When in Rome

We left Florence and stopped at Vatican City before officially going to Rome. Our time at the Vatican was petty limited, so we didn't have much time to wander. We went in the Sistine Chapel and Saint Peter's Basilica. The Sistine Chapel is very small... 

What's the deal with Vatican City? It's called Vatican City but is its own country? #catholics

After the Vatican, we headed into Rome. There are all sorts of structures that remind us of the ancient Roman times. We did a whole lot of walking around the city... Every few steps there is another big plaza with a big fountain and statue in the middle. 

The evening concluded with a dinner at a restaurant. The dinner was only like 5 courses... Which is simply unacceptable by my Italian standards. I require a minimum of 8 courses. #eightisenough

Our second day in Rome is when the main event happened... The Colosseum! We first got a tour through the roman ruins right next to the colosseum. I was overwhelmed by the amount of Gladiator scenes that were running through my head. 

The Colosseum certainly is a sight to see. And to answer the question I'm sure everybody has... Yes, I acted out the scene from Gladiator "my name is Maximus Decimus Meridius...". It is recorded and will hopefully be posted to Facebook after we get home. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?!? The Colosseum was my favorite part of Rome.

We then ventured over to the Spanish steps. As far as I could tell... It's just a bunch of steps. But apparently it's supposed to be pretty wild... So we did some Spanish steppin. Then we went over to some sort of crypt for monks. It was a little creepy... A lot of skeletons and bones arranged in various patterns. #wheninrome

This was the last day of the group tour. So we had to say goodbye to all our fellow travelers. I said goodbye the only way I knew how... By singing "so long, farewell" from the Sound of Music. We had one final dinner with the people who were still around... We had pizza and pasta (what else would we have?). 

We had to call it an early night since we needed to leave at 3:30am to go to the airport to continue our trip to Santorini. 

Thank you, Italy... For all the gelato, pizza, and pasta. We will never forget.

Saint Peters

 Vatican City outside area

Treve fountain was under construction 

Pantheon 

Coliseum photos

Spanish steps 

Pisa & Florence

After Venice we went out to see the wonderful signet of Pisa! I guess back in the day it use to be a popular sea port but over thousands of years there no longer have a sea just a leaning tower. On a walk to the Pisa I ordered by second gelato! This was was caramel of some sort. Again delicious!

Took some fun photos near Pisa and left. Check.

The first evening in Florence we went into the old town and had dinner with our group. Only 3 courses. I liked the meat pasta. Chris said it was delicious. 

After dinner we went to Italy's oldest American karaoke bar. This was interesting. I made chris get on stage with me and we sang "A whole new world" - Aladdin style! Everyone here thinks Chris is very talented with his movie knowledge, Arnold impersonations, and now his soothing voice. Geesh I feel like I'm the dud In the relationship! We received many compliments even from people that was not from out group. #powercouple 

This morning we had a walking tour of Florence where we got to see all the fun sculptures. Made it to the academia museum and had a lovely picture with none other than the David sculpture.

We ended up sitting down at a restaurant and ordered pizza, canoli, and coffee. The heat in Italy was getting to me. Oh Tuscany. Woo this entire trip had been surprisingly cold but today not so much!

 Our last night in Florence we had a Tuscan feast dinner. This included antipasta with what we call back in the US assorted lunch meats, plenty- plenty of wine, 2 types of pasta - I loved the white sauce one, beef, greens' potatoes and finally dessert which was like an icecream cake. The entertainment came with a man playing an accordion, a singer (who sang ave Maria) and a piano/singer who played music to get some people to dance. I had too much fun, probably because I drank a lot of wine. Our table also started to play drinking games with our wine... I now know what "bottles" is! 

Now I'm back in the room resting up for Rome tomorrow.

My recommendation to those who plan a Europe trip:

Learn Celsius or the conversion : temp x 1.8 +32

Learn Kilos and meters because im totally lost when the Australians and kiwis are talking

Learn that kiwi is the New Zealand bird which is why they call themselves kiwis ... They don't grow kiwis . Blonde moment

Good night Florence! 

   

Ah, Venice

We have finally arrived in Italy. 

We arrived at the hotel around 7:30pm and had dinner at the hotel shortly after we arrived. The dinner was delicious... We had spaghetti as the "first" course and some kind of pork dish as the "second" course. They kept scooping spaghetti onto my plate until it was full of pasta... That's the portion size I prefer for spaghetti. After dinner, we went to bed.

