Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Author: admin

  • Oxford – Chequers

    The entrance to this historic pub, via a rather atmospheric passageway.

    An informative history of the pub which gives an indication as to just how old this site is. It notes that from 1260 until 1434 the original building here was a private residence, but it was used for business purposes by a money lender, which is represented by a chequer board. It had become an inn by the first few year of the seventeenth century and there’s an interesting story on the above sign about how the inn nearly became used as a zoo. Certainly a chequered history, but pardon the pun….

    The real ale selection was adequate and the Half Mast session IPA with grapefruit and mango notes was very acceptable.

    The external courtyard, all nicely set out, although this is also the access point to the outside toilets.

    I found a 25% off food voucher on-line, so decided to go for the large fish and chips. Without being too critical, the fish was marginally over-cooked and the black carbon bits really should be removed (I did that for them before taking the photo). The tartare sauce was generic and not home-made and the mushy peas were bland, but the fish flaked apart and the batter had a pleasant taste. Given the price paid, it was perfectly reasonable given the portion size, although I do take into account the 25% off they gave in coming to that conclusion.

    It’s a Nicholson’s pub and so is part of a chain, but I’ve been in some of their pubs before and they do have some interesting historic buildings. This was no exception and there’s plenty of space, with two upstairs areas with additional seating. The staff members seemed helpful and were dealing with the number of customers efficiently, with the staff member who served the food being particularly engaging.

  • Oxford – Fir Tree

    The Fir Tree is a new addition to the Good Beer Guide, although I only noticed that from a sign which they had up outside of the pub. It’s a Greene King pub, but it doesn’t have a chain feel, but rather a quirky and independent atmosphere. It’s situated a little way out of the city centre, around a 20-minute walk, but it seemed popular with students, although the clientele was quite mixed.

    An illuminated Guinness sign with the cascading Guinness effect.

    The large collection of beer mats near to the entrance of the pub. There’s an area near to the bar for those who like to stand and drink, with a large room up a few steps and a snug like room behind that, so it is more spacious than it might at first appear.

    The selection of real ales wasn’t large, but I liked the darker beer of Intrigue from the Plain Ales brewery. It had a clean flavour and was refreshing, although it didn’t have an enormous depth of flavour or any layers of complexity about it. There was also a real cider, Old Rosie, available for those who wanted it. The pub also offers 10% off beers to members of CAMRA.

    Signs inside the pub.

    It’s rare to see Guinness crisps, and it was pleasing to note that the pub stocked these. They probably don’t need the chilli element to them, although the pub only had one pack, so it was perhaps fortunate that they weren’t too tempting.

    Service in the pub was efficient and friendly, and the range of bar snacks was quite extensive, much to my delight. The pub also accepted cards willingly and they are also seemingly known for the quality of their vegetarian Sunday roasts.

  • Vilnius – Literatai Street

    Literatai Street is where Adam Mickiewicz once lived, considered to be one of the greatest Polish poets. The street then gained rather a reputation for literature and took its current name towards the end of the nineteenth century.

    In 2009, there was an idea to stick lots of things on the walls of the street. It’s an interesting idea, and it has become one of the tourist sites in Vilnius, with the items being placed there in honour of those who have worked in the fields of art and literature. Artists who had a connection to Lithuanian culture attached things to the wall that meant something to them and then boards were put up explaining what these objects were.

    Two of the items attached to the wall….. The whole thing does look artistic rather than a load of old rubbish glued up on a wall, and it has made the street a little bit of a tourist attraction.

  • Vilnius – Ibis

    This Ibis hotel only opened a few weeks ago, and the official opening was during my stay. As it was a new opening, and not necessarily very well known about when I booked, the prices seemed quite reasonable at around £45 per night including breakfast. It’s around a ten-minute walk to the centre of the city and it’s in an area which is being modernised and improved.

    I upload these for Richard to monitor how Ibis deal with dual occupancy. I was on my own, so I just got one.

    The room was clean and comfortable, with a modern feel to it. I still don’t really get those lights that hang down though, they periodically have those in Ibis hotels so they must think they’re useful. I like the multi power square they have, which could be moved about to most points of the room and let me charge multiple devices. There were a generous amount of power points around the whole room though, such are the needs of the modern traveller.

    I didn’t turn the TV on during my stay and it felt quite hidden given the decoration on the wall.

    The view from my hotel room, which will likely be quite lovely in a year or two. In fairness, I didn’t have any noise issues from either outside or inside the hotel.

