A Travel Blog
At the heart of Astypalea’s Chora is a small, cobbled square adjacent to a row of cheery red and white windmills. The mills are obviously no longer used to grind grain, but have been maintained for other purposes. Many roads on the island seem to lead to this square, eventually, and most of the shops and cafes frequented by locals and tourists alike are located around the perimeter.
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Out of all the nice little cafés and brown cafés we visited during our time in the Netherlands, Café DeRat in Utrecht was probably our favourite. The space was cozy, the staff was friendly, and we were welcomed by a personable cat named Josefien.
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We spent a day in the town of Delft, located just under an hour from Amsterdam by train. With a population around 100,000 it was the smallest town we visited in the Netherlands. Delft is popular with tourists for its picturesque canals, towering old churches, and landmarks related to painter Johannes Vermeer.
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We stayed in Amsterdam Zuid, a little south outside the busy core of the city. Separation from the overcrowded tourist areas was great for our sanity but the immediate surroundings didn’t provide many restaurants. Luckily, the neighbourhood of De Pijp, only a couple subway stops north, had many great spots for eating and drinking.
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When we decided to stay in the Russafa neighbourhood of Valencia, we knew that it was home to many restaurants, cafes, and bars. But we didn’t realize the extent of the choices until we were there. During our three week visit we ate most of our meals in this compact area within walking distance of our apartment, yet we barely scratched the surface of potential places to eat.
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During our first week in Valencia, we had lunch inside the Mercado de Colón, a former traditional market that’s been renovated to house two floors of upscale restaurants, shops and cafés.
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Unfortunately we’ve both been quite sick since before we arrived in Valencia, and our lingering colds and flus are not letting go easily. That means that during our first week here we’ve been mostly sticking to our local neighborhood for lunches or dinners, and stocking up at the local Consum supermarket to cook at the apartment. Luckily none of this is a hardship as the neighbourhood is filled with nice places to eat, and the produce is great.
Read the full post »Our Airbnb was on the Leith Walk, just a little bit outside the core of Edinburgh. This proved a good choice, far enough outside the Royal Mile area to avoid tourist traps, but gentrified enough to provide good options for visitors.
Edinburgh is home to a seemingly endless number of pubs. Most of them are nondescript neighbourhood corner spots serving mainly locals. Others are more touristy and claim long, elaborate histories. In every one we visited we found a warm welcome and unexpectedly good food.
This week we discovered a couple more good places to eat and drink near our place in Seville.
Bar Ajoblanco is a quirky little place that sells vinyl records, VHS tapes and Tex-Mexish food. We tried some tacos and enchiladas along with an order of nachos and guac.
Our Airbnb apartment is in an area of Seville known as La Macarena.
The neighbourhood is most famed for its Basílica de la Macarena and a long stretch of the original murallas, or protective city walls that date to Roman times.
On Sunday we had lunch at Bar Alfalfa, a tiny nook of a tapas bar near Seville’s Plaza de la Alfalfa.
This neighbourhood is only 10 minutes by foot from our apartment, but it was the first time we’d wandered through.