Hard Rock Cafe - Brussels

So for lunch yesterday we went to Hard Rock Café, it’s all new and located just of Grand Place and is absolutely fabulous. It has a microphone-lamp and a great art-piece made out of guitars. The staff is very friendly and the food is delicious. I guess this one knocked Venice of the toplist, sorry Venice… Hard Rock nr. 12 was a great experience, a must-go-to in Brussel if you like it.

Mari Clémentine

The Hard Rock List

So when I tell people I’ve been to 11 HRC’s just in the last 2-3 years a lot of people ask me: Which is the best one? Or better – Which is the worst? I have a top three, and a bottom one, and my experiences might surprise you. And by the way! This is all part of my "warming up for Belgium" posts, so if you want to keep following me and I'll take you to Brussels next week! Will Amsterdam or Brussels make this list?

The current top three is:

                          

1.  Hong Kong

This one is a live bar located on Hong Kong island out of the way for tourists. We were lucky enough to be placed by the bar, and what an amazing time we had! This is a must do in Hong Kong, and experience of few. The shop is small, I didn’t even notice much memorabilia, but it was the best.

2. LondonPrepare to see Beatles, Elvis, Queens, the Rolling Stone, the Cure, Michael Jackson, Madonna and the rest of the music world at once. The 10^th café we visited, was in the city were the first ever was opened and they have lovely waiters and a lot to look at. The shop is huge so bring your wallet!

                         

3. Venice
Ah Venice. Another place with great people working there, a nice shop and a lot of things to look at. Did I mention it’s a great place to escape from the rain? The first thing the waiter did was guessing where we came from and he were 100% right.

The bottom one is actually Paris, don't ask. But wherever you are in the world, the capital often holds a Hard Rock, and you get the same familiar taste and nice faces. Sometimes it’s a great escape from Chinese food (like in Beijing) other times it’s just a place for a drink (like in Venice and Florence) since the country already have great food. But it’s always there to welcome you home. So Hard Rock all the way!

Mari Clémentine

Hard Rock Cafe - Brussels

So for lunch yesterday we went to Hard Rock Café, it’s all new and located just of Grand Place and is absolutely fabulous. It has a microphone-lamp and a great art-piece made out of guitars. The staff is very friendly and the food is delicious. I guess this one knocked Venice of the toplist, sorry Venice… Hard Rock nr. 12 was a great experience, a must-go-to in Brussel if you like it.

Where to go (and where not to) - Florence

So for Florence there are to places I will tell you about. One is the snack bar Cucciolo, with the world’s best pizza. I think I’ve said about three times only on this blog. It’s located in Corso and the pizza is only 3,50 – enjoy!
Then the hotel here we stayed: Hotel Medici. The hotel was the coziest ever, and the roof terrace and location is what made it worth staying at. It didn’t have aircondition and the bells of the Duomo rang all around at all times of the day, but it was worth it, I loved it enough to recommend it.

Then it is the “not to go” part, which I usually don’t have to do. It’s about a restaurant close to the Medici chapel with the worst service, the most terrible excuses and worst attitude ever. We actually saw people leave and asking the waiters to go to hell, so yeah. You can only imagine. It’s called Il procospino. AVOID IT! I mean, why bother going there when it’s so many good places to eat?

Mari Clémentine

Ghosts of Edinburgh

“This way mortals!” the ghost of Burke, an Irish man who came to Scotland with his friend, Hare, got broke, started murdering people, took them to the Medical College were they paid for the dead bodies and was hanged (alone, his friend was the one who gave him over(and went free himself)) in the end.

    Edinburgh as I have mentioned about a million times is a magic city, but many people also say it’s haunted and there are plenty of ghost tours going around graveyards, down into vaults and the undergrounds. They all cost about 10-15 pounds per person and are probably great fun, but we – again – found a not so good kept secret. A free ghost tour starting right off High Street, turn left when you reach Starucks.
    The guy actually does it for a living and it was a wonderfully horrible little tour probably worth much more than the paid ones, but as he said: “If you give me 5 pounds each it will tell me that you liked the tour, if you give me 10 it will tell me that it was an excellent tour and if you give me 20 pounds each it will tell me that you’re all stupid. So I hope you’re all stupid!”

    It is a “must-do” in Edinburgh to go on a ghost tour and I highly recommend this one. For the rest of my day I basically spent it shopping a little, I bought this beautiful Buddah-statue of the nicest old woman, everyone’s so nice in Scotland! – and then we went to the Hard Rock Café to eat and for those of you who wonder what happened to my plans to go to Canton Hill or Edhinburgh Castle, I think  I did something stupid with my foot when I worked my way down the mountain and yes, no more hills on this trip.

