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Eurotrip 2009 at EveryTrail

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Day 15--London

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Today was our last day in Europe.
We arrived in London around 8am and first looked for a place to store our bags before we could check into the Hostel—Smart Russell Square Hostel. We decided to take our bags to the hostel and keep the backpacks there. After dropping off our bags we set out to go walking around London.
We first went over to Big Ben and started our day of picture taking. We were able to take pictures of Big Ben and the London Eye from the bridge. From there we headed over to St. Margaret’s Cathedral.
After the cathedral we headed back to the hostel to check in. We made our beds and got our bags put away and took a nap for a little while before heading back out to see more of the city.
After resting we set out for Buckingham Palace. There were a lot of barricades set up that were just being taken down so we had apparently just missed something big and important. We never did figure out what had been going on in front of Buckingham Palace. When we got to Buckingham Palace we saw the very end of the changing of the guard.
After we took what we thought were a sufficient amount of pictures we moved on to Westminster Cathedral. From there we traveled over to Trafalgar’s Square. There we first went to Hamley’s—a large toy store. In there we saw the ISIS he wants to get next. He seriously considered buying it because it was 150 pounds and he wouldn’t need to pay for shipping. When we left the store he looked up online how much the puzzle costs when ordering it online. In the end he decided against buying it so we moved on to Harrod’s. Harrod’s is a large high end department store. The first things we saw when walking in were Gucci and Louis Voutton purses. I had to just keep walking by so I wouldn’t want to buy the purses I shouldn’t be buying. After walking around Harrod’s and realizing that there wasn’t anything in the store we could even pretend to afford we moved on to our next destination.
We ended up at the Tower Bridge and London Tower. These were just closing so we weren’t able to go in. But we were able to add more pictures to the hundreds we’ve taken. After this we headed back to the hostel.
Once at the hostel we uploaded pictures to the entries that were lacking pictures. We then decided to get something to eat. We went to a grocery store to buy something there to bring back to the hostel to eat but didn’t find anything that we really wanted without having to cook it. So we bought snacks for later and decided to eat at a restaurant nearby. We ate at a place I can’t remember the name of and my camera is put away so I can’t look at the name in the picture I took—but the restaurant was a chicken place. We each had a chicken sandwhich and shared fries and garlic bread. After this we went back to the hostel to wait for it to get dark and see the city at night.
At the hostel we tried to watch the episodes of Harper’s Island we have missed but it is not available in the UK. Once it got dark we headed back out to Big Ben and Tower Bridge at night. The London Eye was also lit up nicely and so was the museum. The museum was lit up between the columns and would change color. Tower Bridge was also lit up, but not as cool looking as the London Eye or museum.
From there we went back to the hostel to pack up our bags and get ready for our trip back home. We rearranged our bags in order to be able to get everything home. We then tried to get some sleep because we needed to be up early to get to our 10:15am flight home.

Day 14--Brussels

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Today we woke up early to try and find the “I Amsterdam” sign and take a picture of the Red Light District because you aren’t allowed to take pictures at night. We went to a few different parks but could not find the sign as it is not labeled on the maps that we had of the city. So we then walked over to the train station to get on a train to Brussels (we realized later that we forgot to take a picture of the Red Light District).
We arrived in Brussels around noon and headed over to our hotel—Hotel Floris Avenue. When we got there we found out that check in was not until 3pm so we had about three hours, luckily we were able to drop off our bags at the hotel. We bought some internet time so that we could find out how to get to some of the places we wanted to go.
We then headed off to Mini Europe. There are miniature sculptures of many different important and well known building from through-out Europe. There were castles and cathedrals and buildings of parliaments. There were also working parts such as trains, cars, and boats that moved around the exhibits. As the country changed there was a button you could press to hear the county’s national anthem. At the end of Mini Europe there was a an interactive exhibit where you learned about the EU.
Next to Mini Europe was the Atomium. This was built for the 1958 World’s Fair when It was held in Belgium. We went into this next. You are able to go into the different spheres of the Atomium where there are different exhibits. In one there is a Kid’s World that is limited to only groups of school kids and their teachers. There was a temporary exhibit of different comics related to the Atomium. There is a restaurant on the very to0p sphere but we didn’t go up there. Just below the restaurant is a panoramic room where you can take pictures of everything all around the Atomium. We were a little disappointed with the Atomium because it seemed cooler in the pamphlet and online.
Once we exited the Atomium we sat outside for a little while deciding what we wanted to do next. While we sat there we were listening to different Spanish music because around the Atomium there were people setting up for a Spanish festival. As we sat we also bought some Churros to eat. From there we decided to walk to Mannequin Pis. This is a statue of a little boy peeing and is very important to Brussels. There’s a legend that says that little boy peed out a fire that would have destroyed Brussels. This statue has worn over 700 different outfits through-out the years and each of the costumes has a cut out se the statue can continue ‘peeing’ into the fountain below.
All around the statue of the little peeing boy were chocolate shops. We went into a few of them and then bought some chocolate to eat later.
We were able to see part of the Grote Market from the statue and chocolate shops and decided to walk over there before heading to the hotel for check in. This market is where at certain times of the year there are flowers laid out in the square in a giant pattern. Unfortunately this wasn’t the season for the flowers to be out. In the walkway we took to enter the market area there was a statue that if you run your hand around the length of the gold it’s supposed to be good luck—so Justin and I both tried to get some luck.
We then headed over to the hotel to check in. The hotel was very nice and the room for just the two of us was as big as some of our other hostels where there were 10 beds in the room. After checking in and relaxing in the room for a little while we headed back out. We realized that we had spent the rest of our money earlier on chocolate and tried to look for a currency exchange place that might be open so we could have some cash for the Spanish festival we saw earlier. After looking at a few different places that were all closed we decided to just head over to the Atomium to see it lit up at night. We spent about an hour there walking around listening to the different music played at the many different booths—most of the music was stuff we would hear on a night out on campus.
We then headed back to the hotel to write about our daily activities and then get some sleep before our train ride for London at 7am.

