Copenhagen

I think a lot of the Eastern European cities are an old town area with historic main square with side streets off that and the rest a bit more "functional". Bratislava had a nice square but it was dead. Not many locals out but it did have a plus point in that there were few stag dos.

I must say you've given me something to think about if you rate them above Kraków and Prague as I think they're both great cities. I wasn't keen on Berlin though.

Intending to go Belgium next year but it will be Brussels for the grand depart.

 

Do a quick google of images for Riga and you get a very good feel for the grandeur that you'll find. It was the wealthiest port in that area at the time of Art Nouveau so benefitted from riches to build elaborate boulevards. Think it was elizabetes iela that had some of its finest. Though many of the "functional" streets were pretty impressive, just a bit faded and in need of tlc. And the park in a little valley with a stream running through it before the opera house. Quite a few places overlooking the park, but may have been more restaurant like.

There were a few stags there, but not loads, but the drinks are pretty cheap, so I suspect summer like many places can get rowdier. Especially as our hotel was dirt cheap (about £55 a night with breakfast and we tend to stay in decent hotels, just it was very very cheap and pretty solid).

I love Brussels. Been loads of times and its just a short train trip from me on Eurostar. The great thing for Eurostar journeys is you have an open ended ticket that allows you to go to any place in Belgium and the trains are very good. Ghent is a great place, way prettier than Bruges and canals galore. And Mechelen is maybe 20 minutes north of Brussels, a real surprise, less busy than Bruges and Brussels but a really nice buzz to it. Also Leuven (home of InBev and Stella) which has "the longest bar in the world", basically an extremely old square where all but two of the buildings are bars, and again they have a festival that goes on. And more waterways and amazing baroque buildings.

As for Brussels, Grand Place is a must but stay away from the bars there, you'll pay way over the odds. Petit Sablon is a cool little place full of choclatiers and some nice bars and eateries, one place, L'Entree des Artistes does amazing steak frites and carbonnades.

And Morte Subite is always my first stop for a framboise and super shleppy service (near one end of the Royal Gallery). And last few times we've been in a very cool bar that has loads of beers, Moeder Lambic, quite experimental and some very good sharing platters.

 

went in January. Meat packing district is sound loads of bars and restaurants. and make sure you check out the mikeller bar in vesterbro. Carlsberg brewery worth a visit. aswell as tivoli gardens. ales a bit dear (7 & 8 quid).... but its quality and loads of choice. hot dogs from street vendors are banging aswell.

 

We've booked to stay in vesterbro at the minute but not sure if its any good or not..is it a decent place to stay?

 

Hope you encounter lots of cormorants

 

we stayed there too. Comfort hotel i think? location was good. 10 mins walk to centre. plentys of bars down the side streets. Kennedys irish bar is near the river on the north side of vesterbro if you want a place for football etc...

 

Sounds like a decent spot then, cheers

 

This is the building in Riga I am most familiar with https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_the_Blackheads_(Riga)

Looking at the images it looks exactly how I would expect it to. You seem to like the same sort of places as we do so it's something to consider.

When I go to Brussels the itinerary will depend on what's happening with the cycling. The first stage starts in Brussels, goes to Charleroi then back to Brussels. Might have time to fit Mechelen in if it's only 20 miles away. I'd like to Bruges too and Antwerp is supposed to be superb.

 

Did you go to that folk club serving craft beer in the basement in Riga?

 

By all accounts Bratislava is dire. Tallinn and Riga on the other hand are awesome. Plenty of bars filled with friendly people, and a burgeoning microbrew scene in both cities. Personally I prefer Tallinn, as the old town is more oldy worldy than Riga, but anyway they're both well worth a visit. I've heard Vilnius is good too but I've not been there. St Petersburg is only a 6 hour bus ride from Tallinn, but obviously you will have some problems getting in if you haven't got a Russian visa! It's well worth doing the bus ride though. The border between the two countries is a river, with a castle on either side on top of a cliff. It really is quite spectacular.

 

Folkklubs.... yes, had late lunch on the final day and it was pretty decent. Tracked down Alchemist, the Armoury Bar (very strange seeing automatic weapons being handed down from behind the bar for people to "play with") and another small brew pub, Valmiermuizas and a couple of other places we stumbled on through some craft beer cross vouchering events they had running that week, some very good bars.

 

The house of the blackheads is truly spectacular, it was razed by the Russians as they fled and its been completely rebuilt. There's also some impressive churches, spires, but the Art Nouveau district is pretty spectacular, and the Russian Orthodox Church is spectacular.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau_architecture_in_Riga The blue building, even though it was -7 outside, we were just stood gawping at it, then a string of about a dozen embassies that were jaw dropping on elizabetes iela. A big statement for me, Riga is probably the biggest surprise from research to getting there. We do loads of research, visual, sites, eating, drinking... and we love just walking the streets and getting under the skin of a place. But Riga, is way way grander that expected.

