when in Rome

We are leaving Rome today.  We are sad but excited to get back home to see all of our family and friends.  It has been such a great journey through Europe and we have had such great memories throughout each city.

Today we have a long 18 hour journey back and have to get started now! 

Chao!

under the tuscan sun

Tuscan countryside

sunflowers!

leaning tower

wine tasting

view from Ponte Vecchio Bridge

Florence was relaxing.  When we arrived we saw the Duomo and Ponte Vecchio Bridge, which is the most famous bridge of Florence.  There is also a special corridor above for the Medici family.  We strolled over and stopped to have some gelato, stratiacello, which is vanilla with chocolate chips, yummy!  Later that night, we went to dinner in a square by our hotel and had some risotto. 

One of the highlights of our trip was our excursion to Tuscany for wine tasting.  We went to a castle and tasted some Chianti wine and complimentary snacks.  It was really tasty!  

The next, and last day, we took a trip to Pisa to try to fix the leaning tower.  We were unsuccessful, but we had a fun time!

Overall, Florence wasn't one of our favorites.  Although the countryside, mountains, cypress tress, and vineyards are amazingly beautiful.  Florence seems to fall a little bit short as a city.  It has character, but most of it is covered in graffiti and guidos.  

And although we love, LOVE Italian food, we grew a little weary of it and wanted some American food. McDonalds to save the day, with curly fries too! ahhh

no limoncello, no party

in front of a canal with a gondola man

San Marco square

a random canal

on a gondola

Our time in Venice

Ok, so we know we say we love every city.  But Venice is by far our favorite.  Absolutely love it.  

The way Venice is comprised, there are absolutely no streets, no cars, and no subways.  So coming in from the train station we took a vesparetto, which is a mass transit, kind of like the subway but on water.  We finally made it to our hotel after getting completely lost in the confusing Venice walkways.  There is no direct street to anywhere and all of the streets wind and turn around each other.

Basically, all we did in Venice is stroll around, breath in the smell of the Venetian canals, and ate a lot as usual, oh and drank more wine.  Of all the cities we have visited, this is the one we most recommend, it is beautiful.  Bellisimo!

prisoners of paradise

ally way around the old town area

our hotel lobby

the view from the beach

enjoying the beach

We love Nice! It was the perfect vacation from our vacation. 

As planned we spent all day every day laying on the beach and being as lazy as possible.  We wanted to have some alcoholic beverages for our beach time but could not find any of our usual choice of packs of beer.  We did however find a box wine for very cheap and figured that would be our best option.  Turns out we were right.  

Unfortunately, after the first day on the beach we were crisp like burnt tomatoes.  Very painful.  We then learned our lesson to wear sunscreen the rest of the trip.

The rest of the time we lazed around and strolled around.  We explored the city and loved it.  There are lots of hills and small alleyways and every corner is a surprise.  There was also lots of gelato, a common in Europe, which is so yummy.  We also stupidly went to the casino thinking we would have luck and lost it faster than you can say 10 euro.  

C'est la Vie

Jardin de Luxembourg

Marie-Antoinette's chateau

the Eiffel

Latin Quarter

Parisian flea market

the Louvre

Notre Dame

Hotel balconette

First off, we're sorry we haven't updated the blog lately we have just had a whirlwind of a week and not much downtime.

We had a magical time in Paris!  We were there for 5 nights and covered a lot of things.  

Here is a quick rundown of what we did:

• ate at tons of cafes, they are everywhere and they all have the same things
  
• drank uncountable bottles of wine
• went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa
• traveled to Versailles and strolled through all the pretty gardens
• had an evening wine picnic in front of the eiffel tower
• went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe
• relaxed in the Tuilleres and Luxembourg Gardens
• had a few yummy crepes
• went on a Seine river cruise
• toured Notre Dame and visited the top and the gargoyles!
• walked through a cute Parisian flea market
• saw the Princess Diana memorial
• met Ann Curry! how random, but exciting!

Carmen's spill count:  7

• coca-cola in the hotel
• wine again, of course
• last few bites of a nutella crepe on the ground

wasted and ready

Carmen is always content with bread and wine!

the "m" in Amsterdam

Leah's big dutch pancake!

the cute little place we stopped in during the rain

We don't know what to say besides that we LOVE AMSTERDAM!  It is the cutest little city.  It is the bike capital of the world and we believe it.  Everyone rides bikes and all different ways.  They ride on the back of people's bikes, with their kids in little wooden baskets, on separate bikes holding hands with each other.  The canals and streets and architecture are so quaint and have lots of character.  We feel like we are in a little gingerbread village.  

We went to the Van Gogh museum, which was nice, but we have to admit it wasn't the highlight of the trip.  What we enjoyed the most was walking around exploring the city and taking in the atmosphere.  However, it was much colder than we thought it would be and it was raining all day the last day.  We now realize that we did not properly pack for the unpredictable June weather.