Day 13--Amsterdam

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We took an overnight train to Amsterdam and arrived around 10am. We figured we would be unable to check in yet so we dropped off our bags at the train station and headed for the main part of the city. On our walk around we found Madame Toussaud’s Wax Museum. We were able to take pictures of and with famous people both dead and alive. Justin was finally able to meet and take a picture with the Pope. We were also able to take a picture with Johnny Depp—from his younger years. In the book there was pictures of a Pirates display…unfortunately this was not there so we were unable to take pictures with Jack Sparrow or Elizabeth Swann.
With the Madame Toussaud’s tickets we got tickets to the Amsterdam Dungeon. This was a historical haunted house. We learned about Amsterdam’s bloody past—like Soul Merchants who would trick or capture people into being crews on ships. At the end there was a mini roller coaster we were able to ride.
After that it was close to 2 and we decided to check into our hotel—Hotel de Gerstekorrel. After checking in we learned that we were on the top floor of the building and had to climb very steep, narrow, twisting steps—this was not fun and a little treacherous (especially for my clumsy self). Needless to say, we tried to avoid having to go in and out too many times.
We then took showers because there are not showers on the train and they were much needed. On our way out we had some famous Holland fries (we assumed they were famous because everyone we were eating them).
We then headed over to the Heineken Brewery for the Heineken Experience. During the Heineken experience we were able to walk around learning about the history of Heineken and see how it is made. About half way through the tour we were put into a ‘ride’ where we became one of the Heineken bottles through its being made. After the ride we were able to do a tasting of Heineken and learned that the best way to pour a Heineken is to leave some of the head on it, take a water stick and run it across the top—this traps the carbon dioxide in and keeps the oxygen out. We continued on the tour, seeing different ads that have been made for Heineken, and seeing their different bottle types. At one point, Heineken bottles were made to be able to stack together and then make inexpensive homes. We were able to bottle our own beer that had our name printed on the label. At the end of the tour we were able to go to the Heineken bar and received two drinks. Justin and I both tried the Heineken Extra Cold. This meant that the lines and tap the Heineken came there were insulated with ice—we were able to touch the ice around the outside. The bar tables changed over time to the different parts of the world. Each time the city that was started changed on the table the pictures around the wall would change as well. Also on the table when you placed your glass down a Heineken coaster appeared under it and would follow the glass as it moved around.
After leaving the Heineken Brewery we walked around the city for a little while. We got some New York Style Pizza for dinner because we didn’t know the difference between a legitimate bakery and a bakery for pot.
Then around 10 we went to an ice bar. The beginning half of the bar was heat themed before entering into the ice part. The walls were red and there were illusions of heat and fire around the room and warms drinks were sold such as hot chocolate, and coffee. Then we were able to go into the ice bar. But before entering we had to get a pair of gloves and a warm winter jacket. In the ice bar we were served a drink in a glass made out of ice. Everything was made out of ice—the walls, bar, benches, tables. There were a few stools that were plastic and the benches had think fuzzy padding on them so it wouldn’t be freezing when you sat down. We were able to stay in the ice bar for a half hour then had to go back out to the heat bar. We then left the bar and headed back out to the city.
We headed towards the Red Light District to walk around for a little while. Sex shops and coffee houses (aka pot shops) were more frequent than Starbucks. The pattern was coffee shop, sex shop, windows. The Red Light District isn’t what Hollywood makes it seem like—the girls in the windows wear something like a swim suit or more.
We walked around the Red Light District for a little while then headed back to the hotel for some sleep.