    That’s the free glass of wine from my Le Club Accor status…

    The bar area, I like the generous provision of power points.

    The bar and lobby area. There is a restaurant on site although I didn’t order from it as it looked a little expensive and slightly generic. They had a good idea though of putting QR codes on tables and in the room, if customers scanned it then they were sent to a web-site with the current menu on. They had proper menus as well, but this is a great idea if a customer can’t find the menu in the restaurant for any reason.

    The main breakfast counter, there was a choice of breads, cold meats, cheeses and fish. There were also some hot items, which I studiously avoided. This was four breakfasts of cold meats, breads and cheeses for me. And cake. And cornflakes.

    The coffee machine and the fruit juice machine, which produced perfectly good quality fruit juices, although they weren’t of course freshly squeezed. Although, this is Ibis, not Raffles, which is interestingly an Accor brand…

    I’m a creature of habit, this was the breakfast on two different mornings. It looks rather similar…

    I really enjoyed this stay, the staff went out of their way to be friendly, and it did feel like a training hotel at some points. That’s a good thing…. The room was clean, the housekeeping was efficient, there were no noise problems and the room prices were reasonable.

  • Vilnius – IDW Esperanza Resort Airport Business Lounge

    I know that Priority Pass gets a lot of complaints, but I’m entirely happy with my card so far this year. This is the lounge at Vilnius Airport and I’ve had more than four hours in here, which has enabled me to get a lot of things done (including several more posts on this blog).

    There aren’t many other visitors in the lounge at the moment, which has created a rather peaceful environment. There’s a choice of different seating areas, including high tables and more comfortable seating. There are also a lot of power points, which is particularly useful, and it’s all clean and organised.

    There’s a selection of sandwiches and salads in the fridge, and I went through a couple of the Greek salads. The quality is fine and it’s quite a big portion. Although I say that and then promptly went through two of them.

    Coffee is available, as are chocolate bars.

    All of the alcohol, and everything else, is self-service. There was a small selection of three beers, but I tried a couple and they were entirely acceptable. There’s also wine and spirits in an area just to the left of the fridges. There are also fruit juices, Pepsi, Fanta and other soft drinks, as well as still and sparkling bottled water.

    The Greek salad, beer and water.

    The selection of magazines and newspapers, a range of different publications including in both Lithuanian and English.

    I liked this lounge, being quiet and spacious always helps, but the food is fine and there’s a wide enough selection of drinks. The toilets are also inside the lounge and they’re not half a mile away, something which airports sometimes seem to do, perhaps learning from Wetherspoons.

    The price to enter as a one-off is I think €27, which is a bit expensive, but not entirely unreasonable. There aren’t a huge number of flights departing from the airport, which means that they announce when customers need to depart for their aircraft.

  • Vilnius – Vapiano

    I headed towards the bus stop back to the airport and noticed there were some shopping malls in the area where I could have a final lunch. By final lunch I mean the last one during this trip, not some sort of grim final supper. Anyway, I saw Vapiano, and although this isn’t particularly Lithuanian (or at all really, it’s German) it is one of my favourite chains.

    It’s quite a spacious Vapiano and there’s a large area for children, I haven’t seen that before in the chain. The staff member at the reception desk was friendly, although she didn’t explain the ordering process. That didn’t matter since I already knew it, but the set-up is slightly complex and a first time visitor could well have become rather confused.

    The restaurant always grows their own herbs, which is done in an area in the centre of the seating area. It reminds me of when Dylan helpfully pulled bits off plants for my pizza back at the Luxembourg Vapiano in 2016.

    There are a range of different seating areas and I liked the generous amount of power points. Vapiano tend to locate themselves in areas where there are lots of office workers, and this one is no exception.

    There’s a huge pile of salad on this calzone that I didn’t order, but I didn’t say anything. The quality was fine, it was at the appropriate hot temperature and had a crispy exterior. The portion size was generous and the environment was clean and comfortable.

    The staff member I paid on the way out was friendly and engaging, so the customer service seemed welcoming. The cost of the meal was around £8, not bad for a chain restaurant like Vapiano. And it was convenient for my bus, as the bus stop to the airport is located over the road.

  • Vilnius – The New Arsenal

    The New Arsenal (as opposed to the Old Arsenal building) is the oldest museum in the country and dates back to 1855. Its collections cover a variety of periods of Lithuanian history and also some exhibits from other cultures.