The next day was a full day in Venice. We arrived around 10:30am and had a walking tour at 11. After the walking tour, we wandered around the city for a few hours. It doesn't take long to get lost in Venice- all the streets look the same. You just keep walking over bridges and then you stumble across a big plaza of some sorts. During our wandering, we got some gelato, pizza, and espresso. We also bought plenty of souvenirs... But can't go into details on specifics because some of the items purchased may or may not be future gifts. They are pretty big on their masks there... Spoiler alert, we didn't buy any masks (thank goodness). 

After wandering around and having a few snacks, we hopped aboard a gondola for a trip through the canals. During the gondola ride, I was able to act out a scene from Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade when he first arrives in Venice. The scene has been posted to Facebook for your viewing pleasure. I also briefly sang Mambo Italiano during the gondola ride.

The day in Venice concluded with a Venetian feast... This was the moment I had been waiting for all day. The foods that were placed in front of me were the following: bruschetta, various meats, calamari, risotto,  gnocchi with tomato sauce, penne with carbonara, spaghetti with pesto, and more gelato. It was served family style for the table... When other tables in our group noticed that our food was going pretty fast, they started giving our table (me) their extra food. Those who know me know that I cannot let food be thrown out. I had to finish up another table's gnocchi, penne, and spaghetti. Oh, and there was extra gelato which was given to me. All the years of having unlimited pasta ate Olive Garden had trained my stomach to be able to consume massive amounts of pasta... My whole life has been preparing for this moment of pigging out in Italy. I came... I saw... I conquered. Even the waiter gave me a look of kudos #italiankudos

I just couldn't get over the fact they gave us 3 pastas in one meal. Oh, and they also provided bottomless wine... Megan took more advantage of that than I. During the meal, we had somebody entertaining us by playing songs on a saxophone. Some familiar tunes that the group sang along to. During one of the songs, Megan danced with this Ivan fella from our group. I warned Ivan afterwards to stay away from my wife! 

First coffee shop in Italy 

Like a post card!

No diet on holiday! Gelato! Of course I got the coffee flavored.

Pizza for lunch

Gondola

Tour mates

Lovely sax player

arrivederci Venice!

Austria #thehillsarealivewiththesoundofmusic

We are in a popular ski lounge in Tyrol, Austria but in the summer people come here for summer outdoor activities.

Our first morning we had a lovely breakfast with fried eggs and bacon. At 10:00 am we went next door to get our bikes for the tour. We all had mountain bikes which I don't believe I ever been on before. Thank goodness I do one spinning class a week because we had about 3 steep hills to climb. Before we went on the hardest hill the tour guide grouped us up and told us that if you can't do anymore hills it was time to turn around because the next one is very challenging. I got everyone fired jump by bringing everyone's hands in and we did a QUACK, QUACK, QUACK chant (might ducks- we did this also yesterday on the bike tour in Munich and now I guess  it's the groups theme chant).

I conquered that hill alright... It was not a race but if it were I came I'm 3rd and the first girl! Chris was like 12th place. Everyone was a hot mess! From that moment everything was down hill, literally. What an amazing downhill ride... Took my breath away and the beautiful mountains that were surrounding us was... simply amazing! Chris and I ended up singing sound of music tunes. At the end of the bike ride we had a Austrian BBQ awaiting us. Austria BBQ is not like the US BBQ. It was a few sausages and a baked potato... It was really good!

We had about 5 minutes between excursions. Chris did not join me on this one which was paragliding! I was so nervous. We had to take taxis up the mountain and then we met our guy that we would be strapped to. My guys name was Diddi!  Diddi and I went up the cable car to the very top of the mountain. Unfortunately it was not smooth sailing at the beginning, when it was our turn the winds went strange and we ended up crashing into each other before the jump. So now I have grass stains on my travel pants.  The second time around was much better. We had to run off the mountain and eventually the parachute lifted us far and away! It was a cool experience. He asked me if I liked roller coasters and said yes and shortly after that we were doing 360s And other crazy sharp turns in the sky. I videotaped most of it and will add it to this post later on because I need to do it from an actual PC. I'm still alive! I don't know what came over me when we landed and I had a mini panic attack and had a few tears ... I felt like an idiot because all my tour mates were hugging me. I was just real shaken up! Needless to say when someone ask me if I ever would go paragliding my response will be...been there done that, no thanks!

