Don’t skip in New Zealand: Southern Scenic Route!

I have just done with driving the whole Southern Scenic Route. For the ones who don’t know what this is; or where it is, I can shortly say that is the road beginning in Queenstown and ending in Dunedin; road with a length of about 610 km. Along the route, as the name says it too, there are many natural and cultural attractions. However, for more info, our friend “Google” can help. Moreover, there is also a webpage for this route, http://www.southernscenicroute.co.nz/  !

When I began driving this route I didn’t even know about it; it was only at Te Anau, when I first heard about it, and I decided to drive on it to its end.

The route is magnificent, because it takes you through the great nature and scenery of New Zealand: mountains, sea, hills, cities etc. This also means that driving is more entertaining and requires more attention.

In some segments of the route, the distances are not very big, but it takes time due to the roads: either very sharp curves, or gravel roads. For instance from Invercargill to Dunedin, it takes about four hours and a half, if one wants to stop by most of the many natural attractions on the way, of which most of them are at driving distances on gravel roads.

It is also important to pay attention to the gas level of the car, since in some parts of the road there are long distances between gas stations.

Today, like I said, I’ve driven between Te Anau and Dunedin, and I stop among others at Waipapa Point, Bluff, Purakaunui Waterfall and Curo Bay. The scenery is amazing in all these places. Moreover, I got to see fur seals at Waipapa Point, but there was a very hot day and the seals were laid on the sand, or better said. covered in sand. At Curo Bay the beach is breathtaking: large, golden and fine sand, turquoise waters…still, no seals or penguins as expected. The Purakaunui Waterfall was a bit disappointing for me; it is a small waterfall with nothing spectacular, although it is promoted as the most photographed waterfall in New Zealand! At Bluff, I was to visit the debated southernmost place in New Zealand. There is a sign to mark this fact, and many tourist coming to see it too.

The above paragraph mention a couple of attractions I visited while driving the Southern Scenic Route. These together with the rest of the attractions, good weather, a camera and enthusiasm leads to a great experience. I hope everyone will enjoy it as much as I did.

 

 

 

 

Christchurch – a boring city for tourist!

This is the post ever with no featured picture! It is not a mistake, but it is the effect of my stop in Christchurch.

I knew and I acknowledge the difficult times a region or city has to recover after earthquakes – in this case the big ones from 2012, but the image of the city now, make me doubt about its offerings for tourists even before the earthquakes.

We stay at a hostel located at about 10 minutes walk from the center of the city, so we decided to walk around the center and enjoy the sights. However, from the moment we had a chat with the receptionist, I kinda had the feeling that there is not much to do here as a tourist; the receptionist started -when talking about the city- with the mall, restaurants, and ended with the cathedral; Nothing more. So, once outside the hostel, we headed to the city center. Seeing that nothing interesting appear, we got disappointed but hoped for the best the closer we got to the central area!

However, we got into the center, but there was nothing appealing. Even the streets alone are unappealing and ugly; there were not even as nice as the city centers of the small towns we had driven through down here. So disappointed, we turn back to our hostel, not before having something to eat on Victoria St.

We had planned to spend a bit more time tomorrow in Christchurch, but I have the feeling I have seen enough, so we will have a coffee and then we will hit further south.

Hope the next stop will be as exciting as the rest of the places we have visited in New Zealand before sopping in Christchurch.

From Taupo to Napier!

Rain and cloudy today! These have been the two major coordinates of today! Not my favorite ones! In this context we have had to find some stuff to do.

After a great morning running session along the Taupo Lake, we took off to the Wairakei Terraces and Thermal Health Spa. There we spent about three hours. Most of the time spent there was amazing, especially the pools and the massage; the walk around the so called geyser and vegetation is not worth, so save the money!

From the spa we went back to the Acacia Bay, but because of the weather we shot two pictures and then left to the central Taupo for lunch at Piccolo Restaurant.

After the lunch, with the clouds surveying the region we decided to head to Napier. As soon a we set the address on the GPS we learned that there are about 150 km between the two cities. Moreover, we understood that we will drive mainly through the nature since at the exit from Taupo there is a traffic sign indicating that the first petrol station will be after 130 km!!! Our thoughts proved to be true when we found ourselves driving around green surroundings, with interesting vegetation and many slopes and S curves. Even though there was an deserted area, we meet also a police car checking the traffic…to our big surprise.

