elysees- you will over pay and it will be bad. Other than that, basically eat everything. OK, don't bother getting Chinese (I have yet to see real Chinese in Paris, it's all Vietnamese masquerading as Chinese) or Indian (will be bland, spiceless). But street food/Mid East/everything else? Go nuts. It's France after all. The real challenge will be not being ******edly full for the entire trip.
Gambling- ok, I thought there wouldn't be any gambling but I just thought about this. I doubt anyone reading this will need the advice but here goes anyways. When you go Sacre-Coeur/Montmartre (think the steps in John Wick 4 at the end of the movie that he has to fight his way up), and really any major touristy area, there are so many scam artists out and about. The 3 cup/3 card monte game, as an example. I'm always shocked to see how many people will stand around and watch/play as if they have a chance to win. Even the onlookers are basically setting themselves up to be pickpocketed. Paris' pickpocket game is strong, I gotta say that. People coming up to you with a petition to sign? That's a scam- they're distracting you while someone else picks your pocket. Gang of gypsies on the subway? Hold the F on to your belongings. It's sad but I guess expected- Paris is such a huge tourist destination from all over the world that at any given time there's a huge collection of fish. I love the city and wish it didn't deserve that rep, but it's real- if you don't watch yourself in the city you could easily get F'd.
Those are my thoughts in no particular order. Oh, WTF is up with French people getting up from their seats the INSTANT an airplane lands? I don't think I've ever been on a plane landing in Paris where that hasn't happened. Cue flight attendant yelling, etc- makes no difference. To be fair, my own people seem to do this an awful lot too- I cringe whenever some rude-ass Chinese does some stereotypical rude-ass Chinese thing... dude, you're giving the rest of us a bad name.