Holiday destinations: Cambridge, UK

April 6, 2018September 16, 20212 Comments

A few weeks ago, I was on a business trip in Cambridge.

Cambridge is a city in the county town of Cambridgeshire in England. It is located around 80 km north of London and in 2011 its population was slightly over 123,000 including almost 25 thousands of students.

Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology industries including software and bio-science and many start-up companies spun out of the university.

More than 40% of the workforce has a higher education qualification, more than twice the national average.

There’s lots to see in this beautiful city-here is a short list of my suggestions:

King’s College Chapel;
Fitzwilliam Museum;
Mathematical Bridge;
Cambridge University Botanic Garden;
University of Cambridge.

I hope you enjoyed reading this review.

Pauline

Holiday destinations: Vilnius, Lithuania

March 23, 2018September 16, 20212 Comments

I have recently visited Vilnius and stayed there for 3 days with my husband.

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Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania. It contains one of the largest surviving medieval quarters in Europe.

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It is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List, Old Town contains almost two thousand medieval, gothic, renaissance, and baroque buildings.

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Top 5 ‘must-see’ places to visit are:

Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania – the former political, diplomatic, cultural centre of the State.
Gediminas’ Tower of the Upper Castle – An observation deck on the top of the tower is the best place from which to appreciate a magnificent panorama of Vilnius.
Cathedral Basilica – The Cathedral of St. Stanislav and St. Vladislav is the most important place of worship for Lithuania’s Catholics, and the venue for the country’s main Christian, for, and national festivities.
Gates of Dawn – The Gates of Dawn is one of the most visited shrines in Vilnius that is famous not only in Lithuania but also abroad, worshipped by the representatives of other creeds too. This is the only surviving gate of the first original five gates in the city wall that was built between 1503 and 1522.
Church of St Anne – The church of St Anne is a masterpiece of the late Gothic period.

We really enjoyed our stay in Vilnius. It is definitely worth visiting if you decide to travel to Eastern Europe.

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I hope you enjoyed reading this review.

Pauline

Holiday destinations: Reading, UK

February 9, 2018September 16, 2021Leave a comment

I travel to Reading regularly on business so today I would like to tell you a bit more about this town.

Reading is a large town on the Thames and Kennet rivers located just 25 min away by fast train from London Paddington. It’s known for the annual Reading Festival and it’s shopping district at the town centre. There are also a few monuments and museums in there including the Reading Museum which contains exhibits on the town’s history and displays a Victorian replica of the Bayeux Tapestry.

Here is a short list of my suggestions of places worth visiting:

Reading Museum:

reading museum 2. Basildon Park:

basildon-park-front-of 3. Reading Abbey:

Reading Abbey 4. Museum of Berkshire Aviation:

mus_new 5. Riverside Museum at Blake’s lock:

riverside museum

I hope you enjoyed reading this review.

Pauline

Holiday Destinations: Bruges, Belgium

January 26, 2018September 16, 2021Leave a comment

A few weeks ago, I took my husband to Belgium for 4 days break to celebrate his birthday. During our stay we spend most of our time in Brussels but we also went on a day-trip to Bruges.

Bruges is Belgium’s most perfectly preserved medieval town and its stunning architecture attracts over two million visitors every year. If you Belgian fries, waffles, seafood and beer then you should definitely make your way there.

Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the northwest of the country. The historic city center is a prominent World Heritage Site of UNESCO. The city’s total population is slightly over 120,000 of whom around 20,000 live in the city center.

There’s lots to see in this beautiful city often referred to as the Venice of the North.

Here is a short list of my suggestions:

Belfry and Halle;
Markt;
Town Hall;
Groeninge Museum;
Church of our Lady.

I hope you enjoyed reading this review.

Pauline

Holiday destinations: Singapore

December 22, 2017September 16, 2021Leave a comment

I have recently returned from my honeymoon and today I would like to tell you about the first destination I visited-Singapore.

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Singapore is the world’s only island city-state that is based one degree north of the equator, south of the southernmost tip of continental Asia and peninsular Malaysia, with Indonesia’s Riau Islands to the south. It is known as a global commerce, finance and transport hub.

What I found inspiring is that most Singaporeans are bilingual. There are four official languages on the island: Malay, Tamil, Mandarin and English.

We decided to see what the city has to offer by taking a bus tour and although, it is a nice, modern city it doesn’t have much heritage.

There were 100s of shopping malls so if you are planning to go on a shopping trip then you could add Singapore to your destination list. The prices of most items are higher than in UK though so change the exchange rate before you splash your cash 🙂

The highlight of my visit to Singapore was our visit to the Botanic Gardens. They were beautiful and I had an opportunity to walk in the rain-forest that is located in the middle of the city.

Top places that you should go to whilst in Singapore are:

Botanic Gardens
National Gallery
Gardens by the Bay
Singapore Zoo
Little India

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I hope you enjoy reading this post!

Pauline

Holiday destinations: Brussels, Belgium

June 2, 2017September 16, 20214 Comments

I’ve visited Brussels on the multiple occasions and I always like returning to this city made famous by its French fries, waffles, seafood and beer.