After that we had a few hours to spare so Chris and I walked around town. Nothing is opened because it was a Sunday. We walked to the local trout farm. People from our group were there. You can fish in the pond and if you catch a trout you have to kill it right away. Then once you catch it you give it to the cooks and they serve it up! 

We had another delicious Austrian dinner and headed to bed around 11. Probably will be the most sleep we will have. 

This morning we got in the coach at 8:30 and headed to do some white water rafting. We were in the raft for about 2 hours. It was a level 3 rapid so it wasn't too complicated. Our rafting guide seemed to have a drill sergeant personality because he would yell out "forward please , stop". The rafts behind us all got up and made a circle and the raft guide turned the raft around. Our raft guide said he would not do that because we all came here for one thing, rafting. So that was a little off putting. I did end up getting out of the raft and swam in the River. Very cold even with a wet suite on. I will say Chris looks pretty good In a wet suit! ;)

We are on our way to Venice so stay tuned!

Paragliding

View from paragliding

Our little lounge 

At the trout farm

Before photo of white water rafting!

Germany & Austria Arrival

We arrived at our hotel in Munich around 7:30pm. We left a little after 8pm for a beer house called Hofbrauhaus. You don't really go into a beer house and say "table for 4  please". You just wander around until you see enough seats available, and you just sit down. It came complete with a German band playing and wandering around. It was a delightful experience! We got the pork knuckle, with sides of red cabbage and sauerkraut. The food was delicious!

The first thing I noticed while wandering the streets of Munich were the cars. It seems like everyone is driving a BMW, Mercedes, or some other high end car. Even the taxis were Mercedes! #highclass

The next morning we did a little bike tour around Munich. Our guide made a couple of movie references, which I immediately picked up on... Which impressed him. The first was a Last of the Mohicans reference when we said "Stay alive! I will find you!"... I started singing the Last of the Mohicans theme song after this (he appreciated it). The second movie reference was an Anchorman reference when he said "ribs... I had ribs for lunch". The guide was from America... So when he found out we were from Columbus, he did an "O H!" And we responded with the appropriate "I O!". So we officially did a OHIO chant in Germany. After I bonded with the guide, he nominated me to be the person who would stay last in line for the group to make sure nobody got left behind. Apparently they refer to this person as the "ass man"... And I received a souvenir frisbee at the end that clearly proves this title #trophy

After biking, we left for Austria. We stopped at the Swarovski museum/shop on the way to the hotel. Swarovski is kind of a big deal in Austria. I was tempted to buy the crystal dragon for the reasonable price of 65,000 euros. But then I realized I would need to buy all new furniture and decorations to match it... And just decided it wasn't worth the hassle. #crystaldragons

We got to the hotel and fortunately didn't have any events planned... So we could rest. We were provided a lovely Austrian dinner (it was delicious). The rowdy kids are at the bar dropping phat stacks of cash on alcohol #kidsthesedays

Switzerland

We left Paris at 8am and headed to Lucerne, Switzerland. This was a rather long drive because the coach driver has mandatory stops and there was also traffic so we didn't roll into Switzerland until 7pm! 

Our hotel was neat because it was a jail originally that was converted to a hotel. They kept the bars on the windows. the room was very bare, however so far my best sleep! We kept the windows opened all night and hearing the bells ring throughout the night was peaceful.

We went on an hour river cruise which included a glass of wine! It appears that a glass of wine is included in most of the events.

The tour guide who spoke over the loudspeaker sounded exactly like Arnold Schwarzenegger... Everyone was thinking it because when I said it out loud everyone laughed. This is where Chris met his best friend, Ivan. They keep on exchanging Simpsons and Arnold quotes.

Another thing that is famous in Lucerne is this sad Lion rock that was close to the cruise. 25 of us went to go see it. since it was about 9:30 we couldn't really get any good photos and it was quite dark ... Randomly I said, "well since we can't see the lion we could make the best of this space and hold hands to have a saiance." After a long pause and some glares i followed my statement and said "clearly nobody knows my humor here because I'm totally joking". I got a lot of replies that said "oh thank god" "I was trying to walk away slowly and not offend you". I found this all entertaining.

Then onto dinner. Chris, Gabriela (the youngest passenger on the tour from Toronto, Canada), and I went to a nice place off the river. We got sausage and sauerkraut. I asked the waitress for the America menu (first ditzy thing I said... Not too bad!).