Day 12--Salzburg and Munich

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We woke up at 7 because we could check out of the hostel at 8. We walked over to the train station to drop off our bags in a locker and began our adventure for the day.
We started off by climbing a mountain. We walked up a long, very high path of stairs which lead to a wooded, forest like area. We continued waling and went by a church. We walked through the mountain looking for the different “panoramic views” of Salzburg below. However, when we did manage to find one of these so called panoramic views, you couldn’t see much but trees. Also, the paths we not clearly marked so it was hard to tell where we were in the forest at times. But we managed to find our way through it.
After climbing the mountain we headed towards the Glochenspiel. At the top there is a post office that has a different zip code than the area below. When we got there you had to go through the Salzburg Museum to get to it. However, we did not go to the museum because after looking through some brochures we realized that you are only able to go to the top on Thursday nights and Friday mornings. So we decided to take pictures o the outside instead.
Mozart’s birthplace was our next passing point. We could have gone into the Mozart home and museum but you weren’t allowed to take pictures so we just looked at the information and facts etc that they had in the main entrance way. From there we moved on to the Fortress. The fortress is on top of another mountain so we took a mini-train ride up to it. Once there we went up to the highest point of the fortress. We also saw a small exhibit of marionette dolls. There we found out that there was a marionette theater near by and had we been in Salzburg longer could have seen a play with marionette dolls. There was also an exhibit of war artifacts through out the fortress. There was one really cool display of metal soldiers set up in a battle scene. There were arrows and spears flying through the air above us and even a cannon ball just being shot out of a cannon.
After the fortress we headed back down, again taking the mini-train ride down. At the bottom we got something to eat consisting of a pretzel and a wiener schnitzel. We then headed towards the train station to catch a train back to Munich to spend a few hours before heading to Amsterdam.
In Munich we decided to take the walking tour that was suggested on the pamphlet we were given the day before. This took us to many different locations around the city. The first stop was for the Karlsplatz. When we got to that location we weren’t really sure what it was because there was a significant looking building, an arch, and a large fountain there. So we decided to take a picture of everything there and try to figure out what it was later. We then saw the Frauenkirche—this was a large building which had a clock with what looked like moveable people. When we got there it was about quarter pass the hour so we decided to keep going and come back later to see the people move. Just across the street was the Glockenspiel.
Farther down the street was the Viktualienmarkt. This was the part of the city where it was shop after shop of butchers. There were a few bread shops thrown in there as well, but it was a meat market. Next on our walking tour list was the Hofbrauhaus—this was a bar/restaurant. We didn’t go in or know why it was such an important one. There were some other stops of statues or monuments as well. One thing that was a little different on the list was the Eisbach/surfing. When we got there it was one of the rivers in which people were able to surf. There were about 5 people taking turns surfing as many people watched.
Justin said I had to share this story because I’ve shared a good number of stories about him. Well, by this point in the day I really needed to use the bathroom—we had drank about 1.5L of water earlier. We were in a park area and so bathrooms were not easily accessible. However, we did find map of the park that said the bathrooms were not far away. We walked over in that direction only to find that the bathroom was closed and looked as if no one had used it in months. By this point I was doing the two-year-old potty dance. I was all set to go and pee in a bush that I originally thought was nicely covered. Well, it was nicely covered from the ground, when I got back there I noticed a window up above and had to ditch that idea. So we continued on our walk because the next stop on the walking tour was about 15 minutes away and was a park/eating spot and had bathrooms there.
The Chinese Tower was the next stop. This is where we had a beer and some food to eat. The beer was GIANT. I took a picture of the name of the beer but can’t seem to find it again in my camera so it’ll have to be named later. To eat we bought a brazen. We ate and drank while listening to tradition German music. The music was live and being played y men who were sitting in the Chinese Tower. This was one of the last stops on the walking tour that was not a museum or closed for the day. At this point we decided to walk back towards the Frauenkirche.
We had about 25 minutes to wait until the hour so we sat in the square below the clock. We were disappointed that at the hour the figurines around the clock did not move like we had thought. We then left the square to walk around some more before heading to the train station.
The end of the night we had an overnight train from Munich to Amsterdam. Before boarding the train we bought some snack food to eat later and also when we got up since we probably wouldn’t be able to get food in the morning when we arrived in Amsterdam.

Day 11--Fussen

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We got in around 8 to get ready for the day and head over to Fussen to see Neuschwanstein Castle—the castle Sleeping Beauty is modeled after.
We took a train from Munich to Fussen. At Fussen we dropped off of bags in lockers at the train station and started walking toward the castle. We thought it was relatively close by but about 20 minutes into the walk we realized it was a lot farther than we thought. So we turned around and headed back towards the bus stop to see if a bus could get us there. Luckily it could and it took us only a few minutes to get to the castle. Neuschwanstien Castle was built by King Ludwig II in a mountain. From the bottom of the mountain we were able to either walk up the mountain, take a minibus up the mountain or ride in a horse drawn carriage up the mountain. You’ll never guess which one I wanted to do….the horse drawn carriage. We took the carriage ride up and the whole time Justin would start to laugh because one of the horses was farting the whole way up. The carriage let us our a little bit lower than the entrance to the castle. We had about a 5 minute walk up the rest of the way.
When we got to the castle we had about 5 minutes before our tour began so we took a few pictures outside. It was a guided tour through the castle. Neuschwanstein Castle only had about 30% of the 65 rooms completed—even now the castle is not finished. King Ludwig II died before the castle’s completion and after his death the construction of Neuschwanstein Castle was stopped. King Ludwig had a master plan of building four castles, three of which were built and the fourth was never started.
After we finished the tour we could walk by some of the unfinished rooms of the castle—and of course out through the gift shop. We walked back down to where the carriage dropped us off and got something to eat. We bought a cheese pretzel wiener schnitzel and pizza snack. The cheese pretzel wiener schnitzel was some cheese bread with a wiener schnitzel in the middle. After we finished this we were going to grab a sugar pretzel to eat but saw Sweet Bavarian Snowballs (basically airy doughnuts with powdered sugar on them) and had to get those instead.
I again had to take the horse carriage ride down the mountain. But this time we were in the carriage instead of out front so I couldn’t see the horses as well. At the bottom of the mountain, we did some souvenir shopping then looked for a bus to take us to Tegelbahn. While looking for the right bus it started to rain—the first rainy day since the half hour it rained in Dublin. We found our bus and headed over. We were going to take a lift up to the top of the cliff but decided not to because it was overcast and the chance of a good picture of Neuschwanstien was low. We stayed there for a little while then caught a bus back to Fussen. From Fussen we took a train back to Munich and then another train to Salzburg.
It was around 9 pm when we arrived at Salzburg so we found our hostel—YoHo international Youth Hostel—and put of stuff away. Since it was fairly early, we went down to the hostel’s bar and had a few drinks while playing cards. We wanted to order something to eat but the kitchen had run out of food. So we walked down the street to pick up snack food at the corner store.
We wanted to go back to the room and eat the food and type up the day’s events but the other person in our room was already asleep. So we decided to go to bed and write about the day later.