See ye tomorrow morning, mortals,
Mari Clémentine

A toystore in London

Oh, the smell of tea in the morning. Yeah, after travelling half the day, arriving at our hotel at 11 pm last night (after walking the wrong way 5 times), (it’s so charming, located in Holland Road, a couple of minutes’ walk from the Tube), we finally  made it to London.

London is something. It really is. From the moment I climbed the stairs up from Victoria to collect the tickets to my first West End Show. ‘til I came out from the Apollo Victoria with tears in my eyes. London really is something.

    “Excuse me! Are you mother and daughter?” The cute, princess-boy from the 5 star make up studio appeared out of nowhere and offered us a 90% discount on a full make-over, photoshoot and night out in London. “I love your hair!” I was sold when he said that, but we’re budget travelers, so we could not afford it. I loved him anyways.

    We went on to find Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace (and the squirrels in St. James Park) just waiting for us. Spotted: A group from Netherlands’ Olympic Team. Lunch: The Hard Rock Café. Our 10^th. In the shadow of Keith Richards guitar. London can be glamorous on a budget to. It’s all about investments and smart spending. Like sharing a sandwich at HRC. It will be enough for both of you.

     From Piccadilly Circus we went for a quick walk up Regent Street to what I believe is the biggest toystore I’ve ever visited in my whole life.  The walk was quick because it started raining, but I still recommend everyone, young or old to check it out. They have life size lego-figures of the Royal Family. They have giant teddybear guards. They have 6 floors!!! And I got lost in the Harry Potter noble collection part. Yes. I went shopping (on purpose) one place today and it was at Hamley’s. A toystore.

Mari Clémentine

Pisa - Capital of Tourists

I have so much trouble getting up in the morning these days, but eventually we went to the train station to catch a train for Pisa. Pisa is the capital of Italy in the eyes of tourists not going to the rest of Italy, or so it seems. Never in my life have I met so many tourists on a train connecting two cities.

    Around Pisa we discovered a bunch of people speaking languages we could understand and we all came for the very same reason: The Leaning Tower. It’s actually the freestanding bellower of the Duomo and was constructed on unstable foundation – therefor it became the “leaning” tower.

    Pisa was hot. We crossed Arno River again. I ran into an Italian bookstore just because of the air-condition. Pisa: Not much to see but the leaning tower, but people speak great English! We were supposed to go on to Lucca or Volterra, but the heat were too much so we returned to Florence for one last drink at Hard Rock. Next stop: London, baby!

Mari Clémentine

Party at the Piazza

After walking around Basilica di Santa Corce for a while I think we both understood that we would never find that tourist information so we could get a map, so in the end my mom said “Let’s go to the river!” So we did, only steps away from the Basilica where Michelangelo and Galileo sleeps the river of Arno is splitting the city in two.

    We crossed the blue river and went out to explore the streets the tourists haven’t taken over yet and found a little shop where we bought a map, not that we have needed it much. The Duomo can be seen from pretty much all over the city and we live right next to it at a charming little two star hotel called Hotel Medici.

 For lunch we had pizza, bought in a tiny, tiny shop somewhere between Ponte alle Gazie and the beautiful Ponte Vecchio, eaten at a street corner. Dinner on the other hand was not so Italian as we have a tradition of visiting Hard Rock and this one were just across the Piazza della Republica, a minute or two from the hotel. The food was great, the drinks were even greater and it was good to speak with someone who actually understood English. So while watching music videos and resting between Rod Stewards shoes and Paul Stanly’s guitar we had a lovley meal.

    “I don’t get why people go to Paris or Rome for romantic holidays,” my mom said. “They should try Florence.” I agreed and we spent the rest of the evening going from Piazza della Republica to Piazza Signoria listening to the incredible street musicians of Florence.. The trio at Republica got an entire crowd of at least hundred watching, clapping and enjoying the fun men playing violin, accordion and bass. At Signoria the crowds from Uffizi sat down to listen to the man on the guitar, and later another one playing the flute. Further up the street, two more en at the accordion played classics like Toccata.

      We decided to climb up the stairs to Piazzale Michelangelo in the evening. From there you can see the whole of Florence and it was stunning, even better as the guy in front of the David Statue singing “Oh baby, baby, it’s a wild world,” and while dancing around up there I tought that everyone should know about Florence and come here instead of going off to Rome for their romantic springbreak.

Mari Clémentine