Interesting Quiet/Lesser Known Places To Go In Europe

eternalhedgehog — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 05:57:07 GMT

Our plans for the summer just changed unexpectedly (thought I was going to be moving jobs, but decided to stay) and now looking for somewhere interesting but quiet to go on holiday, having not booked anywhere yet. Can travel pretty much any time between early July and mid-late August; aiming to stay for between 5 and 12 nights, depending on cost/how much there is to do there.

We're based in Morocco, so France/Spain/Portugal are the most easily accessible for us, but happy to take connecting flights and be on a couple of fairly long flights if they get us to somewhere really great. We've been to Lisbon, Madrid, and Marseille so far this year and loved all of them in different ways, but hoping for somewhere significantly quieter this time.

Open to most of Europe, although ideally it'd be within 2-3 hours by train or an hour or 2 by taxi from a major airport. (Can get to most airports, happy to take connecting flights.)

Most important things for us are quiet and relaxing, good scenery, delicious food. (I love meat, especially beef/pork, my wife loves a wider variety but is kind of bored of Moroccan cuisine at the moment and wants a real change. Neither of us are big on seafood. Neither of us drink more than very occasionally.) Interesting historical sites or museums nearby are a definite plus, as are beaches, but aren't actually necessary.

Anyone got any recommendations for places that we might not have heard much about/considered?

Tell Me Your Favorite ***** of the Day Websites

ALeaflikeStructure — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 18:43:38 GMT

I regularly check several websites that post interesting information daily, including NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, Wikipedia Article of the Day, and the Linda Hall Library's Scientist of the Day. (I also check the OED's Word of the Day, but even though I have no trouble accessing the website, I cannot post the link.) I'm sure there are more. Please share your favorites with me.

More Things to Do in Mexico City

kensington314 — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 20:14:11 GMT

I have just returned from a trip to Mexico City and it absolutely ruled. (I have been there a couple times previously, but more than a decade ago. Of course it ruled then as well.) I will go again, and I would love to have an entirely non-overlapping itinerary. Looking at the list of places I've gone, what ENTIRELY DIFFERENT THINGS should I do in the future?

Here's the list of places I've been, probably not comprehensive but it's what comes to mind:

Parks
Alameda Central in El Centro
Alameda de Santa María (and the Kiosko Morisco) in Santa Maria la Ribera
Chapultepec I & II (primarily the castle and the Cárcamo de Dolores)
Parque Mexico in Condesa
Zocalo in El Centro

Markets
Mercado la Merced
Mercado Martínez de la Torre
Mercado San Juan

Museums and Art
Casa Barragan
Monumento a la Revolución
Museo Casa de Leon Trotsky
Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo
Museo del Juguete Antiguo Mexico (MUJAM)
Museo Jumex
Museo Nacional de Antropología
Museo Rufino Tamayo
Museo Soumaya
Palacio de Bellas Artes
Templo Mayor
UNAM's Museo Universitario del Chopo (this excellent exhibit)
Zona Arqueológica Tlatelolco

Misc Fun and Interesting Places
Basílica Santa María de Guadalupe
Biblioteca Vasconcelos
El Chopo
Hospital de Jesus
Lagunilla flea market
La Perla's excellent, most fun drag show
Lucha Libre (Arena Mexico)
Plaza de las Tres Culturas
Torre Latinoamericano
Xochimilco

Murals
Hospital de Jesus chapel (Orozco)
Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso (Orozco, et al)
Palacio Nacional (Rivera)
Bellas Artes (Orozco, Rivera, Tamayo, Siqueiros, et al)
Carcamo de Dolores (Rivera)
Secretaría de Educación Pública (Rivera, et al)

Food and Drink
Various pulquerias
Various Casa de Toño locations
El Cardenal
Various Salon Corona locations
Bar la Opera
Churrería El Moro

Transit
I hope to eventually use all of the city's several amazing systems.
Metro (primarily lines 1, 2, 3, 8, and 9)
MetroBus (primarily lines 1, 3, and 4)
CableBus (just line 3, but I'll definitely ride the others)

Neighborhoods
This is just a list of areas where I've walked around quite a bit or spent time, not comprehensive though.
Colonia Buenavista
Condesa
Doctores
El Centro
Guerrero
Roma Norte
Romo Sur
Santa María la Ribera
Tepito
Tlatelolco

What should I do with a free day in Paris?

chives — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 20:13:20 GMT

This Friday I'll be at a loose end near Notre Dame. I plan to attend mass at 12pm and visit the Shakespeare and Company English language bookshop nearby. What else would you do?