After almost two hours we entered Napier. The city was threatened by dark and heavy clouds, but they got away with the time. The city is nice, having a special charm due to its architecture and proximity to the sea. We had a walk in the windy and chilly weather and then had dinner at Mister D Restaurant.

Tomorrow we plan to visit some of the attractions in Napier, afterward we’ll travel many km to Wellington. We are waiting forward to this trip.

Whakarewarewa & Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland

Today’s ride was a quite short one, with short distances driven back and forth around Rotoura.

First we hit to the central Rotoura to drink a coffee and enjoy something to eat. The state of mind was shaky due to the rainy weather; first day of rain since we arrived in New Zealand, and not the last one!

Sipping from the warm coffee we decided to first head to Whakarewarewa Maori Village. It is at only four km away from Rotoura and we wanted anyhow to visit some Maori villages. The ticket we bought from the iVisitor in Rotoura; if you buy it from there you get a discount of 5 NZD per ticket; with these money saved we paid out coffee ;-)!

Then we headed to the park through the light rain. Rotoura smelt like rotten eggs since we arrived, and the closer we came to the village, the strong the smell was! There is no need to look around you, trying to figure out the reason; it smells this way because of the sulfate; and the closer one came to the Whakarewarewa village, the more will “enjoy” this smell. This is because there are also some geysers apart from the Maori culture. We missed the eventual eruption of any of the geysers, but we saw them and listen to the Maori stories told by our Maori guide. However, by far the most exciting experience was participating to the Maori program. There were sang local songs and danced haka. To my excitement I took part -together with other men from the audience- to the haka dance on the stage. Moreover, anyone had the chance to take pictures with the members of the Maori group.

The Maori show was the last ting we did in Whakarewarewa village. From there we headed to the geysers from Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland. Rain again! Not very strong rain but annoying! At the park the rain was very light, however it had an sort of negative influence over the visit, because it affected the view of the beautiful and colorful geysers. No eruption here either; the only one happening here take place at 10:15 everyday; so we missed it. However, the walk around the geysers was exciting. It allowed us to see different and strange geysers with many colours and shapes. The last one we visited was the one that impressed us the most; it is called Devils Bath and it has a great green colour; it is breathtaking, and it is an attraction in itself. The park has also a big diversity of products, and the prices are not bigger than the ones down in town.

Once we finished we had a frugal lunch at the cafe inside the souvenir shop, and then we left the place for Taupo. On the way there we stopped to see the Huka Falls. Amazing place as well, and very close to central Taupo.

The falls was the last touristic thing we did; the rain got stronger and didn’t let us visit much. Tomorrow the weather is expected to be more or less the same, but no matter what we will find something to do; beside we will hit to Napier.

I’ll be back tomorrow ;-)!

Home at The Hobbit!

I’ve just visited The Hobbit….huuuuuura! Well, he wasn’t home but I still enjoyed to be around his domain!

Everything starts down the hill, in Matamata village at the Information visitor center, a building that looks like a hobbit one, but bigger :-)! There we boarded the Hobbiton tour bus, with the tickets we bought online. The bus was half empty, but who cared; the views on the way up to the Hobbit Movie Set were breathtaking, and supported by the info from the driver.

First stop: the Movie Set Souvenirs area. There we picked up our guide, and without getting off the bus we drove further to the Movie Set. On the way sheep and beautiful scenery; I love it!

With such natural beauty to drive by, the time is flying! When we arrived at the desired places, the guide took over! Our guide’s name was Jessica, and she us very entertaining and well prepared despite her very young age. Generally the tour offered enough info about the place, movie and back stage; all these combined with “breaks” for picture sessions. However, sometimes taking pictures was a changing activity due to the high number of visitors willing to take pictures as well!

We had the right and the chance to visit only one house: Hobbit’s one. Different than in the movie, but I let you explore it live…

Then, after more pictures, we were offered a New Zealandish beer for free; it was perfect after an circa two hours tour.

Then we packed our memories and our ocular pictures and boarded again the bus; this time to the way back in Matamata. However, there is a 15 minutes stop at the souvenir place, so everyone can have an extra memory!

This was for today; tomorrow we hit the road to Rotorua and Taupo! Lets see what we can do there!

From Coromandel Peninsula to Matamata, via Waitomo Caves!