    This sarcophagus was given to the museum in 1899 by Prince Chlodwig Karl Viktor Hohenlohe, the then Chancellor of Germany and Prime Minister of Prussia.

    A sledge from Lithuania, dating to the early part of the eighteenth century.

    A flogging board used on serfs.

    A model of the Battle of Grunwald, which was one of the largest battles during the medieval period. It was won decisively in 1410 by the Polish-Lithuanian army against the Teutonic Knights, who were a powerful religious body. Although it wasn’t the end of the Teutonic Knights, it was a significant setback and their reputation was heavily damaged after the battle.

    I’m sure there’s a wonderful history behind this pew, but the information board simply notes that it’s from a Lithuanian church and dates to 1683.

    This is the sign that was located outside the Fraternity House of St. Ann and it is dated 1642. I do wonder where this sign has been for the last few hundred years, given the number of fires, wars and disasters which have befallen the city, that anything survives often surprises me.

    This is the lock from one of the city’s gates, thought to date from around the seventeenth century.

    This is the memorial plate which noted the start of the construction of a monument to Mikhail Muravyov in Vilnius. The memorial was unveiled in 1898, but Muravyov is not a popular figure in the city, he closed down Vilnius University, shut down an anti-Russian demonstration and is known as “the hangman of Vilnius”. There is an interesting story that bear fat was spread on the monument, which led to tens of dogs barking and licking at the feet of Muravyov. The monument was torn down in 1915.

    This wooden violin is from the 1860s and it was made by one of the participants in the 1863 uprising.

    There are a number of rooms in the museum which are recreations of what homes might have looked liked in previous centuries.

    I’m not particularly engaged in displays of clothing and material, but this is a comprehensive set of recreated period clothing.

    Crosses are a bit of a thing in Lithuania and the art is known as cross crafting. They can signify many things, whether the death of a member of the community, but they can also represent victory in wars or other good fortune. These three crosses are from across the country and all date from the second half of the nineteenth century.

      

    A marvellous collection of wooden sculptures.

    To my delight, the special temporary exhibition on the ground floor was about books, all from the collection of Jaunius Gumbis. The book above dates to 1514 and is entitled The Battle of the King of Poland with the Muscovite, making it one of the earliest military history books.

    Coloniae Agrippinae, published in Cologne in 1519, a history book of the medieval states east of Germany, including what is now the territory of Lithuania.

    An incunable, this one dating to 1478 and it’s a book about geography, the Cosmography of the World.

    All in all, this museum had an eclectic range of exhibits, but everything was well presented and it was spacious and organised. Entrance usually costs €3, although I got in free with my Vilnius City Card.

  • Vilnius – The Old Arsenal

    Located in the Old Arsenal building is the city’s archaeological museum, telling the story of the people who lived in this area from 11,000BC until the creation of the permanent settlement of Vilnius in the thirteenth century. It’s not a huge museum, but the building is of historic interest and the collection is well put together.

    A burial with grave goods from around the eleventh to twelfth century. It was found near Kretinga, which is to the north west of Lithuania.

    Some items relating to the Selionian tribe, who lived until the fifteenth century in what is now south-eastern Latvia and north-eastern Lithuania, before being subsumed into the Germanic culture. The date of the items vary, but most are between the seventh and tenth centuries.

    The upstairs of the museum and I was, to my knowledge, the only visitor in the entire museum.

    Animal bones turned into various useful implements and weapons.

    The remains of a dugout canoe dating to around the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries, located near the former Bishop’s House in Vilnius.

    The cannon barrels are from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and they were found cemented into the wall of the arsenal building. The cannonballs are a mixture from the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries.

    It didn’t take too long to look around the museum, but it was a worthwhile visit. The staff member at the front desk was helpful and it was certainly a quiet museum to visit, given that there was no-one else there. It usually costs €2, but I got in free with my Vilnius City Card.

  • Vilnius – Beatričė Grincevičiūtė Plaque

    Located in Vilnius city centre is this commemorative plaque dedicated to the life and work of Beatričė Grincevičiūtė. She was a singer who lived from 1911 until 1988 and she resided in the city from 1970 until the end of her life.

  • Vilnius – Halle Market

    This large indoor market is located in a building dating to 1906 and it was designed by Vaclovas Michnevicius. There’s a vibrant and modern feel to it now, and it feels like a market which is well used by locals.

    There are many stalls selling fruit, meat and there’s another building to the side which is more clothes orientated. I had planned to wander around for a little longer, but I was distracted by the tempting food at Wingus so stopped there….