Snow White, Cinderella, Hansel & Gretel, Dauntless Little John, Sleeping Beauty or Tom Thumb are some of the famous characters from the fairytales written by the Grimm Brothers. We all know these tales; we have read or hear them when we were kids, they blew up our imagination to distant places where kindly fairies, handsome princes and princesses or evil queens lived.

Now you can live your own adventure again following the Fairytales route in Germany, which will make your childhood dreams come true.

About 600 kilometers, from Bremen to Hanau, through charming villages and enchanted forests that will take you to an atmosphere from the 19th century and the landscapes where the main characters from the fairy tales lived adventures and misadventures.

The route follows emblematic sites like Hanau, the city where Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, the worldwide famous writers who create the most well known fairytales, were born. At the center of the Market Square, in Hanau, there is a significant monument in their honor.

The trip also passes by Kassel, the route’s main village, where many of the fairytales take place and you can also find a museum dedicated to the Grimm brothers, the Sababurg castle in Hofgeismar – linked to the Sleeping Beauty’s tale -, Bremen – from Town Musicians of Bremen -, the city of Polle – where the story of Cinderella takes place – or the city of Hamelin, where the famous flutist enchanted kids and rats with his music.

This route is especially recommended for families but also to grownups that retain their childhood’s spirit. Get ready to this magic trip that starts with a “Once upon a time…”

Picture by Christoph Runge

Makes you want to go, right? Do it! Check out our prices here!

Long queues have begun to form lately outside Nº 164 on Calle Girona in Barcelona with dozens of people, half of them Japanese, waiting patiently for Ramen-ya Hiro to open its doors. It’s the latest buzz on the streets of Barcelona: Hiro makes the best ramen in town.

‘Ramen’ is a type of soup that is served in a bowl with noodles. The dish, originally from China, has become one of the most popular in Japan and the small restaurant run by Hiroki Yoshiyuki has captured the very essence of Japan. To start with, they only serve one culinary speciality – as is the case in most restaurants in Japan. The focus here is on two varieties of ramen: one with miso stock and another with soy sauce stock, accompanied with vegetables, some meat and a naruto. Gyozas (small meat and vegetable pasties) are the perfect side dish for ramen and are served five at a time on a Japanese ceramic dish.

Among other things, the menu also includes edamame, onigiri, kimchi and chasu-don (a bowl of rice with strips of pork and onion). Also on the menu is a small selection of typically Japanese desserts, such as strawberry daifuku and green tea ice-cream.

So, what is the secret to the success of Ramen-ya Hiro? The excellent culinary skill and the tradition that goes into preparing the food. The noodles are prepared traditionally every day, as is the stock which is cooked for over ten hours. The flavour of the ramen at Ramen-ya Hiro is so good that just tasting it will transport your mind to Japan.

Ramen-ya Hiro
Address: 164 Calle Girona, Barcelona.
Opening times: Monday to Saturday from 13:30 to 15:30 and from 20:30 to 23:30. Closed Sundays and Wednesday lunch-times.
Price: basic ramen €7.50; plate of gyozas €4.50. They offer a set lunch menu for €10.50 with ramen and gyozas.
www.facebook.com/RamenYaHiro

By Isabel Romano from Diario de a bordo

We’ll be there, if you want to come too check out our flights here.

Windmills, wooden shoes, dykes, bicycles, canals, Gouda cheese –all of these symbolise the Netherlands, but the tulip has an even greater claim to emblematic status, and, along with other flowers, is one of the country’s main exports.

The tulip’s name is derived fromdulband, an old Persian word for “turban”, and the flower was originally cultivated in the region comprising today’s Turkey, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, where it had religious connotations and adorned the tents and palaces of sultans.

The Flemish scholar and pioneering horticulturalist Carolus Clusius (1526-1609) was the first person to manage to cultivate tulips in Europe, and is regarded as the founder of the Dutch tulip industry.

The tulip was initially a luxury item for which large sums were paid, and in the 17^th C. a speculative “tulip bubble” expanded to gigantic proportions –a sale of 40 bulbs for 100,000 florins was recorded in a year when a Dutch workman earned about 150 florins a year. But the bubble soon burst.

Today, entire fields carpeted with the colourful flowers adorn the Netherlands, especially in the northeast, the Kop van Noord-Holland region, and Bollenstreek with its famous Keukenhof, the world’s largest floral park, with as many as seven million tulip bulbs sprouting every spring.

This year’s National Tulip Day falls on Saturday, 17^th January. It is regarded at the start of the tulip season, which finishes when late tulips are picked and the end of April. It is celebrated throughout the Netherlands, but Amsterdam’s Damm square is the place to be.

Tulip growers show their best early flowers there, turning the square into a mosaic of colours and textures, to the delight of tulip fanciers, including many foreign visitors, who are regaled with bouquets to take home.

In the course of the tulip season Dutch growers will sell more than 1,700 million flowers. Most of them to export markets.

Serious tulip fans should also visit Amsterdam’s Tulip Museum, which tells the story of the tulip in its historical context. The museum is in the Jordaan neighbourhood, just across the bridge from the Anne Frank house.

Check out or flights here!

Report by Scanner FM

Photograph by Kang-min Liu

In Madrid, drinking beer is more than just a tradition, it’s almost an obligation.

When the working day is done, people go out for a beer. If it’s been a while since you saw someone, you meet them for a beer. Any excuse for a lager!

The beer is always perfectly poured and accompanied by some form of tapas. In Madrid there’s no other way of doing things.

Here we recommend one possible bar crawl if you fancy a few beers in Madrid but any bar in the Spanish capital is a good place to cañear (a verb that the Spanish have invented from the noun caña, meaning a small beer, and that is used to refer to the action of going out for a few beers).

We begin our bar crawl in the city centre, with three bars that come highly recommended: El Tigre,Cervantes and Kruger on Calle Princesa.

El Tigre is known for being a typical Spanish bar and for always being full. It specialises in cider and your drinks always come with tapas.

Kruger, on the other hand, is not like other Spanish bars. It is, in fact, a small slice of Germany in the centre of Madrid. Located near the Plaza España, this bar serves a wide variety of beers, ham hocks, salads and sausages.

Cervantes bar is close to the Parliament buildings, between the Sevilla and Antón Martín metro stations. Like all good bars, it’s always full and you’re guaranteed a perfectly poured beer and accompanying tapas.

Since there is also life beyond the city centre, let us also recommend the perfect place to go for a beer in other parts of Madrid.

Cazorla: This bar in the Salamanca district boasts quality, good service and generous tapas.

Fass: At this German restaurant you can purchase German products and, of course, enjoy a great beer.

Beer’s Corner: This bar is quite a distance from the city centre (in Ciudad Lineal) but it has one feature that many will find quite quirky. Whilst having a few beers here you can play on the Playstation with your friends, since there is one at every table.

Now do you feel like visiting Madrid? Check out our flights here !