Today has been the day when we left Coromandel Peninsula and headed south to Matamata as end destination. It is an 320 km driving distance according to our GPS. Yet we didn’t drive strait to the destination, but we stopped at the Waitomo Caves to explore some of them  and especially the Glowworms Cave.

Driving in the Coromandel Peninsula is fascinating: many beautiful views and a road with a lot of slopes and S turns; I loved it. Once one arrive at Thames. the road settles and becomes more “boring”, with flat roads only. However, the way our GPS chose for us to get to Waitomo Caves took us through a lot of secondary roads, I would say. There have been many roads where we drove alone, and there were many segments of road with very narrow roads.

It took us about three hours to get to the Waitomo Caves from Coromandel Town. At the caves we stopped with the thought of exploring all the three caves shown in most of the pictures with the caves. However, once in the tickets office we ended up buying a two hour tour with the tube in Glowworm Cave. It’s so because we are not very into all that theoretical part about caves, where one gets explanations about the history of the cave, creation etc. We wanted something more fun and interactive, and of course we wanted tese the Glowworm Cave, with those little worms lighting up the sky of the cave. There were two companies offering more or less a similar tour, but due to availability we had no choice but going into the caves with Footwhistle. It costs 139 NZD/person, for what they say it is a two hours tour, but it was actually about one and a half hour. The tour was fun and the cave they took us in was amazing too; we arrived at points where the water was 7 m high but we were actually 400 feet under the entrance level.

We were done with the visiting the caves at 5 PM, and because we still had about 100 km more to drive, we took of to our destination: Matamata. Driving there was more fun, that the previous segments, with some parts being quite similar with some from the Coromandel Peninsula. On the way there are not places worth visiting so there was not stop in our one and a half hour drive.

Matamata seem to be a tiny place, with everything they have run around the fame of The Hobbit. We visited the “central” part of the village, with the Broadway Street and stuff, and now we waiting forward to visiting the hobbit house tomorrow morning.

Keep tuned, I’ll be back with details.

 

Exploring New Zealand – Coromandel

Three days ago I arrived in New Zealand for the first time in my life, being ready to travel across it for 20 days; I am not alone, but with my girlfriend.

The first two and a half days I have spent in Auckland, and it was awesome. However, today we have got to the moment to pick up the car we have prebook it before our arrival here: a Toyota RAV4, from Budget. The staff from Budget in Auckland (Beach Rd.) were very nice and the car is almost new: only 11.150 km on board. However, whoever choose to come down here with a driving licence not in English, have to think twice. I had one issued in Denmark, but with everything in Danish, and they were about to cancel my booking. In the end they found someone to translate my driving licence; it took one hour and it costed 69 NZD.

Going further into my day, driving on the left side of the road was something not known to me, so it was full of fun…however I got it pretty easy. I was surprised though by two things:

• the limit speed in the highway -100 km!!! and,
• the design of some segments of roads. For example the one to Coromandel Peninsula…it has segments of road very narrow and very close to the edge of the steep edges of the road; moreover there are no parapets.

We drove from Auckland to Coromandel Town. The driving occurs mainly on the highway, but there are also the last 60 km that are dome on the peninsula and the scenery is fabulous. I stopped every few km to take pictures.

Once in Coromandel, we went to our motel booked before coming here. There are not hotels or stuff like that. Coromandel is pretty much like a village, but a very nice one. Moreover, the design of some of the houses and public institutions are very nice, remembering me of the ones seen in the american old movies with cowboys. So far here I have been to the beach and I “went out”. The beach is not covered with sand but with little stones; however, it is very nice the view and the driving to there.

For eating out everyone coming here must visit Mussel Kitchen; it is amazing. For evening I tried Pepper Tree…very good as well!

This was for today! Now I am going to bed, ready to take off tomorrow to the Waitome Cave, Hamilton and the settling at Matamata.

 

 

Helsingborg for beginners!

Helsingborg is going to be my residence for the next six months. This is for sure now. In this context it is very important for me to get to know the city, since I haven’t been there so far, so everything is totally new.

However, before I have even start doing the research about the city by myself, the first opportunity to discover Helsingborg was given by the institution I will go there for, Lund University. They organized a city tour for all the new students in the city, including me of course. It was a tour lasting about two hours when we walked around the centrum of the city, including most of the basic information, not only for students, but also for everyone new in Helsingborg, or for any tourist coming here for a city break.