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Brussels is the largest city and a capital of Belgium. It has a population of 1.2 million and it has been increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages.

Historically it was a Dutch-speaking city, it has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards.

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Today the majority language is French however all road signs, street names and many services are shown in both languages. If you fancy a short break then Brussels is a great destination as it is only 2 hours away on the Eurostar.

There’s lots to see in the city from the famous chocolate shops to enjoying its cafe culture in the Grand-Place area.

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Here is a short list of my suggestions:

Grote Markt (Dutch) / Grand-Place (French).
City Museum – Maison du Roi (French) – Broodhuis (Flemish).
Hôtel de Ville – Town Hall.
Heysel Park and the Atomium.
Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Koekelberg Basilica).

I hope you enjoyed reading this review.

Pauline

Holiday destinations: Berlin, Germany

May 5, 2017September 16, 2021Leave a comment

Berlin is one of my favourite capitals. Last time I stayed there was during a week-long business trip and even though my spare time was limited, I made sure that I spent it discovering the hidden germs of this beautiful city.

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Berlin is the capital of Germany and has a population of approximately 3.5 million people. It is located in north-eastern Germany on the banks of Rivers Spree and Havel.

So what should you see if you were there only for 24 hours?

There are a number of different historical points worth visiting in Berlin: Unter den Linden and the glorious Brandenburger Tor speak of the city’s Prussian heritage, the Topography of Terror is a chilling reminder of its brutal Nazi years, and the East Side Gallery is a colourful tribute to a once divided city (and the largest remaining section of the Berlin Wall still standing).

In addition, Berlin has over 200 museums, from world-class collections of Classical art at the beautifully restored Neues Museum, to the striking Liebeskind-designed Jewish Museum and plenty more irreverent affairs. What I was fond of the most is the fact that it is a very green city and around one-third of its area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers and lakes.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post!

Pauline

Holiday destinations: Riga, Latvia

April 7, 2017September 16, 2021Leave a comment

I have recently visited Riga for 3 days with my husband. It is the capital and the largest city of Latvia and by means of 696,593 inhabitants (2015), Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states and home to one third of Latvia’s population. The city lies at the mouth of the Daugava and is frequently described as the pearl of the Baltics.

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We really enjoyed our romantic walks around Riga’s historical centre which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There were also a plenty of local bars to visit and some traditional restaurants that served some tasty, local dishes.

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It is definitely worth visiting if you decide to travel to Eastern Europe. Flight from London is just over 2 hours so it is a great destination for a short (& cheap) weekend break.

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I hope you enjoyed reading this review.

Pauline

Holiday destinations: Bansko, Bulgaria

March 8, 2017September 16, 2021Leave a comment

I have just came back from my winter holidays with my family in Bansko in Bulgaria. This mountain resort is an excellent choice for your ski and snowboard holiday in Bulgaria.

Bansko was voted as the best winter resort in Bulgaria with the longest ski runs and the richest cultural history. The town of Bansko is situated at the foot of the Pirin mountain in the south-western Bulgaria, 160 km from Sofia (around 3.5 hours’ drive from the airport).

The resort offers excellent ski and snowboard conditions and infrastructure. There are a lot of hotels of various standards and prices based in there. I would personally recommend Premier Mountain Resort or Kempinski Hotel if you like staying in luxury hotels.

What’s worth mentioning here, the prices of hotels, ski rentals etc. are probably 50% cheaper than in Alps so you can stay in a 5 star hotel for the price of 2/3 star hotel in Austria or France.

Après ski

So what to do after a day on slopes? Après ski in the resort is really good and offers hundreds of bars, traditional restaurants and clubs where you can indulge after your skiing or snowboarding adventures. I will be posting some reviews of places that are worth visiting whilst in Bulgaria soon.

Location

Bansko is a ski and mountain resort located in the south-western part of Bulgaria. The town is situated 6 km from the town of Razlog and 160 km from the capital of Sofia. The town of Bansko is located 925 m above the sea level whereas its ski area – at an altitude of 2000 – 2600 m.

Resort information

Bansko ski resort is attractive in all seasons but I’ve only been there during the winter as I love skiing.

The ski season in Bansko lasts from 15 December to 14 April. During the recent years a multimillion Euros investment in a brand new skiing area has been made by Yulen, the company that runs the skiing area of Bansko. Numerous new luxury hotels and facilities in the area of the Gondola lift station have been constructed. It provides excellent ski and snowboard facilities, as well as a unique history and architecture of an old and new part of the town.

I hope you enjoyed reading this review!

Pauline

Holiday destinations: Brussels, Belgium

February 22, 2017September 16, 2021Leave a comment

A few weeks ago, I took my husband to Brussels. It is one of these places where I’ve been to on multiple occasions and I always like returning to this city made famous by its French fries, waffles, seafood and beer.

Historically it was a Dutch-speaking city, it has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today the majority language is French however all road signs, street names and many services are shown in both languages. If you fancy a short break then Brussels is a great destination as it is only 2 hours away on the Eurostar.