historic center tagged posts

In Spain, Islands in the Mediterranean On  02/09/2004  One comment

I took advantage of my mother’s visit to Spain to go to Mallorca. We went for only four days. We arrive on the afternoon and we stayed sunbathing on the terrace of the hotel. Later we had a delicious torte with tea and went for a walk on the old town.

The city of Palm is beautiful, it has a very interesting old town and wide avenues with coconut tree. We realized that they were accustomed with tourists because we were always well treated in restaurants and hotels. They are hospitable, different from other parts of Spain where they seem to be bothered by the presence of tourists.

On our last day on the island we try to take a boat tour but it was not possible. He was final of the high season and in those days they had changed the schedules of the boats. We always arrived one minutes later that the boat had left. Great part was error of the workshop of tourist information that in said the wrong schedule to them...

In Scandinavia - Baltic 2004, Europe On  19/08/2004  One comment

When we arrived in Tallinn it was raining and cold. We went for a coffee and walk a little in the old town. I was impressed by the amount of tourists despite of the rain. We walked on the narrow streets with groups of English, German and Spanish people. They were all with their rain jackets and photo camera. Places with many tourists, specially groups, make me claustrophobic. It was as if we were in Disneyland visiting organized old towns, there was even a trolley to take visitors for a drive around downtown.

I spent a great part of my days on lectures. My mother was walking around town and going to souvenir shops. We found out that the city was not so touristy as we thought, there were only times that groups would invade downtown. In my understanding, it could be the time when cruise ships stopped there for a few hours. The old town could be very beautiful and pleasant, specially on the evenings and hours with little tourism.

In one of the days in town we went to a party on a square ...

In Learning German 2003, Europe On  15/09/2003  No comments

After the exhausting week in Linz, I got in Munich and slept for almost a whole day. I needed… The days here were not so beautiful. It was raining and it started to be cold. I realized the summer was over.

I waked around downtown, went to shops, cafes, and, as usual, I end up in museums. First, I visited the city museum (Stadtmuseum). There were paintings, drawings and maquettes that told the region history. There was a part dedicated to music and theater. Here it could be found all kinds of marionettes and toys. I liked to see that, as in Brazil I do not know any museum that show such things. The music part, for being small, impressed me the great amount of instruments from other parts of the world as from Asia, America and Africa. Every time I see this, it bothers me that the third world is being left without history, and that the rich countries are the ones to tell our history.

On the same day I visited the Deutsches Museum, a huge museum on technology...

In Learning German 2003, Europe On  01/09/2003  No comments

I arrived in Leipzig on a Sunday morning. Since it was raining, I spent a lot of time in a Frühstücksbuffet (a brunch). I had lots of food and went back to the hostel for a nap. It was a perfect day to relax.

After the nap I walked around downtown, sometimes the sun tried to show up a little bit. The historical center is beautiful, with its old building, cafes and shops. Leipzig is a town with an artistic and intellectual background, here lived personalities such as Goethe and Bach. Today it seems to be an student town. This was one of the few European cities where I saw people kissing each other on the streets. That caught my attention because, in my idea of “cold German people” wouldn’t be youngsters kissing in public. Maybe they were tourists… I don’t believe so…

I visited the Bach Museum. It is not big, it has some images from his time, partitures sheet music and a handset with explanations on his life and work. I like it...