Here are some of the things I discovered:

There are projects to change the city plan. This wants to say that the city was developed in the middle of the 20th century, being designed for easy access, by cars, to the city centrum. Now, because the focus has changed towards a greener and more eco-friendly environment, with more walking and cycling, the plans are to take the main street and the train rails underground, leaving a more aired centrum, and an easy access, by foot and/or bike…at least in the southern part of the city, the one we began the tour with. For the moment there are tunnels for pedestrians to go under the rails and road to the other side.

Southern part of Helsingborg, called Söder, has not a very good reputation and it is not very attractive. It seems that here is the district where most of the immigrants and homeless people live. From my little experience with the city, I also consider the Northern part of Helsingborg a lot more beautiful and interesting than the southern part, with the beautiful seaside, the Sofiero Castle and the green forests, to mention just a few.

Want cheap food?…then visit Gustav Adolf Market. It is located in the same area, Söder, next to the church with the same name, Gustav Adolf Church. As I understood, the products here are cheaper than other places around the city, but in the same time you have to check them for the quality.

There are two main churches in Helsingborg: Gustav Adolf Church, in Söder, and Sankta Maria Church, in centrum of the city; churches that can be visited as well.

In Helsingborg lived Linda Nilsson. At Bruksgatan 5, in the central Helsingborg, lived Hida Nilsson, one of the famous angel makers in Sweden. She is believed to have killed eight babies before she was sentenced to death. The babies were given to her, by the mothers who got pregnant outside their marriages or before the marriage, in an era when this kind of behavior was harshly condemned (http://www.algonet.se/~hogman/angel_maker.htm).

Tura! Helsingborg is the closest Swedish point to Denmark. From here are only 20 minutes ride by ferry to the Danish city of Helsingør. Now, as it was told to us, Swedes have a funny tradition and enjoy taking the ferry between these two cities! Until here nothing funny or unusual; the funny thing is that they don’t get off on the Danish coast, but ride the ferry back to Sweden, and then again to Denmark, and so on!!!! This is because they use to enjoy the time on the ferry together with friends, drinking and eating, and only when they are full, they decide to get off the ferry, most likely in the Swedish port. This is because the drinks are cheaper on the ferry than in any of these cities. This kind of trip has even a name, which is Tura! So, whenever you are invited to a tura, you know what to expect.

Kärnan Tower, is the high tower oversees the city from its top. It is a symbol of the city, representing and lasting from the old times when it was used in defending Helsingborg from the enemies’ assaults, especial during the war with Denmark.

Kullagatan Street. It is the oldest shopping street in Sweden. Although not a very long street, it is very crowded with people looking to explore the multitude of shops. The street looks very nice especially due to the many flags hang up.

Fika! Not the last, I found out which is the most loved social activity in Helsingborg, and generally in Sweden; it’s called Fika, and it defines the moments when people use to sip a coffee and have a cinnamon cookie, but it also require that those having these two things engage in friendly discussions to each other.

These are the first things I learned during my first time exploring Helsingborg guided by the representative from Lund University. However, there remains many aspects to be discovered. For instance, just walking around the city –this time alone- I enjoyed a lot the view, from instance the one of the harbor, the city hall building, again the superb view given by the top of Kärnan Tower, the Dunker Culture House ( museum and art center designed by Kim Utzon, the son of Jørn Utzon, who designed Sydney Opera House) and Sofiero Castle and gardens (this place is a bit outside the city –only 5km away- but it worth any effort made to visit it. It is like a corner of heaven on earth: green, quiet, a lot of flowers, restaurant, forest, a lot of different plants which would make jealous almost any botanical garden etc.).

Sofiero Castle!

Helsingborg’s City Hall!

The entrance in Helsingborg’s harbor!

As a consequence I believe that Helsingborg has a lot of resources to make worth it a city break. I would live there more than that and for sure some of the sights will become no longer of interests, but I can already foresee that the overall beauty of the city will not stop delight and attract me.

PS. If possible, don’t miss this weekend in Helsingborg, ’cause this is when it takeS place Helsingborg’s Festival, and I heard it’s a pretty cool time to be there.

The Danish Riviera: Gilleleje & Hornbæk!