Day 10--Glacier Express

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Today we rode trains all day
But before that we bought some Swiss chocolate in the shape of the Matterhorn on our way to the train station because luckily the shop was open because it had closed just before we went to get some chocolate the night before. We also got croissant and pop for the train ride. The Swiss chocolate was really good. I tried the dark chocolate and milk chocolate ones and Justin tried the White chocolate and milk chocolate ones.
We checked the weather to see what it was supposed to be like all day (and to make sure we’d be able to get a lot of pictures on the Glacier Express). The weather said it was supposed to rain or snow along the entire route of the Glacier Express—thankfully the day turned out to be beautiful. The Glacier Express took us through the Swiss Alps. It Runs from Zermat to St. Moritz but we got off a little early at Chur.
When pulling into Chur it was still bright and sunny—but when we were leaving for Zurich the clouds had started to roll in and looked like it was going to storm. We were lucky that the weather held out for our trip through the mountains.
We took a train from Chur to Zurich, then Zurich to Munich. Munich is where we are staying the night today before heading to Fussen in the morning.

Since the past few enteries have been rather long I’ll keep this one short and let everyone look at the hundreds of pictures we took while riding the Glacier Express......when we get home.

Day 9--Switzerland

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Last night we had an overnight train from Florence to what we thought was Visp at 7:07am. However, it ended up that we had to get off the train at Brig at 4:35am—Brig is only about 10 minutes form Visp. Once we arrived at Brig we needed to change out of our warm weather clothes and into jeans and sweatshirts because we had gone from 75 degree weather to 35 degree weather.
Once we in more weather appropriate clothes we were able to figure out what train and when we’d be able to get from Brig to Visp. We arrived in Visp and tried to buy a bus ticket to Saas-Fee to go tobogganing at the Feeblitz—which is the only summer toboggan ride. We tried numerous times to buy a ticket from the automated machine but could not because we didn’t have a PIN number for a credit card. Because of this we needed to wait around for the teller to open up. Finally it opened at 7—the bus was in just 5 minutes. We were buying our bus tickets and just as we were finishing up paying the 7:05 bus to Saas-Fee pulled out of the station—we had to wait until the 7:40.
We got to Saas-Fee and through our bags into some lockers and started to walk for the Feeblitz. We got to the Feeblitz and it wasn’t open. There was a sign on the door that we were unable to read because it was not in English. We looked at other signs around the door and window of the place trying to figure out what the sign said. Finally we typed it out onto a cell phone and walked back to the train station and ask someone to translate for us. The translation was…..”On Holiday, Closed until June 6th.” Just our luck, just a few days after we were visiting.
We then looked a bus that would take us to Stalden so we could take a train to Zermatt (our final stop in Switzerland for the day). When we made it to Zermatt we decided to check we could check into our hostel, Hostel Matterhorn. Unfortunately check in wasn’t until 4, so we had about 4 hours to kill. Luckily there were lockers in the train station again and we were able to leave our bags there and go visit Klein Matterhorn. This mountain is across from the Matterhorn and has an ice palace at the top carved into the mountain.
To get to the top of the mountain we had to take three separate lifts up. And even then we were not all the way up. We were able to climb a set of stairs up higher to get to the top and be able to see all around us. By the time we got to the top we were over 3000 meters up. Once on the top you could really feel that there was a pressure difference because we got a little altitude sickness from climbing all the stairs. After taking a moment to catch our breath, we were able to start taking even more pictures. From the top you are able to see the Matterhorn and the city below. While up there I built a miniature snowman on the ledge of the viewing area—it’s just too bad I didn’t have anything for eyes, nose or mouth.
After climbing back down we were ready to go to the ice palace. However, we did not see a sign on how to get there. So we decided to get something to eat at the restaurant. We split a plate of spaghetti and a plate of chicken and rice. There was so much food that we both entered into a food coma for a little while—luckily there was a good view to look at while we just sat after eating so much.
We then looked again for the ice palace. It turns out that that we needed to take an elevated down into the ice palace where you are then able to walk into the glacier. There were mats lining the floor to help you walk over the ice—which Justin quickly learned when he stepped off the mat and almost slipped down the pathway. After entering the ice palace there are sculptures of different things, some where the statue of David, a large bottle, and a couch. Unfortunately this ice palace did not have a bar in it like others have.
After the ice palace we walked around a little more—even going outside into the snow. I couldn’t stay in the snow too long because my shoes were starting to get when and that would have made for an uncomfortable walk later.
We took the last cable car down from the top. At this point my batteries were starting to die and all the picture taking was left to Justin (seeing as he’s taken over 1700 pictures in the first week, I’d say he’s doing a pretty good job). By the time we got down from the mountain we were able to check into our hostel. We collected our keys from the hostel then walked over to the train station to collect our bags then headed for the hostel. On the way to the train station we when into the different shops looking for our souvenir or the day.
We dropped off our stuff and headed back to the train station because we had learned earlier that there was internet there. We caught up on the past posts we needed to load to the blog and finally added a picture or two to the past posts (these just being a few of the many pictures we’ve taken so far).
After this we dropped off the computer and walked around Zermatt for a little while longer before heading back to the hostel and writing today’s post.

