Offers
Reviews
 |
Königstrasse (Stuttgart)
by MALU Come with me to Stuttgart, the capital of the land Baden-Württemberg in the south west of Germany. Let's stroll along the Königstrasse (König=King; Straße=street), Germany's longest pedestrianised shopping street. It begins just in front of the station. It's 1200 m long; 251 shops, restaurants and cafés can be found there as well as ... some of the famous sights of the city. Fear not, I'm not going to lead you through all establishments on either side of the street! I'll point out only the ones I know and which may be of interest to you. I'm not into shopping myself, I see it as a necessity, not a pleasure. People who say that shopping is their hobby are sick in my opinion. I know, of course, that if all people were like me, the German economy wouldn't be flourishing as well as it does. I won't change my attitude, however, for patriotic reasons. First thing on the left you find the Tourist Information. Until 1922 the King's Gate used to be there, it was erected to celebrate Friedrich (Frederic), the first King of Württemberg who ordered that a street be built up to the square where the Old and the New Castle stood. The Castle Square is now in the middle of the Königstraße. The part from the station to this point is called Lower Königstraße, the part from there up to the end is Upper Königstraße. The Königstraße has made it onto the list of the Top 25 German shopping streets. On average about 100.000 people can be found there *every day*! With this it lies behind Köln (Cologne), Hamburg and Munich and is par with Frankfurt. It was certainly a good idea to ban car traffic and to put the tram underground although people grumbled a lot, of course, when this was done in the 1970s. Today the Königstraße is not only a street for shoppers but also for flâneurs. It's a permanent open air circus featuring street artists of all kinds. How do you know that you're in Stuttgart and not in some other city? Looking back at the station you see a high tower at its right side with a big rotating Mercedes star on top reminding people where the money comes from in this region. The shops in this area are rather small. On the left is a tiny Lush shop. Yes, indeed, Lush has come to Germany, too. On the right side you find two delicatessen shops selling expensive meat products as well as savoury pastries and pies. This is stuff you take home with you and eat there, the other food selling establishments on the Königstraße sell it ready for consumption on their premises or when walking around. A deplorable and unappetising habit which we have to live with, I'm afraid. Some people sit down at least while eating. There are many trees in the Königstraße with benches round their trunks. Not only eaters sit there but also tired shoppers and gawkers. Children find an area with playground equipment in the middle of the street beside a fountain in the shape of half a dandelion clock (see pic at the top) so that they don't get too grumpy during the shopping trip. If you're intent on buying clothes, you can go to small shops, many of which belong to international chains, or to huge department stores. They're huge by German standards but nothing to write home about compared with Selfridges or Debenhams on Oxford Street. When my students saw these buildings on a trip to London, their jaws dropped! Should you care for a homey feeling you can go to Hugendubel, a two-storey book shop on the left side. On the first floor they have an English section which classics and current bestsellers. This is where I go and check out new books which I then buy on Amazon with my vouchers (Don't tell Mr Hugendubel). On the second floor is a small cafeteria, it's nice to sit there among all the books. Only last week I went there with a friend and had a hot chocolate with orange flavour and whipped cream on top, very good. When I'm alone in Stuttgart (during term time I go there twice a week to attend lectures and seminars at uni, I'm a senior 'guest-student'), I usually have my cappuccino or espresso macchiato in the Hochland Café which is located between the Drugstore Müller next door and the Catholic church St Eberhard. They have the finest coffee in Stuttgart and good cake. We're now getting to the Castle Square, in my opinion one of the prettiest squares in Germany. To the right is the Königsbau (King's Building), once the stock exchange, now a shopping centre with a café and with colonnades open to the square and a covered shopping mall behind it. The square proper is on the left. Directly opposite the Königsbau is the Neues Schloss (New Castle), the seat of several ministries. It was badly bombed during WW II as were many other buildings in the inner city. It's been rebuilt in the original style. A bit to the right is the Altes Schloss (Old Castle) which houses the museum of the history of Württemberg. It shows a real king's crown, not as impressive as the one in the Tower, but no queues there, you can look at