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The Jews of Paris were the nicest Ive ever met in the world. I hate Paris, but the jews there were certainly the best.
CH you must have been in madrid a while ago, I saw the chabad rabbi in Toledo spain and he told us there was no kosher restaurants in Madrid.
It was also tough to find the kosher restaurants in Barcelona. Kosher in Spain was tough.
Israel isn’t so expensive if you find alternative accommodations to hotels. Rent an apartment or a room in one, or if you’re fortunate to have friends or relatives with extra space, stay with them. If you can travel off season, you can get somewhat lower fares (we’re going in February IY”H for less than $650 per person).
I disagree with what was said about Gateshead.
While the city of Gateshead itself is definitely nothing special, the area is very nice. Newcastle is a nice city, and the countryside surrounding us is amazing. You have the North Pennines, Northumberland National Park (Kielder, the Cheviots), the Lake District, and the Northumberland coast all within easy reach for day trips.
(I must note however that many places are rather difficult to reach without a car. That said, renting a car is pretty cheap here.)
I have not been to Manchester only London.
Some people are content with going to the Catskills, Some are content with Florida and/or Israel and others want to see the world.
Frankly if Money wasnt an issue Id be going to the Far East or Africa
Amazing, we tried getting out but they persecuted us instead. Now we’re running to get back in.
Chochom-ibber – if the Jews avoided every place we have faced persecution, we would all be living on a tiny strip of desert island in the middle of the Pacific.
The US was also anti-semetic and closed the borders to jews right before the holocaust and did not bomb the railroad tracks and jews were routinely descrimated against until the 60’s
Go To Europe and have fun.
There is so much to see and do.
Well said zahavasdad.
I just got back from Austria and when I was there I tooka taxi from the train station to my hotel.
The driver heard me speaking in English and asked me where I was from, I replied London. He then asked me Sie sind ein Yude (are you jewish in german), I replied yes. He then reached into his glove compartment and pulled out a siddur. He explained to me that two days ago he had another jewish passanger who lives in London who had left it in his car. I looked inside the siddur and there was a name, address and telephone number of a man in London. I just got back and will try to return the siddur to him tomorrow.
I just came back from a couple of days in Venice – if planning a Europe tour you should definitely include! It’s not expensive, it’s really beautiful, there is a kosher restaurant, pizza shop and bakery there, and Chabad does shabbos meals so you don’t even need to take anything with you food-wise. Hotels you can get a good deal on if you find the right one and it’s not peak season, but it’s wise to get one that’s next to the old Jewish ghetto, cause that’s where all the kosher stuff is.
“You dont want to go to Gateshead at least as a tourist, if you want to visit the seminary thats another story
Gatesheads is a drab industrial city in england, very drab and nothing to do and no distractions, thats why the yeshiva was put there Its also about 200 miles from London so you cant stay in Gateshead and visit London on day trips.
Look on a Map of England and see where Gateshead is to London, its far”
Then:
“I have not been to Manchester only London.”
So all the negative things you write about Gateshead are only based on what you heard from others, or the papers?
I have been in Gateshead for 2,5 years now and strongly disagree with what you wrote (as I wrote before).
Gateshead itself is not so interesting, but it’s not nearly as bad as you write. And if you like nature, this is absolutely the best part of the UK, far superior to London or Manchester. Me, personally, I prefer to get out of the city, which is pretty easy here.
When I visit Europe, I prefer to visit the glamour cities.
London, Paris, Rome, Barcelona, etc
I am sure there are other nice places, I know many like the Alps and I am sure there are nice, but we have nice mountains here in the US. We dont have Rome in the US
We have mountains here in England too. But the Alps are just different and supposedly some of the most breathtaking scenery in the world – I have been up a couple of mountains in Switzerland, and it’s just different than any other kind of mountain I’ve been up; the air is clean and pure there and you look down on massive forests and clear lakes. The villages and towns lower down the mountains are small and picturesque. I have never been to the Catskills or the Rockies, but I would think that the Alps beats them any day.
The Catskills arent real mountains and are certainly nothing special. In fact when jews speak of the catskils, they really arent the catskills either, just some drab broken down bungalo in some beaten down village in upstate NY
They arent even the best mountain in NY, the best mountains in NY are the Adirondacks
Zahavasdad, I second Notasheep. Go there and look.
Ive actually been to most of Europe including the Glamour cities, Countrside and the Alps.
Its the Glamour cities (except for Paris which I hate) that I prefer maybe on subsequent trips visiting the Alps is possible.
People get so defensive, I actually said to go. But if this is your only trip you need to make choices where to go. TCG if you were only able to go to the UK one time in your life would go to Gateshead or London. Maybe you would answer Gateshead, but most people would answer London. I would tell people who visit NYC one time in their live. Dont go to Monsey go see NYC. There is nothing wrong with that, Its not a knock on Monsey, it just isnt NYC.
OP some ciites of Europe are cheap especially Prague ,Bratislava, Budapest , Madrid and Athens. You can probably get a hotel room there for about $50-$100 without much effort.
Its London, Paris , Rome and Venice that are the expensive ones to stay in.
Your comparison using Monsey and NYC is not that great, since Gateshead is next to some fantastic tourist areas. It might not be the big city, but bear in mind that some people don’t like the big city, and to be fairly honest, there is more tourist stuff in London than NYC. I didn’t much care for Manhattan when I was there – I just found it to be the big city, only bigger, and far too many people who are rude and brash and push everyone out of the way (I am talking from personal experience, I actually got sworn at for trying to push my stroller through a crowd by a person who refused to move out of the way). London at least has the houses of parliament and the palace to visit, plus plenty of museums, parks and other places of interest. Manhattan is just noisy, crowded and full of shops.
I’m happy to read the Venice has kosher restaurants. When we went over 25 years ago, the only place you could get a kosher meal was the nursing home.
In places where we had no connections, we stayed in two-star hotels.
Most European cities have kosher restaurants now . There are plenty of frum jews going to these places. Spain was the only one I had trouble
Vogue, are you still planning to go?
Thats too bad. You might have enjoyed it.
I would have also recommended Prague. Its one of the most jewish places you can go and they are very welcoming to jews there.
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