Belgium.... I know Bruges is the known staple for visiting Belgium, but I found it pretty bland. Yes it has canals, yes it has medieval bits, but compared to the other places, its just not as impressive to me, and in summer its utterly rammed. You can have a great time, but i'd rather go to Ghent (also only 30-40 minutes from Brussels on the train) for canals.

Antwerp is good (very impressive train station bizarre as it sounds!) but Ghent and Mechelen are way better. Visited Mons in the south last year and that was really interesting to see the difference of the Wallonians in the south to those from Flanders in the north, but a day was more than enough unless youre into modern art.

 

Went to Ghent in the early 60s with my girlfriend, whose mother was from Belgium, had my first Belgium lager there and been a fan ever since.

 

Nice one, I'll drop you a line next time we're going as it sounds like you discovered some top notch places! I like Folkklubs as it's so unpretentious. The food is simple, the portions are gargantuan, and the beer is very good.

 

We'd researched Alchemist and there were flyers mentioning 7 or 8 other craft beer places... so we just followed the local guidance! The Valmiermuizas place was really impressive, simple, good beers, very good food (rabbit risotto for 7 euros) and Labietas had some really unusual flavours. One cranberry and one was heather flavoured, pretty hard drinking but interesting.

Folkklubs was a bit carnage when we landed, and think they were mid staff changeover so trying to grab someone to place an order was tough as they wouldnt let us do so at the bar.

The missus really enjoyed a honey beer really strong flavoured and sweet, Medalus maybe?

 

I'll note the bars here as a list, i'll no doubt forget in future.

Taka
Alkimikis
Labietis Brewery
Walters & Grapa (didn't go in, but it got a good mention)
Armoury Bar
Aussie Backpackers Pub (14 on tap from a bar made from a VW camper van!)
Valmiermuiza brewery (my personal favourite)

We popped in 2 others, one was quite cool and modern and did decent food, had graffiti on the building next door "free Palestine, free Ukraine, free wifi"... which made me chuckle! But cant recall the name. The other was ok, had its own version of a lager and a kriek which wasn't bad, but nowhere near as good as the others listed.

 

Lund is worth a visit too if you're going to Malmo. It's only about 12 miles north east of Malmo.

As others have said Copenhagen is expensive. I paid £70 a night for one person in a seedy hotel in a seedy part of town in 2002. But it's a great city with loads going on.

 

Folkklubs has always been a bit chaotic when I've been in there! I drank a couple if beautiful hoppy IPA's. Anything with "med" in the name is likely to be a honey beer. Did you try the hollowed out loaf of bread filled with ham and mushy peas? That was a heavy duty snack!

PS apologies Conan, we seem to have hijacked this thread and made it at least in part about Riga!

 

Let's have some tips and recommendations then

 

Now then mate, belting place. We hired bikes and cycled everywhere. I don't really cycle over here but it's so geared up for it that it was dead easy.

The meatpacking area was ace. Loads of bars. There was this amazing place called Warpigs, loads of craft beers and massive slabs of meat http://warpigs.dk

And there's this little bar called Jolene's, a little sweat box of a place and the music was pretty special. Didn't leave there til 3.30am. Don't go too late though cos the queue gets big.

Went to this big street food place called Reffen. Bit of a cycle out but loads of good food served from shipping containers. There's also a new Mikkeller bar there which was great at sunset https://reffen.dk

This place was good for a few beers in the day in a nice courtyard http://brewpub.dk/en/

And this had 60 beers on tap https://taphouse.dk

We had a great night out in Norrebro and this bar was great http://www.kassen.dk

Beer is expensive, often getting up to 10 quid if you want good stuff but there are lots of happy hours if you want volume over quality. I didn't get to bed before 3am all 3 nights, every where was open late.

Didn't take any cash, just used card. Bit brutal watching cash go out of my account when I got home. It was like reliving the night out.

Got train from the airport in to the city - quick, cheap, regular.

In the end I couldn't convince anyone else to go to Malmo so I went on my own for a few hours. It was kind of my dream afternoon, getting a train over The Bridge to another country and then looking at cool architecture. Not for everyone that but if it is for you let me know and I'll send some tips. You do need your passport though.

I realise this sounds like all we did was drink but it wasn't, the weather was just so good that the days were just spent cycling around.

Oh, and probably only 30% of the women wear bras which isn't great for someone who is trying to concentrate on riding a bike for the first time in years.