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Amsterdam. Pretty as a picture but worst holidays I have ever had.
I am disabled and everyone was incredibly rude and thoughtless ( I was actually kicked out of the way by cyclists on separate occasions - try stumbling on cobbles... ), the city seemed to be full of trendy young things too self absorbed to observe even a modicum of niceties whether in shops or restaurants, grumpy people everywhere, cyclists who I had naively assumed would be the best on the planet actually incapable of controlling their bikes ( no breaks to most of them) and Hubby and I got food poisoning in a clinical looking steak house too ( considering I am 45 and this was my only and first food poisoning despite having travelled the world and eaten at some pretty dodgy street vendors in third world countries and I have an iron stomach quite a novelty for me).
The RijksMuseum and the Van Gogh museums charged us full price whilst two thirds of their exhibits were off limits too.... We spent a week feeling ripped off and sneered at. Not a nice experience.
An absolute bloody nightmare place.
Once we left the city no problem at all. I find Dutch people out of Amsterdam to be lovely, courteous and tolerant people and would go back quite happily. Amsterdam however I must admit has scarred me quite badly. Worst city I have ever been in terms of people. Style over substance and no evidence of the famous Amsterdam tolerance and liberality they claim to have.
Beautiful to look at though. Excellent place to take photographs. About the only positive thing I have to say about it apart from an excellent dinner in a very grand restaurant which was very good.
Bruges to me is much nicer and I find the locals so much friendlier and more pleasant.
Montreal. I have been there many times and have also had two one month stay there. With Amsterdam THE rudest city on the planet. Everytime it is as though the whole city is suffering from some extreme form of collective depression and lack of manners. Nobody smiles, everyone is rude.
I speak both French and English fluently but apparently neither are good enough for the natives. I loathe, loathe, loathe Montreal. Also its urban "charms" are greatly exaggerated, a few pretty historical streets do not a beautiful city make.....
I love Quebec Province and love Quebec City where I have always felt very welcome and the people have always been absolutely lovely to me. From the great frozen North to the St Lawrence towns and villages to Quebec city I have on the whole always been pleasantly surprised at how nice and welcoming people are. But Montreal ?? Brrrrrrrr. Shudder.
Zurich. Tiny city and expensive as hell, with virtually nothing to see or do given all the money you spend. I don't know, maybe you have to be super rich to enjoy that city.
Zurich is a good city to make money, but not to enjoy it. It's a very Calvinist city in that sense.
Sunderland, UK - run down, crap shopping experience, tacky nightlife.
Murcia, Spain - beautiful architecture but snobby populace and not much to do. Was surprisingly crap weather when I went. Think I maybe expected to much.
Sunderland, UK - run down, crap shopping experience, tacky nightlife.
Murcia, Spain - beautiful architecture but snobby populace and not much to do. Was surprisingly crap weather when I went. Think I maybe expected to much.
Thanks for the post. I have traveled extensively through the UK and have never even heard about Sunderland. I'm going to do some research on it.
This has never happened to me. Every city was still somehow interesting. I don't recall a city I wouldn't go back to. Not every city has A,B or C. If it only has A,B and you want C, then it's not gonna be a blast. You just got to be open-minded and do the things the city has to offer. There's always something.
This has never happened to me. Every city was still somehow interesting. I don't recall a city I wouldn't go back to. Not every city has A,B or C. If it only has A,B and you want C, then it's not gonna be a blast. You just got to be open-minded and do the things the city has to offer. There's always something.
Yeah this never really happens to me either. Because, I don't really plan trips to places I'm expecting to not find something interesting in. I research where I'm travelling to and go places that I'm convinced I'm going to find something I like for my time there... I've got hundreds of places that I've read about that I'd love to go to, because there's already something about them that has piqued my interests. On the other hand there's often much more to places you travel to than what you expect.
And the places that I just go to for other reasons(work or just passing through or family or friends there), sometimes those are places that I don't know as much about beforehand or don't have high expectations for--but sometimes I'm pleasently suprised by those places. For example Busan, South Korea was a place that I went to simply because I had friends there. I didn't know what to expect, the guidebooks had little on it at the time--but I found it to be a fascinating place--nice beaches, seaside temples, huge fish markets, and different peaks dividing dense urban districts sort of like a Korean version of Hong Kong.
Sometimes the most touristy areas of a city can be disapointing--however sometimes right down the road is a more interesting area. But there's a lot of the world to be explored that I'm sure is going to have something interesting. I hear people claim somewhere like Belgium is boring--but I'd love to go to Bruges or travel across Belgium sampling the different beers. I just take a different approach to travelling rather with an open mind--sometimes the most interesting stuff when you travel is stuff that wasn't at the big sights, but rather stuff that you weren't expecting.
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