Day 8--Rome and Florence

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We woke up early so that we could stay a little longer in Rome to finish seeing the things we were unable to get to yesterday. The first thing we went to was the Vatican so we would not need to wait 2 hours in line. We got there just as it was opening so there was no one else there and we were able to take unobstructed pictures of the Basilica. Within the Basilica there were priests giving mass to some o the public. You were also able to go to confession there. There were many preserved popes from past generations in glass coffins where the small masses were taking place. We visited the main alter of the church were the main services are given. I knelt at one of the prayer pews to “pray”—aka take a better picture—and Justin put money in the ‘Offerte’ slot on the prayer pew so my sin would be forgiven. However, he probably should have put in the money for himself for taking a picture of himself in front of the Pope’s alter and saying he’d photoshop the Pope in later.
After this, we walked nearly a mile around the Vatican to the Vatican Museum as it was about to open. We really only went in to see the Sistine Chapel. It ended up that we had to walk nearly a mile, going through many different pieces of religious artwork to get into the chapel. Once in the Sistine Chapel, Justin snuck pictures of the wall and ceiling despite guards yelling at everyone else for taking photos as there was a huge sign that said no photos. There was also a sign that said no talking so many people got yelled at as well. At least Justin was smart enough to make sure the flash was off—unlike some other dumb tourist that left his flash on and the guard made a bee-line for him in the crowd. Once we left the Sistine Chapel we realized that it was actually attached to the Basilica and the exit of the Sistine Chapel was just a few steps from the entrance of the Basilica.
After the Vatican we went to check out of our hotel and collect our bags to finish walking around Rome. Luckily, they allowed us to leave our bags at the hotel for the afternoon after taking them out of our room.
From there we went to the Roman Forum and the Palatino. We walked through the Palatino, from which there is a nice view of Rome and all the underlying Roman Forum. We finished walking through the Roman Forum and headed back to pick up our bags and catch a train to Florence.
We arrived in Florence around 2:40. We then proceeded to play a game of Where’s Waldo—though in this case it was ‘Where’s David.’ The map we had—and all the maps we saw—did not have the Accademia on them as tourist attractions. Because of this we thought it may have had another name and searched the city. Based off of the map we had claimed that the David di Michelangelo was in the Piazza della Signoria and when we got there we discovered that David was outside and the fake one. (Apparently, all the tourists thought it was the real one.) After this we thought it might be in the Piazzale Michelangelo because there was a very large picture of David over this location on another map we saw. However, after walking nearly a mile and a half up a very steep hill, we discovered that this too was not the true David. There is a green statue of David up there in a viewing area.
We decided to go into the Ufuzzi because we couldn’t figure it out. We only spent about 30 minutes there because there wasn’t anything we recognized. We went into another building and asked about David. The women here directed us to where David was—on the other side of the city. We started on our walk and passed Il Duomo. So we stopped and took some pictures. When finally found the Accademia and David Justin once again snuck pictures where he wasn’t supposed to. He got a couple pictures of the Slaves and one of David.
We then left and went back to Il Duomo because there was a taxi port there. We walked around Il Duomo then took a taxi to the train station to wait for our overnight train.