Can you recommend affordable and especially good options for lunch, interesting little shops, other and lesser known nearby historical buildings, or anything else within walking (or a very small amount of metro stops) that would be a nice way to spend a solo afternoon in Paris?

Ambitious Fiction from the 80s, 90s or Early 2000s?

oc-to-po-des — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:23:03 GMT

Seeing Frowner's comment in the post on the Blue about the Guardian's reader-sourced top-100 books list with the assertion that "STILL, no one has read any ambitious fiction from the 80s, 90s or early 2000s" made me consider if I had any such titles that came to mind. None did, so I decided to come here and query the hivemind for recommendations. Presumably definitions of "ambitious fiction" will vary, but I'd like to see what fits the bill for mefites.

Long-form, peaceful museum gallery walkthrough videos?

subocoyne — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 15:28:54 GMT

I am seeking out calming videos of art museum galleries and exhibits to play for a hospice patient who is an art history buff.

Ideally without narration or fast cuts, just the art itself or the experience of moving through the galleries. World-class museum spaces are great, but also modern art galleries, sculpture gardens, tours of earthworks or installations, anything really, preferably without ads if possible. Streaming or downloadable. Slow-paced documentaries would also be good, so long as the focus is on the works rather than narrators or talking heads. Thank you for any suggestions.

Best progressive eyeglasses - Warby Parker vs. local optometrist

4midori — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 04:36:22 GMT

I need progressive lenses for screen work and reading. A lot of screen work. Too much screen work. Local optometrist wants $$$ for lenses and frames. Neurolens (rebranded "Newton") are also an option for even more money. I trust the O.D.'s office sells high quality glasses, but oh, the price. What I want to know is - are the "high end" lenses (Zeiss, Hoya, etc.) really superior in quality to the best Warby Parker has to offer? I won't go to Warby Parker instead to save $100, but to save $300? Yes.

Looking for Tokyo restaurant/attraction recs in a post-AI-slop world

LadyOscar — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 19:32:36 GMT

Traveling to Tokyo for a few days for the first time since before the pandemic, and I realized I'm lost in terms of where to go for trustworthy recommendations. In Olden Times there were guidebooks and web pages run by humans. What is there now? Also happy to get specific recs from MeFites!

I'm particularly looking for restaurants and stuff to do that are not someone's Instagram or YouTube "we found this ultra-local place and will try to ruin it for everyone!" recommendations. I live in a touristy area, and I don't want to spread the scourge, plus surely everyone has had enough of U.S. people these days. Tasty, manageably popular, and near the beaten path is fine. All types of food are good. (Does one need reservations for everything these days?) Technically I should be able speak Japanese at a low intermediate level, but practically speaking I'm too socially anxious to do more than squeak out simple sentences.

Are there still decent web pages? I greatly prefer written content, but if there are YouTube channels with actual sensible advice I'm happy to hear about them too.

We'll be staying in Shibuya, and will definitely be going (back) to the Ueno Zoo and Sumida Aquarium and spending some time in Asakusa, so restaurant suggestions in those areas would be good, but anywhere reasonable from a train station is fine.

Panicking a bit here, so thank you for any help!

AI Adversarial... But make it Fashion!

Cold Lurkey — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 01:56:24 GMT

It has long been thought that eyespot mimicry on Moths and Butterflies' wings work as predator deterrents. While that has not truly been rigorously proven as such, I would still like to extrapolate that facial simulation today could act as a deterrent to predatory AI facial recognition. Therefore I would like to have a scarf to wear that confuses the everliving fuck out of all facial recognition models. But I have a few requirements...