I believe there are many people around the Gobe dreaming to visit the Riviera…The French Riviera! However, I do. Yet, to dream is given to everyone, to actually visit the place doesn’t happen to everyone for different reasons: time, distance, money etc. I am personally one of those who haven’t got to visit the French Riviera…no yet. Yet, recently, I have heard that there is actually another Riviera, more closer to where I live…the Danish Riviera! I know, it sounds very, very weird; at least it did sound weird to me, so I decided to go and check it out by myself. It all started with a simple research on one of our best friends, Google. This happened last night! It didn’t take long to convince me, so this morning I woke up early and the only thing I knew it was I was going to the Danish Riviera. I didn’t go alone, because I didn’t want to, and because I couldn’t…my girlfriend came with me as well. And here’s the story:

We left our home, in Skovlunde, and took the train, line C; not a long ride, because in circa 10 minutes we should change the train with line F, to Hellerup. There, after circa 15 minutes of waiting time, we took line A to Hillerød. Not yet our wished destination! At Hillerød we board the 940R train towards Helsingør! After another half of hour we finally heard that the next station was Gillelege.

It was a two hours and 10 minutes trip just to arrive there from our home. However, our enthusiasm was still at high levels. Surprisingly, we discovered with pleasure that in the Gillelege train station is a Tourist Information point, belonging to Visit Nordsjælland (the name of the region). So first we went to ask about what is to be done in this little town, and to ask of course where is the beach. We discovered that the beach is actually very close to the train station, and that there is also a touristic area in the town, with shops, cafes and restaurants.

Next target?…looking for a coffee shop. I kinda knew that there is not Starbucks or Baresso (Danish coffee shop chain, similar to Starbucks) so we had to be happy with whatever we could find; and we found a bakery called Bagt. There we got each a Latte; Latte which unfortunately didn’t taste really like a Latte but more like some water mixed us some leftovers of coffee. The only positive thing of it was that it was cheaper than what we were used to pay for a Latte in Copenhagen. Here the Latte costs 30 Danish Crowns a cup.

Not even this Latte ruined our mood, so we continued our way to the beach. Soon we arrived at the beach. I personally didn’t have any expectation from it, I was just curious to see how it is, because until we got there, we enjoyed the way this little town looked like. The first view of the beach was nice, especially due to the houses very close to the beach and the blue water. Yet the beach is kinda dirty from the tones of seaweed resting on it. There were also many stones, but in spite of all these there were people enjoying the sun. We also enjoyed the views and so we took plenty of pictures.

Than we walked to the end of the beach we had to go back to the town streets. In this way we luckily arrived to the Gillelege harbor, which is arguable the largest fishing harbor in the whole Sjælland Island (http://www.visitnorthsealand.com/ln-int/north-sealand/gilleleje). Beside this I can say that the harbor offers a very nice view, and so it is a nice place to walk around. We did so, and soon we arrived in an area with restaurants serving sea food and dishes based on fish.

It was around 13:30 and we felt kin of hungry so we thought that it was the best idea to stay and eat some fishy dishes from the largest port of Sjælland. Thus, we stopped at Adamsen’s Fisk (http://www.adamsensfisk.dk/), and chose a plate with sea food and a plate with baked shrimps. I don’t know if it was the excitement or it was true, but these dishes tasted delicious. Beside this -we discovered after we finished our lunch- this restaurant offers tables next to a local water channel as well!

No hungry any longer, we continued our walk on the other side of the harbor, direction Helsingør. The sights were pretty much the same, with a plus for the way houses look like. After about two more hours of walking we decided to go back to the train station, and to continue our trip to another town. For the next location we asked at the information point! From there we were biased to visit Hornbæk, an even smaller town somewhere half way to Helsingør.

The 20 minutes ride with the train was just good for us to rest our legs, so when we arrived in Hornbæk we were just ready to explore its offerings. Indeed, Hornbæk is not a big town, on the contrary it is very small I would say, but still very nice, colorful and cheerful. Following the main road, after we passed by some local, little shops we first saw its harbor. With a lot of different and colorful ships, boats and yachts, it was a perfect spot for pictures.

Then we realized that in both sides of the harbor, two beaches were waiting for was. They are pretty similar, both are very wide and have amazing and very fine sand, and no stones. However, the beach on the right side of the harbor is wider….actually it is the widest beach I have seen in Denmark in this three years I have been living here. Beside this there were a lot more people than on the other one.