Day 7--Rome

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We had a 6:30 train taking us from Venice to Rome. For the beginning of the trip we thought we lucked out and had no one sitting next to us at the table we were at. Though eventually 2 people showed up and we had to share the space. We were able to take a few pictures of the Italian country side but we both were sleeping for a good portion of the ride.
When we got to Rome our room wasn’t ready yet but we were able to drop off our bags. We found the street our hotel was on easily enough but it took a few attempts to actually find the hotel itself. You have to ring the bell to be let into the hotel and it looks like it’s part of an apartment complex. We dropped off our bags and set off to find the many things we wanted to see.
We went out looking for what transportation we wanted to use for the day and decided on one of about 8 hop-on-hop-off buses. We got on the bus and started taking pictures of the city as we passed things—which was significantly harder than the bus in Dublin or the water-bus in Venice because of the bumpy streets. The first stop we got off at was for Vatican City, We found the line to enter the basilica and decided to try either later today or early tomorrow because the line was huge. We stuck around Vatican City for awhile taking pictures of everything—that was on the outside that is. We got back on the bus so we could find our next attraction to see. This ended up being Fontana di Trevi.
On the way to the fountain we saw a tower depicting the story of Marcus Aralias. After getting a few pictures we finally found a pharmacy that carried really expensive sunblock—but we needed it so had to get it. After applying the sunblock we used one of the many small fountains that allowed water to run and into the street—we assumed they were for hand washing but we’re not too sure.
From there we preceded to the Pantheon. There we were able to go inside and get a few pictures of the inside. This is also where Justin started talking about the movie Angels and Demons—talking about a movie I have not yet seen but want to. We walked to the site where Julius Caesar was killed. This site is one of the oldest archeological dig sites that…..unfortunately we can’t remember what the that was.
The Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II was our next walking stop. There we climbed the steps of its neighbor Campidoglil. Then we attempted to walk through the Roman Forum but found out we were at the exit ended and had to walk all the way around it to be able to do so. When we finally reached the bottom of the forum we decided to go to the Coliseum instead. However, we were unable to pass through the metal detectors because we had disposable razors from purchasing them earlier. At that point we decided to go back to our hotel and officially check in and drop off the disposable razors so we could actually get into the Coliseum.
Before the Coliseum we went to the San Pietro in Vencoli. Here was one of Michelangelo’s famous statues—unfortunately we were not able to understand which one but we saw it and took pictures anyways. Next we went to the Coliseum we were able to explore the upper and lower deck. It’s too bad the dungeons are closed off to the public for safety reasons because that would be cool to see. The ticket into the Coliseum included entry into the Roman Forums but when we arrived at the entrance we were about a minute too late to get in. So we will be making a stop at the Roman Forums in the morning before heading to Florence.
We then got back on the hop-on-hop-off bus to ride it around to see the other sites we hadn’t yet gone to before the bus route ended for the day. We saw the Archo de Constintino near the Coliseum. There was also an old aquaduct to be seen near the Palitino, Circo Massimo which was once used for chariot races, Castel sant’angelo—to this Justin again started talking about Angels and Demons—we also went by Arapacis which is an alter completely encompassed by a glass building. You are still able to go see the alter but the glass is there to protect it. We got off the bus at Piazza del Popolo. In this piazza there were fountains and statues. After a few minutes we returned to the bus stop and continued our ride.
Once back on the bus we saw Fontana del Tritone. Then continued on to see the Piazza della Repubblica and ended our bus ride there. We got dinner of McDonalds for something quick to eat before heading to the subway to go to the Trinita dei Monti. This is apparently a very popular place to hang out at night. After this we went back to the hotel for a little while before heading to the Coliseum to see it at night.
After which we decided to head back to the hotel to get some sleep and right about our daily activities because we did not want to get wine or anything to eat.

Day 6--Venice

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Justin had an awkward night of sleep because he was just a little too tall for the bed. When he extended straight his head had to be bent in order to fit in properly. I, on the other hand, am shorter and was therefore able to fit in better.
When we got to Venice we went to find our hotel to see when check it was. Luckily our room was ready early and we were able to get rid of our bags earlier than planned. We decided to get a 12 hour water-bus pass to get around the city. We got on it once and just rode it around taking pictures around the whole city (we took close to 200 pictures each today). After riding around we went to Piazza San Marco. There we went into the Basilica di San Marco which we weren’t allowed to take pictures in. We walked around Piazza San Marco then took a full lap around Venice. Luckily we were able to sit in the front of the water-bus and see everything as we passed.
We then tried to go to the Accademia. There was construction on the outside so we were unfortunately unable to see the outside of it and once we entered found out the “Vitruvian Man” by Leonardo da Vinci is not on display for the public. Since we didn’t know of anything else in the Accademia we decided to skip it and get something to eat by the Rialto Bridge. We found somewhere that didn’t cost an arm and a leg to eat at—it was pizza. We walked around the Rialto Bridge looking at the different shops then decided to look at Murano Island for the glass blowing. Unfortunately we miss judged how long it would take to get there (nearly an hour) and did not arrive in time before everything closed. So we went back to the Rialto Bridge to find our souvenir for the day. We found souvenirs that were made using Murano glass. I had to use all my will power to not stop and buy a new purse. At this point in time the majority of things seemed to be closing up—around 6pm. We decided to find something to eat but ended up at our pizza place again.
After eating we continued to explore the different side streets and ended back at Piazzo San Marco and got some gelato while listening to the different restaurant bands. I had to eat most of the gelato myself because Justin did care for it because it’s like ice cream. We then found some more shops which included Louis Vutton and Channel—it’s a good thing we hadn’t found them while they were open otherwise I might have made Justin go in just so I could look at the purses for awhile. We continued roaming and decided to see how much a gondola ride would be. Since we decided it was too much and neither of us care for wine we went with the water-bus and Bacardi Breezes—with some more pizza.
Throughout the day we were noticing that our arms were getting a little pink. By the end of the day my arms were very red and Justin’s nose was as well. Thought for the day…buy sunblock. We then ended our night with catching up on our daily entries of what we have been up to and getting some sleep.