Requirements:
1. Summer weight
2. Real data supporting face ID jamming. Such things exist in theory but I trust exactly nothing on the internet anymore aside from metafilter users supplied citations and wikipedia's edit history pages.
Acknowledgments:
This is both William Gibson's Ugliest Tee-shirt and Neal Stephenson's VEIL in concept.
I'm willing to get something printed myself, if supporting data is provided that a given pattern works at the form factor specified.

Help me get deeper into punk music!

anoldfriend6 — Sun, 31 May 2026 00:20:27 GMT

There's bubble gum punk such as Green Day and Blink 182. Then there's classics such as the Ramones or the Sex Pistols. I wanna go a little further from the beaten path. To appreciate more punk, where do I branch off from those bands? Punk adjacent bands (like the Pixies) are welcome too!

Helping a friend who just had bottom surgery

ambulanceambiance — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 07:06:04 GMT

Helping a friend who just had bottom surgery

A good friend who lives upstairs from us is having bottom surgery (mtf) and I'm looking for any thoughts on what might be most supportive to her. Her parents were going to stay with her for a few days after her discharge from the hospital, but due to illness that's not happening. We're not her entire support system, but we'd like to step up more since we're so physically proximate.

She's on the third floor with no elevator. She also currently gets around primarily by bike, which I assume is not going to be an option for a while.

We're planning to:
- make extra meals and bring her up prepared food
- pick up groceries for her
- offer to do laundry? Laundry is down four flights of stairs, I assume carrying that down will be a no go for a while?
- offer to take out her trash for a while (see: stairs)
- provide company as desired

Anything else you might anticipate as a need in this situation?

Is there a word or a phrase for this?

chariot pulled by cassowaries — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 15:58:50 GMT

Is there a word or a phrase for when a theft costs far more than the value of the item stolen? For example, thieves steal $200 worth of copper from train signalling equipment and a railway pedestrian crossing, but it costs $50,000 to repair. Or thieves break a shopfront window and steal $100 of cigarettes, but it costs $2000 to repair the shopfront window.

Upcoming wedding

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 21:25:26 GMT

I'm about to get married. What unexpected details came up that caused issues in your wedding?

I'm trying to foresee unanticipated problems, which I've never been very good at doing. Hope me, glorious hivemind.

Unusual games that can use a steering wheel

LSK — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 04:22:05 GMT

I've found myself in possession of a steering wheel USB controller. Which is neat! But I'm not that much of a racing game player. What are some unusual video games I can apply my steering wheel to?

Fun Pride-themed gift ideas

honey badger — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 22:02:42 GMT

Visiting two gay men this month for Pride and want to give them fun gifts easily packed into a carry-on bag because I'm flying.

The friends in question are a couple, and they are hosting me at their house, so I wanted to perhaps incorporate a thank you for letting me stay at your place gift with a Pride theme. Any ideas for small things I can pack?

Repurposing an old smart phone as a security camera

vortex genie 2 — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 21:51:56 GMT

I want to use an old smart phone as a security camera on my porch while out of town for a week or so. The idea is that a local helper person can see when my semi-feral porch kitty's food needs to be refilled without having to come onsite to check. If you have successfully set up an old phone as a security cam or similar, I'd love to hear how you did it and how things went.

As we all well know, the internet is lousy with slop these days, and real people who can share their experiences with me would be the best thing. I have
a) a semi-feral cat under my care who is terrified of nearly all humans
b) some trips coming up, and
c) an out-of-use Pixel 6a that I can stick on my porch and connect to power and wifi.

Needs:
- a method that will allow me to set up the old phone as a camera on my porch and leave it unattended for about a week. I don't plan to run this all the time forever, just when I'm out of town.
- Ability to view the camera feed remotely from my actual in use android phone
- Ability to share access to the camera with android- and iOS-using local helper people so they can check on my porch.