Even when the weather could get you down we managed to have lots of fun.  During the downpour, we scurried in a little restaurant near the red light district and drank 1, then 2 bottles of wine, after we agreed that the rain was not letting up.  Then we walked back in the rain and called it an early night because our train was leaving for PARIS the next morning. And, now we are here, have walked around in the Latin Quarter, grabbed some food by Notre Dame, had a couple more bottles of wine and are going to bed. Need a good night's sleep for what tomorrow has in store......Au revoir!

Carmen's Spill Count: 4

• wine in hotel room 

Chasing Trains

The Pictures are for some reason appearing in reverse order.

Bottom Picture: Carmen after we realized we were in Luxembourg!

Middle Picture: View from our Amsterdam Hotel

Top Picture: Finally enjoying Amsterdam at dinner

It has been a long hard day but WE MADE IT TO AMSTERDAM! 
We checked out of the hotel around 9 this morning and headed to the Tube station.  Right after we were about to swipe our Oyster Card, the hotel called to tell us they found Carmen’s Ipod under the bed.  So then Carmen ran there and back.  We made it to our connecting international Eurostar train where we were treated like princesses.  We had a full free(!) breakfast which consisted of pastries, yogurt, omelet, fruit, coffee, orange juice, and wine!  We were thinking we had it smooth sailing that is until we got on the wrong train in Brussels.  We did not realize this, seeing how everything was announced in another language, until we made it to our destination in LUXEMBOURG.  So, we found a train back to Brussels and started back at square one.  It set us back a few hours.   Now we are here in Amsterdam, starved and ready to explore, it’s 10pm and the sun is still out!  Off we go!

Carmen’s Spill Count: 3
•    Coffee on the train

No Bits Please

We haven't quite figured out

the picture thing yet...still

working on it

Sketch restaurant bathroom >

v  tower bridge from tower of   London           ^ us at in front of Big Ben 

We finally found time to update!  It has been a busy past couple of days.  
Our jet lag finally caught up with us shortly after writing our first entry.  We went to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham palace but on our walk back we felt severely fatigued and thought we were going to fall over.  We ended up taking a nap that afternoon and went to dinner at a little pub close by to our hotel where we sampled a pint of English beer then called it a night.

After a restful night’s sleep we had a nice breakfast outside of Westminster Abbey church.  We summed up the food we ate in London to mainly consist of bread, cheese, and wine (not that we’re complaining).  We then took a boat cruise to the Tower of London, which was one of our favorite sites, and walked over the Tower Bridge and down Shad Thames to the Design Museum.  Both the Tower of London and the Design Museum were very interesting and informative on London’s history and culture.  We learned a lot!

That night we went to dinner to a new London hotspot named Sketch with an interesting atmosphere and equally amazing food.  However, the restrooms were definitely the highlight of the restaurant with individual white cone-like pod bathrooms.  After dinner, we walked along Carnaby Street and the Soho area and then then called it a night to pack and prepare for our journey for Amsterdam.

Good tips to know about London from the US:

• It is a lot like NYC but quieter and cleaner
• Always remember the cars drive on the left side when crossing the street
• When navigating the Tube make sure you are not looking at a bus map
• If you want orange juice without pulp, look for “no bits”
• Cookies are called Biscuits
• KFC has beans and corn on the cob instead of mashed potatoes and normal biscuits (learned that the hard way)
• “Exit” is called “Way Out”
• All of the streets have at least 3 different names
• Always ask what is in Seafood Risotto 

Just touched down in Londontown

We are here!             

  

The past 2 days have been a blur and it seems that we have been here longer than we really have.  Probably because the days are running together and we haven't gotten much sleep.  Monday was exhausting because we had a little trouble navigating the transportation in combination with jet lag and 3 hours of sleep on the plane. But we did manage to see the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, various parks, and rode the London Eye.  

We decided to go to dinner in the Piccadilly Circus area and went to a little inexpensive Italian restaurant.  This is where Leah learned the valuable lesson to ask what kind of seafood was in "seafood risotto"! It came out looking normal but huge squid and all of their tentacles came popping out upon stirring. So, Leah had bread for dinner that night. We decided that the only way to get over that was with some wine. We found a place that sold 3 bottles of wine for 10 pounds and had a great rest of the night. 

Yesterday, we got a late start, but went over to see St. Paul's Cathedral. After that, we walked across the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern Museum.  We also walked over to the Shakespeare Globe but all of the shows were sold out so we will try to go again tonight.  Afterwards, we decided to head back to the hotel on a double decker bus which was also a good way to see the city.  

Last night we ordered in pizza while we got ready to go out at Mahiki, a popular tropical bar with lots of yummy fruity drinks!  

We managed to wake up early this morning and have to run out now to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard.  More updates to come!

Carmen's spill count:

• Exploding bag of m&m's on the plane
  
• Large full coffee at the Dublin airport