it as long as you like. There are permanent exhibitions and temporary ones. Two weeks ago an exhibition on the Celts opened of which a part is also shown in the Kunstgebäude (Art Building) just across the Castle Square. In the middle of the Castle Square is the Jubilee Column with a female figure on top holding a wreath. It was erected in 1841 to celebrate the 60th birthday of the then monarch King William I of Württemberg. Furthermore, there are two enormous fountains. Best of all, however, are the well kept lawns on which folks are allowed to lie. When the weather is good, it's a pretty sight, all the magnificent buildings and a colourful crowd in between. With so many people out and about it's not surprising that there are so many street artists. Many years ago I met a young Englishman at a party, the hosts had befriended and invited him. He had given up his job as a teacher to become a busker. His instrument was the accordion. He didn't only like busking more than teaching, he even earned more. From him we learnt that the Königstraße in Stuttgart is a top address for buskers. On a good day you can find, say, players of Australian didgeridoos, the ubiquitous South American Indio groups and Russian violinists whose real job is to play in a symphony orchestra at home (where they earn less in a year than they do in a month on a busy German shopping street). You can see pavement painters, breakdance artists and youngsters doing tricks on slacklines or jugglers juggling burning torches. Unfortunately, there are also many beggars. A few are Germans, OAPs and young punks with dogs, but the majority are members of organised groups from Eastern Europe. They're taken by car to pedestrian precincts in the morning and collected again in the evening. Whatever you give them lands in the pockets of their bosses. Before the Upper Königstraße begins, we have to look at - or go into? - the Kunstmuseum (Art Museum) where the collections belonging to the city of Stuttgart are on display. We only see a glass cube by day. By night the interior limestone walls are illuminated and become visible. It has two skins then so-to-speak. On the top floor is an elegant restaurant and café from where you have an excellent view of the Castle Square and the surrounding hills. When it's warm enough (for Germans it's warm enough when it isn't freezing), there's an outdoor café in front of the entrance of the museum. If you like people watching, this is one of the many places where you can do it. What do Stuttgarters look like? That's difficult to answer. Many non-Swabian Germans (the Swabians are the indigenous German tribe living in the region) have moved to Stuttgart for economic reasons and 40% of the ~ 600.000 inhabitants, and 64% of the population below the age of five, are of foreign immigrant background. Moving further up the Königstraße we find more elegant and expensive shops than below the Castle Square. And banks. The money you need for your shopping spree must come from somewhere, mustn't it? Everyone can find something for their wallet. Of course, some money should be in the wallet when you go shopping. When I was with a class of pubescent pupils on a day out in Stuttgart some years ago, it wasn't an empty wallet but sheer juvenile goofiness that made a girl steal a pair of shoe laces (!) in a shop with an outdoor display. Thanks to her I now know how shop detectives on the Königstraße work. In the end the shoelaces cost her 30 Euro and a letter to her parents. I think we've had enough. Let's turn round and go back to the station. You'd think that *everybody* who isn't visually challenged could see the tower with the rotating Mercedes star right in front of them but not so three boys from a different class who got lost on the way from the Castle Square to the station (~ 300 m!). Fortunately I was with a colleague and mobile phones had already been invented. I took the class back to our hometown, my colleague localised the stray boys and returned one train later. I don't miss this part of being a teacher! Insolent parents who claim that a day out means a day off work for a teacher should be thrown into a dungeon. Read the complete review |
|
|
CSI: The Experience (Las Vegas)
by pink_glitter We went to Las Vegas in September and one of the things we visited was the CSI: The Experience attraction. We decided to do this as part of an offer MGM resorts had running, whereby if you bought tickets for three attractions from a list of five or six, you got a small discount. My husband chose CSI: The Experience as he is a fan of the ... show. I wasn't really keen on going to this, as I'd read some reviews of it and they were all pretty negative, as well as the general idea of a CSI themed attraction not really appealing to me. I had to admit it did sound better than the other options on the list though, so we picked this as our third choice. The attraction runs at the MGM Grand hotel on the Las Vegas Strip and tickets can be purchased at the