Back to the hotel for sleep and up  at 8am for shopping. I can't say what I bought because it could be someone's Christmas present!

Lucerne - my take home knowledge 

Lucerne and Switzerland is a very expensive place to live

The Swiss are very well educated and can speak English quite well

Famous for their watches, knives, Red Cross 

They speak Swiss-German

Have their own currency called Swiss Francs 

After the light shopping we headed to Mount Stanserhorn. We went to the top by taking the World's first cable car. Once we were on the top there was about 20 minutes of a hike to get to the very top. Chris did his random yoga poses. I tried to teach him the eagle. 

Back to the coach bus around 11 am and headed to Lichtenstein. Liechtenstein is the smallest country in Europe. It is surrounded by Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. Had a chicken Schnitzel sandwich for lunch.

Currently we are back on the coach headed to Munich, Germany. 

Stay tuned!

Paris

So now our journey has brought us to Paris.

We arrived Tuesday evening around 5pm. We had dinner at the hotel, then ventured out to the Eiffel Tower. As we were doing some photos in front of tower, it started to sparkle and light up. Just when we thought the photo session was over, I realized it had only begun. #sparklepower

We were able to go all the way to the top of the tower. By the time we got to the top it was night, so we got to see the city lit up. 

Our full day in Paris was a little more jam packed with activities...

We got the ball rolling by taking a trip to Versailles. I was rather disappointed that I was not given the option to draft and sign my own Treaty of Versailles. #historyreference

We got to wander through the chateau and the gardens. I feel as though they need to invest a little more money into the bathrooms in the garden area. First off... It was essentially co-ed... Awkward. Second off... The "urinal" was just peeing on the wall and letting a stream of water flush it somewhere (I didn't get a good look on where it went.... Frankly, I didn't want to know). Running water down a wall does not a urinal make. Suffice to say, I opted for the stall. 

After getting back from Versailles, we took the long walk from the Louvre down Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe (French word overload). That walk was a whole lot longer than I thought it was going to be. We finally made it there and took some pictures... Which is the only way to prove to somebody that you've been somewhere. 

From there, we opted to get a taxi to take us to Notre Dame cathedral. I couldn't wait to do my famous hunchback of Notre Dame impression. I'm pretty sure I nailed it. 

After that we went to that bridge where people put the locks to symbolize their undying love (nobody should tell them the locks eventually get replaced/removed). We saw a couple doing some impressive PDA on the bridge. My guess is, they've been dating for 20 days. Like I always say, nothing says a relationship will last forever more than doing some very public displays of affection when you've been dating less than one month. 

We then ventured to the Louvre. Since we were a little short on time, we were one of those people who just ran through everything else and went straight to the Mona Lisa. I heard that the Mona Lisa was a relatively small painting.... But why put it on a room with huge paintings? It has its own wall and is just a typical size painting. Meanwhile, you look at the other walls in that same room, and they're mostly big and towering paintings. At least try to make us think the painting is bigger than it really is! And as a side note... There is an excessive amount of penises in that museum.... That's all I'm saying #figleafplease

In our brief time after the Louvre and before catching the bus back to the hotel, we stopped and got some Nutella crepes at one of the food stands. I'm usually not a crepe fan or Nutella fan... But this was pretty good. So good, in fact, that I doubt I will every have Nutella or a crepe in a way that is better than what I just had. So I have essentially sworn off both for the rest of my life since it seems pointless because nothing will ever compare. 

We ended our time in Paris by going to the Moulin Rouge. A lot of dancing and a lot of boobs. An entertaining show and a pretty good dinner. There were a few random acts in between the dancing and boobs that included some acrobatic roller skating, some acrobatic bank robbers, and some acrobatic balances (they wowed us with their strength and balancing... In an acrobatic way). At one point, a girl jumped into a water tank full of snakes. As far as I could tell, the point of that act was to prevent the snakes from entering the crowd. Fortunately, she succeeded.... Nobody was eaten by a snake.

And as a side note- I'd like to make a suggestion for Europe: do not charge people to go to the bathroom. It shouldn't be a if deal that a place has "free" toilets. I don't like being expected to pay money just to do a normal and necessary bodily function. Next thing you know you'll be charging me 10 cents whenever I sneeze! 

Hi Mr. E! 

Top of the Eiffel Tower

Versailles 

Notre Dame Cathedral 

Love Lock Bridge

Moulin Rouge!