Bonus Points For:
- Motion activated functionality that can send me a still image when a cat visits the porch.
- Open source stuff that isn't spying on me (yes I know Big Evil Tech is always watching and all that but I don't want, for example, a Ring camera that stores everything for the cops)

Not interested in:
- Suggestions on commercial products to purchase, I am only looking for information about repurposing an existing smartphone.
- Storing footage anywhere, I truly do not need to save or review the footage of my feral cat's food dish
- Suggestions or information about how I should not have a semi-feral porch kitty, how cats should not be outside, etc. She is healthy, spayed, vaccinated, and has access to vet care when needed, and the situation will not be changing in the short-term.

A few misc details:
- I'm not particularly concerned about the phone getting stolen, but it'll get a wipe before I leave it unattended. Are there other security issues I should be addressing?
- Some people on the internet say that they ran into issues with battery failure, is this something I should be worried about?

I am looking into VDO.ninja, this seems like it would work but I'm not sure it's the right tool for the job. A big thing I like about it is that it doesn't require registration/login, I can just share a link. It does seem a little bit techy but not too far out of my skill set to handle. Input from folks who have used this tool would be awesome, even better if used for a similar purpose.

There are a bunch of apps that get recommended, I genuinely can't tell how intrusive, predatory, or annoying these are because the internet is trash these days. Input from folks who use an app for this purpose would also be swell. Free would be best, could pay a one-time fee for something great, not interested in subscription-based. Android and iOS compatibility needed.

Back story on trash can kitty: A few years back, a young cat started sleeping on my recycling barrel. That summer I decided to try to buy her love with food. She quickly decided that she loves cat food and being petted, I TNR'ed her, and we've been hanging out ever since. Trash can kitty enjoys belly rubs more than any other cat I've known. She loves the two humans who live here, but if anyone else sets foot on the property she completely disappears into the ether. Thus, I feel that a proper house/ cat sitter is not the best choice. We have used a loaner web cam for this purpose in the past with great success. Cat tax for those who made it all the way to the bottom <3

London pub quiz etiquette/norms?

wenestvedt — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:22:26 GMT

What's the etiquette for a tourist who wants to drop in to a local pub quiz? What are the norms?

We are visiting London soon from the U.S. with our grown (aged 18-27) kids. I think it would be fun to drop in for quiz night while we are there, and I want to be sure that I am not expected to know anything beyond the basic "Walk in, get a table, send someone to the bar for drinks, and ask about registering for the contest."

I saw the listings of what's on at https://www.pubquizzers.com/london/, but they don't offer any rules/norms/etc.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Left Hand Mousing

roaring beast — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 15:12:43 GMT

I'm thinking of switching to a left hand mouse position as a righty for ergonomic reasons. If you've done this, did you switch the buttons or just keep them the same? Is there advantage to either way? I could just try it for a while either way, but I don't want to get confused by going back and forth and make the transition longer.

I can see the advantage of keeping the buttons for times when I need to switch back to my right hand and not having to keep changing the settings back and forth.

But I could also see the advantage of switching in keeping the same pattern (pointer is primary, middle finger is secondary) which might make the transition smoother.

Music player to keep dog company

zara — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 15:39:50 GMT

How do I keep music playing for him without a voice controlled speaker?

When I go out I like to leave music on for my dog (pet tax). Usually this is just leaving youtube music's chill station playing on my laptop. But sometimes for work I take my laptop with me, and I dont have a way to leave music playing.

Additional thoughts:
I dont love the idea of Alexa speakers and the like for privacy reasons. Nothing voice controlled.
I would like it to be able to play youtube music but could maybe download some music for him. I would like it to be able to play for a couple hours, otherwise I would use the record player.
FM radio is a possibility but not my favorite choice.
I have an iphone so could do something with an app, it just needs to be able to still work if the iphone leaves

Is this like buying an ipod and hooking it up to a speaker? Is this something that exists?

Do you have a lunch bag you really like?

The corpse in the library — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:58:09 GMT

I often pack my lunch, and my current lunch bag is falling apart. Do you have an insulated lunch bag you particularly like? What makes it good?

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