Day 5--Paris

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Today we had a day in France before having to leave for our overnight train to Venice. We woke up early, checked out of our hotel and set off for the Eiffel Tower. We went up to the very top of the Eiffel Tower and were able to see much of the city. There were even places around the top that showed what direction and how far away the different major cities around the world were. It took us about an hour and half to get to the top of the tower, and that was in the early morning when there was no queue to wait and get tickets. When we were leaving, the lines just to buy tickets were past the “30 minutes from this point sign.” There were also the armed guards out patrolling under the tower—which makes you feel really safe about going up the Eiffel Tower.
After leaving the Eiffel Tower we looked for the subway but got very lost and made a very large circle and ended back where we started. Once we found where we were and went to the Louvre. Luckily, once there we were able to check our very large bags and walk around without them for awhile. We only used my camera because we thought the picture was signifying no pictures so we were just going to take in mine—but then we realized that the picture meant no flash photography.
While in the Louvre we saw, Mona Lisa, Aphrodite, Psyche and Cupid, The Dying Slave, St. Mary Magdalene, The Winged Victory of Samothrace, and the Coronation Crown of Louis XV. We looked at many other paintings and sculptures but these were the ones we most recognized. When walking out of the Louvre we walked by the inverted pyramid.
By this time we had more or less figured out the subway system and went to the Arc de Triomphe. Once at the arc it took us some time to actually figure out how to get to it without running out into very busy and very heavy traffic. We did eventually see the underground tunnel that would allow us to visit it.
We decided to leave a little early to find our train—which turned out to be a good thing. The ticket said to go to Paris-Bercy, but that didn’t make sense so we checked in the train schedule book. The train timetable book said that the train was to leave from Gare de Lyon. We had to look around for a bit to find the Paris International area but it still wasn’t on the time boards. When we asked someone where to go we found out that we were at the wrong train station. We really had to be at a train station called Bercy—which was farther down the line. We got there with about 20 minutes to spare—but not before France tried to kill me. Not once, but twice, the turn stiles tried to eat my because my bags were too long to completely finish walking through them. The turn stiles had sliding doors that on two occasions slid closed before I was fully through and caught my bags in the way.....luckily Justin did not capture a picture of this.
The train we had to catch was a sleeper car that took about 13 hours to go from Paris to Venice. All of the people in our car spoke French so we really couldn’t talk to them. And we had to sleep on the bottom bunk which wasn’t so great because the head dividers hung down.

Day 4-traveling to Paris

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Today we left Edinburgh on a train at 5:50am headed for London. We went arrived at King’s Cross station as a stopping point on the way to Paris. We needed to get our tickets from London to Paris on the train that goes under the water. This train travels a top speed of 120mph.
Once arriving in Paris we needed to find our hostel—Luna Parc Hotel. We didn’t have a map and Justin quickly looked at one of the maps in the train station so we could find our way—and it was really quickly because we had to turn around a few time. But we did get here. It was around 9 that we got to the hostel so we went to find something to eat and see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. We ate a French restaurant near the Eiffel Tower. Justin attempted to order penne pasta with tomato sauce a basil but ended up with tomatoes on pieces of mozzarella—at least he tried something other than a burger.
After eating we walked to the Eiffel Tower and took many pictures—and had to dodge many people trying to sell us mini-Eiffel Towers or flowers. As we were walking away from the Eiffel Tower I noticed through some trees that the Eiffel Tower was flashing so we ran back to take even more pictures. I also tried taking some video but I’m not too sure how well it turned out.

Day 3--Edinburgh

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Last night we took the ferry from Dublin to Holyhead . We got into Holyhead around midnight and had to hang around the port/trainstation until about 4am local time for a train that would get us to Edinburgh. This ended up being quite the adventure because the train we had planned on taking was cancelled and we needed to find a different route. While at the train station we met a new friend named John who is taking the summer to backpack throughout Europe. He was also traveling to Edinburgh from Dublin. Luckily, John had looked up and written down a more varied route to Edinburgh.
Once we had finally figured out the trains and having changed trains about 2 times we were on the 3 hour train ride where we’d be able to get some sort of sleep—seeing as how sleeping in the train station was not possible. We walked up the Royal Mile looking for our second hostel of the trip—Castle Rock. This is where John left us looking for his own place to stay. Castle Rock was right under Edinburgh Castle and we had a great view of the castle from the bedroom window.
After having lightened our backs by dropping off our back packs we continued up the Royal Mile towards the castle. We bought our admission into the castle and began to explore. We saw many different things in Edinburgh Castle. There was: St. Margaret”s Chapel, Mons Meg, Dog Cemetry, David’s Tower, The Royal Scots Dragoon Gaurds Regimental Museum, and Argyle Tower—just to name a few. At one o’clock there was the firing of the cannon. Everyone gathered around to watch the cannon be fired from the castle. We also saw the end of the changing of the guard.
After we had explored the castle it was time to find something for lunch—we stopped at Deacon Brodies Pub. At this point it was time for a much needed nap. After waking up we continued to explore Edinburgh. We walked along the Royal Mile window shopping at the different stores that lined the street. We were able to hear some bag pipers playing on the street as we were walking along. We decided to get something light to eat before exploring a haunted walking tour. While looking for a place to eat, we met 2 more new friends from Kentucky. These girls, Blaire and Stacey, sat and had a drink with us while we were grabbing something to eat. We then had some time before the haunted tour so moved on back to Deacon Brodies for another drink with Blaire and Stacey. Blaire and Stacey decided to join us on the haunted tour only after Blaire had convinced Stacey it was a good idea—Stacey was a little scared of the idea.
We got our tickets and headed out on the tour. After the second or third stop Stacey was just not having fun so they bailed on the rest of the tour and we continued on. The tour went down into the vaults were we heard ghost stories of different beings believed to be inhabiting the vaults below ground. Some of the inhabitants were thought to be friendly while others had a more sinister feeling to them. One o the more friendly ghosts is the shoemaker—said to be a protector of the people entering the vaults. The shoemaker is the one who causes a cold breeze around the ankles of visitors because he is admiring the different footwear of the newcomers.
Once we had heard a sufficient amount of ghost stories it was time to head back towards the castle for a night time picture then back to the hostel so we could get some sleep before catching our 5:50am train to London.