box office. I didn't think the attraction was very well signposted once we were inside the hotel, but thankfully my husband had spotted the entrance a few days earlier and remembered where it was. When we arrived we were directed down some stairs and arrived at a reception desk, where we handed our tickets over to the lady there and in return were given clipboards. These clipboards had details of a crime on them, which we were expected to solve. We were also told that if we wanted to we could get into the spirit of things by wearing a CSI vest, which were located on a rack near the entrance. They tend to let only a few groups go in at once, so we had to wait at the entrance for around 5-10 minutes for some more people to turn up before we could actually enter the attraction. Once we went in, we were taken to a darkened room with small stools where we had to sit and watch an introductory video featuring Gil Grissom from the show. Once that was done, we were directed through some doors into a room where we could begin solving our crime... There are three crime scenes at the attraction and you will be assigned to one, as detailed on the clipboard you are given. We were both assigned to crime two. You can only solve one crime - if you want to solve more than one, you will be expected to pay extra for the privilege. You are given a discount coupon for this on your clipboard to encourage you to do so. To solve the crime you have to go through several rooms each with a different function. First is a mock-up of a crime scene, then you get to a room where you can analyse DNA on a computer, a room where you can analyse different tyre tracks, analyse a substance, read the victims recent texts, that sort of thing. To be honest, I thought the crime was relatively easy to solve, I thought there might be an unexpected twist somewhere, but it was pretty basic. My husband described it as being 'a bit like put the square peg in the square hole' and I did see what he was saying - for example you get a board showing three fingerprints and you have to slide the suspects fingerprints over the top to see which matches. Hardly rocket science, especially as all three fingerprints bear no similarity to each other whatsoever! You can solve the crime at your own pace and I'd say we were there for around 45 minutes at the most. It possibly would have been even shorter, but there were six people assigned to our case and only two computers so we did have some waiting around whilst the other people finished up. At the end of the attraction you are expected to type the details you have written on your clipboard onto a computer. You are then told if you have successfully solved your crime and if so can then enter your email details to be mailed a certificate should you wish to do so. I went through the process of this, however I will freely admit I had no desire to receive a certificate, which is just as well as I got to the last page and was unable to submit the form! The attraction costs $28 (approx £17) per person and runs between 9am and 9pm daily. Children under 12 need to be accompanied by an adult. On the whole I thought this was pretty disappointing and I'm glad we got discounted tickets as there is no way it was worth the full ticket price. The crime was very easy to solve to the point I almost felt patronised by some of the questions on the clipboard, not to mention it was so short it felt almost like it was over before it began. I thought there would have been more things relating to the actual show and overall the whole thing was just a little bit disappointing. Unless you're a superfan of CSI, I couldn't really recommend this attraction. Read the complete review |
 |
M&Ms World (Las Vegas, USA)
by pink_glitter When we decided to go to Las Vegas we were bombarded with recommendations of places to go by friends and colleagues who had already visited. One place which came up more than once was M&M's World, which was described by one (quite obviously insane) friend as being one of the best free things to do in Vegas. Although I made a mental ... note to make a visit, at no point did I actually ever question what M&M's World was! I'd seen a picture on a website somewhere of a building with a huge yellow M&M packet on the front and (wrongly) assumed it was some sort of amusement type place dedicated to M&M's chocolate. Perhaps that's why I was so disappointed... M&M's World is located on Las Vegas Boulevard (AKA The Strip) towards the south end, opposite the Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino. It was easy to get to and of course the giant M&M packet and M&M characters on the front make it easy to spot. As we entered M&M's World, we were greeted by what can only be described as the biggest selection of M&M branded tat I have ever seen in my life. Now don't get me wrong, I like M&M's (only the chocolate ones though, not the peanut ones!) - but never in my life have I felt the need to buy an M&M branded teapot, soap