         

At this point we were very satisfied; beside the evening was about to seetle its chilling weather and to push the light of the day away, so we decided to eat one more ice cream and then to return to our home. Doing so we arrived home at around half past seven.

After this experience we can conclude that Denmark has a Riviera, and surprisingly it is very nice and vivid one. I would even go as far as to say that visiting the Danish Riviera should be a must for anyone no matter whether s/he is a tourist or a local. However, in the end it is everyone’s decision…so for the ones deciding to visit these places, I hope you enjoy them at least as much as my girlfriend and I did; as for the ones deciding to visit other places, I hope you enjoy those places as well!

God tur…as Danes use to wish to someone travelling!

Visiting Sofiero Castle or the Schönbrunn of the North (as I would call it)!

It has been almost three years since I arrived in Denmark and I decided to settle her for a while. But despite this fact I haven’t travel to much into the nordic countries, although there are now very accessible to me. To this has contributed in a very high degree the weather which is not very welcoming, and which has driven me to more sunny and warmth destinations. However, recently I was accepted as an exchange student to Lund University, in Campus Helsingborg. This event has just put Helsingborg on my mind’s map, as a destination of high interest. Therefore, few days ago, in one of my free days from work I decided to travel and see what this city looks like.

However, before hitting the road I made a bit of research about what I can do/see and where and what I can eat – since I call myself a foodie, this is a must! As an outcome of my research I set as first priority to visit Sofiero Castle, together with its gardens, and to have the lunch there.

With this in mind, the next day -was a Monday- early morning I took the Øresund train, from Copenhagen Central Station, to Helsingborg. It was a one and a half hour trip. Once arrived in Helsingborg train station I got just enough time to buy tickets for the bus who supposed to take me to the castle, n to board it. The Castle is not so far away from the city center, especially for the ones who enjoy walking; there are circa five kilometers to there, most of the time walking along the shore, which may be a very pleasant walk. As an alternative it can be taken bus number 8, which run that direction twice an hour, and the trip takes circa 17 minutes. Although I love walking, I opted for the bus because I considered I would arrive to late for lunch at Sofiero Castle; beside I was a bit concerned about the route I have to follow to the castle. 

As I said, not after a long ride, I saw myself in front of the Sofiero Castle. There is a visitor fee to be paid at the entrance in the garden, and then it comes the splendid view; a view which seems to me pretty similar to the view one have at the Schönbrunn Palace, in Vienna, although in the case of Sofiero Castle, the distance from the entrance to the building it is filled by nice cut grass, the temperatures are a lot lower, and the tourists are not so many, so it becomes easier to enjoy the visit. Yet at the first sight the way everything is found (big and imposant castle in sight, flowers garden on the right, beautiful and multitude of flowers, nice view over the sea and castle, the little forest etc.) made it easy for me to recall the famous austrian castle.

Yet in spite of the beauty opened in font of my eyes, the first thing I did was to go streight to the restaurant and book the lunch. After I happily left the restaurant I allowed myself to be emerged in the beauty of the gardens.

The view based on a natural beauty, touched each and there by a human hand focused on details, made me feel so easy and excited. I started with the flowers part of the garden, where there where a lot of different plants and flowers, all blooming, and having from spot to spot benches which are placed perfectly to the right points in order to take te best pictures. However the gardens are not huge: it takes about one, one and a half hours to make the whole round of the gardens, but the beauty is at its home. Among others there are two small mazes, japanese garden, melon garden…it look a lot better than the botanical gardens from many european cities.

After I made the whole round I arrived just in time for the lunch I had made reservation, and which was also an important target of the day for me. I spent in restaurant about two hours, and I got out of it excited, very satisfied and full. It was an absolutely feast for my palates, and more details about this you can read in my review I made to it on TripAdvisor, at the following link: http://www.tripadvisor.dk/ShowUserReviews-g189836-d1042543-r294112495-Sofiero_Slottsrestaurang-Helsingborg_Skane_County.html#REVIEWS .

  

After the lunch I decided it was time to go, although the view and the fresh impressions didn’t let me go easily.

However I will not forget, and neither you the ones who want to visit this place should forget that it is quiet, green, with a lot of fresh air and flowers, knowledge through the little info that’s available about each plant/flower…it is absolutely a piece of heaven.