Day 2--Ireland

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Today we got up early and packed up our things from Jacobs Inn and headed out to roam around Dublin for a few hours. On the way out we grabbed a breakfast of toast from the hostel. We picked up our bus tour tickets then set out walking for Dublin Castle because we had a few hours before the bus left. We walked around the grounds of Dublin Castle taking pictures of the castle and the grounds. Dublin Castle isn’t really the stereotypical castle—it’s more a government building.

Once we had taken a sufficient amount of pictures we headed back to the bus stop so we could take a South Coast Tour of Ireland. This tour took us through the mountains and along the coast line. As we were traveling the bus driver we telling us about the different historical landmarks that we were passing—as well as giving his own personal commentary of random facts. Such as the ‘Finger Rock’ so named because it resembles a “universal symbol.” Later in the trip the driver took us around a round-about a few times because he thought it wasn’t fair that the left side couldn’t see the same rock as the right side did. We made an unscheduled stop at a beach where we were able to eat our Subway and go on the beach for a few minutes.

Our scheduled stop was for Powerscourt Gardens. Going here we saw—the Italian Gardens, Tower Valley, Japanese Gardens, Winged Horses, Triton Lake, and a Pets Cemetery. We were able to walk around the gardens for about an hour and a half. After which we boarded back onto the bus and headed back towards Dublin. The bus driver continued to tell us jokes and stories to keep us amused through-out the trip. The South Coast Tour took us about 4 hours and 30 minutes to complete. The gardens were beautiful and the bus driver had the whole bus laughing with his jokes. On the way back into Dublin we were also entertained by our bus driver’s singing.

Once we were back in Dublin and had unloaded the bus we set back out to explore Dublin for a bit. We traveled back to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. However, we decided that the line was too long to wait in to see it. So we sat in one of the Trinity College court yards and took some more pictures and rested from walking with our huge backpacks. After a little sitting we set off to go take a picture will Molly Malone and her cart. Molly Malone is very famous and there is an Irish song about her.

We continued walking for a bit, and decided to look and see if we could grab something to eat while watching Irish Dancers. Unfortunately we were unable to watch because we didn’t have time to get to our ferry for Holyhead. So we grabbed burgers at Eddie Rocket’s. Then we did the touristy thing and took a picture straight up of the Stire. We then sat and people watched before needed to go to the ferry. While people watching we saw a guy dancing in the street with his headphones while he was waiting for the bus.

We took a taxi over to Dublin Port. There we checked in and waited to be boarded. I have now taken my first ferry ride.

Day 1--Dublin

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The flight seemed really long, but that's probably because it was hard to sleep for the few hours it was dark from Chicago to Ireland and there wasn't anything to watch because the movie player wasn't working right. But we finally landed and could start the adventure. We took a bus from the airport to the city center and started our way around town. We first ended up at Trinity College where we were able to walk around the grounds and begin taking a ton of pictures. Unfortunately, the Book of Kells exhibit wasn't open yet because our fight was early so we moved on to our next destination.

After exiting Trinity College we decided to get tickets for a hop-on-hop-off double decker bus so we could faster explore the city and get around easier. We rode the bus around a good portion of the route taking pictures of many historical and famous land marks in Dublin. A few of these included St. Patricks Cathedral, the Guiness Factory, the Dublin Zoo, and many places of government.

Our first jumping off point was at the Jameson Distillary. Here we were able to take a tour of a replica of what used to be the Jamesson Distillary. I was chosen to be a voluntar for taste testing and comparing of different whiskey. I tried a scotch whiskey (Johnny Walker), an American Whiskey (Jack Daniels), and finally Irish Whiskey (of course, Jameson). After that I got a certificate and recieved my drink of Jameson which Justin had already recieved while I was taste testing.

We continued our journey on the bus around the route stopping at the Christ Church Cathedral to take pictures but decided we'd prefer to enter St Patrick's Cathedral and walked over that way. There we entered the Cathedral and continued taking more pictures.

After all this exploring--and not sleeping much on the plane--we decided it was about time to get in a nap and check into our hostel--Jacob's Inn. After the much needed rest it was time to head back out and grab dinner and explore Temple Bar. We ate dinner at the Badass Cafe then walked around people watching and listening to street performers. After more exploring of the area it was time to take a rest and grab a drink and listen to some Irish Music. We decided to listen to a band at the Oliver St. John Gogarty Temple Bar.

A little more walking around and we found our way back to Jacob's Inn to get ready for our next day.

"Happy Birthday Dad!" - Justin

Almost there...

We'll be on a plane in less then 24 hours headed for Ireland!! 10 countries in 17 days (technically 11 countries because Vatican City is considered it's own country). Just the final little things left to do....print out confirmations, charge batteries, recheck that everything is packed. I can't wait to start to use all the new gadgets that have been bought for this trip--not to mention proving that I can actually live out of a back pack for 2 weeks (some people have their doubts lol).
Don't worry, Justin and I will keep everyone posted on the AMAZING things we're doing and will take a million pictures of everything (nothing like making all our family and friends jealous of us).
Take off at 7:15 pm! :)