dispenser, bath towel, cup and saucer or for that matter any of the other products set out before me. Obviously though others did as we saw people carrying the distinctive yellow M&M shopping bags all throughout our stay. I would love to tell you that the M&M gift shop was only confined to the ground floor of M&M World, however we had to endure three more floors of it. I was expecting that the other floors would offer something different, but no, not really. There are escalators and lifts up to the other floors and one thing I did find interesting was paintings of how the M&M characters have looked throughout the years which are painted onto the wall alongside the escalator. I hadn't realised they had been around since the 1960's, I thought they were an 80's or 90's thing. On the subject of the characters, there are several places on each floor where you can have your photo taken with a large plastic M&M character. These are mocked up with different backgrounds, so you can for example have your photo taken in front of the Vegas sign whilst cuddling a huge plastic M&M, should that float your boat. We also on a separate occasion saw a person dressed as an M&M standing next to the entrance posing for photos with shoppers, I don't envy that job since it was 100 degrees outside. Other than being a gift shop M&M World does have a few extra features I should mention. For example, you can see a short 3D film featuring the M&M characters on the third floor. We missed the showing when we were there, but obviously it is aimed more at children anyway and I seem to recall from the sign that it only lasts around 10 minutes. As well as the film, on the top floor of M&M World was an M&M sponsored NASCAR. I have no interest in NASCAR, but this certainly seemed popular and there were lots of photos being taken of it. Aside from all the insanely overpriced plastic tat, M&M World does of course sell M&M's and the whole place has a rather chocolatey aroma to it, which is nice when you walk in, but nauseating after a while. There is a whole M&M wall on one floor, where you can fill a cup with a multitude of colours and flavours of your choice. You can of course then buy one of the many M&M dispensers located around the store to put them in too! Another thing you can do at M&M world - which was one of its only redeeming features for me - was to make personalised M&M's. This is done at a kiosk where you can either write your own message or select an image from a range of clip-art to have printed onto the sweets. As we had just got married we thought it would be quite funny to make some personalised M&M's as thank you gifts. The kiosk is very easy to use, you simply choose four designs then print out a slip and take it to the till. We chose 'Thank You', our names and then clip art featuring the Vegas sign and two wedding rings. We were asked to choose a cup from four sizes (we chose the largest) and then had to fill it with M&M's of our colour choice. You then tip them into a machine which prints them with your designs. It wasn't cheap at $20 for the smallest and $50 for the largest cup, but I thought it made a unique, if somewhat tacky gift! The staff at M&M World were also really nice, the ladies at the counter noticed the designs we had chosen and wanted to know all about our wedding. Although I was happy with our personalised M&M's (despite still not having fully recovered from the price tag on them!), on the whole I wasn't so impressed with M&M World. I think perhaps if it had more interactive features and less branded tat it might be more worth a visit, because really it's just like a giant gift shop at the moment with a few extras thrown in. I personally wouldn't go back and overall, I think I could only recommend M&M world to die hard M&M fans or those who want to fill their house with novelty chocolate themed items! Read the complete review |
Sightseeing International |
||
|---|---|---|
|
2 reviews Sightseeing International / |
|
|
Address: Agulhus National Park / Sightseeing International / Cape Agulhas / Western Cape / South Africa. |
|
|
1 review Sightseeing International / Trolley tour of Galena, Illinois, USA. |
|
|
1 review Sightseeing International / River boat cruises - La Cross, Wisconsin, USA. |
|
|
Sightseeing International / Free walking tour in Krakow, Poland. |
|
|
Sightseeing International / Site of ancient hippodrome in Sultanahmet Meydanı square, Istanbul, Turkey. |
|
|
Sightseeing International / The Cathedral of St. Andrew, Amalfi, Italy. |
|
|
Sightseeing International / Former residence of the Italian royal family near Naples, Italy. |
|
|
2 reviews Address: International Dr 4951 / Sightseeing International / International Drive Orlando / FL 32819 / USA |
|
|
1 review Sightseeing International / The Gomantong Caves in north eastern Borneo. |
|
| Sightseeing International recommendations 1 ... 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 ... back next | ||
| dooyoo Results 101 - 110 of 1793 | ||
