my books. my life.

And here we are. The LAST round of pictures from Europe. We’ve traveled from Athens to Rome to Florence to Venice to Vienna to Prague to Munich to Paris.  And now we’ve arrived in England. London was our base but we made it to Windsor, Stonehenge, Bath, and finally Oxford. And that’s where my adventure came to an end while Ben stayed to hang out with the smart kids.

We met up with Maria from A Bookworm’s Life and she gave us a lovely walking tour of London.

Ben and me

London Eye

Tower Bridge

Wicked

Windsor Castle

Stonehenge

Roman Baths in Bath

Christ Church at Oxford

Click here for the rest of England (and here for the rest of the Paris pictures which I failed to link to earlier).

Hope you’ve enjoyed all of the pictures.

We’re almost done. But don’t be sad. My favorite city is up today: Paris! It was HOT in Paris. Really hot. Like 104 degrees (40 celsius). We’re from Florida so normally we can deal with heat. But Florida has air-conditioning. Paris does not. Paris also has a really crowded metro with no ventilation. But we spent a lot of time in museums with the amazing Paris Museum Pass so that helped.

Despite the heat, I loved our stay in Paris. I loved everything about the city. I would move there in a heartbeat if I could. Sadly, my extensive knowledge of ballet terms (my only French) was not very helpful.

The Louvre (we had to leave quickly – I couldn’t take the crowds or the vastness. I preferred Musée de l’Orangerie and the Musée d’Orsay)

Arc de Triomphe

Champs-Élysées

Eiffel Tower (Do you know how HUGE this is? I didn’t. It is BIG.)

Sacré-Coeur (+ we had a wonderful view of this from our room)

Sparkly Eiffel Tower at Night

Notre Dame

Versailles (I was a bit disappointed honestly – too many palaces by this point I think.)

If you missed it: Athens, Rome, Florence, Venice, Vienna, Prague, and Munich.

The next post will be London. Hope you are still enjoying these.

I have not forgotten about the pictures. I just didn’t remember for a couple weeks. I’ve showed you Athens, Rome, Florence, Venice, Vienna, and Prague. Onto Munich!

After taking the slowest train ever from Prague to Munich and getting in around midnight, we promptly woke up the next day and got on a two hour train to visit Neuschwantstein. Kind of crazy. And turns out Germany can be very cold in June, especially when your jacket stayed behind in Prague. But totally worth it.

Neuschwanstein Castle (just like Cinderella)

The castle is located in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps.

So we did a little hiking while we waited for our tour to begin.

And we saw a mountain goat.

The following day we did a free walking tour of Munich which was probably the most educational tour of the entire trip. We learned A LOT but took very few pictures. This is the Glockenspiel.

These are the beer steins at the Hofbrauhaus. We didn’t eat or drink there (because the tour guide told us it is basically a tourist trap) but we did walk through.

And later that night we ran into our old friend, Jer, from Michigan who just happened to be in Munich. And thank goodness since he helped cut up the WHOLE FISH that I was served (after watching this normally-a-vegetarian look upon it in horror).

If I don’t forget, Paris is coming up next. Check out the rest of the Germany pictures here.

Ready for more photos? After Vienna, we went to Prague. It was probably our sketchiest hostel and we couldn’t grasp the language to save our lives and the money was really confusing but we still had a great time. It was the closest we got to Eastern Europe on this trip and might have been the most pleasant weather we experienced (other than London oddly). Also, they have really cheap beer.

In Prague

Prague Castle

Changing of the Guard

Prague

Strahov Library (Map Room)

Wandering the Garden

See more here. Munich is coming soon.

Previous cities: Athens, Rome, Florence, Venice, Vienna

I haven’t felt like writing reviews much this week so let’s keep going with the picture posts. If you missed them, I’ve done Athens, Rome, Florence, and Venice. Which brings us to Vienna. We had a very short time here but we adored it. If my German weren’t so horrendous, I’d want to live there. Who knew Austria was so amazing?

The awesome overnight train (and complimentary wine)

Mozart Monument

Me and Ben at Schonbrunn Palace (before I lost/someone stole my lovely jacket)

Schonbrunn Palace

Coffee and Sachertorte

The Rathaus

The Opera House

You can see the rest of the pictures here. Prague is up next.

We’ve seen Athens, Rome, and Florence. Now it is time for our least favorite stop: Venice. We’re the kind of people who need to be constantly on the go on vacations and we ran out of things to do in Venice after the first afternoon. We were also homeless for much of the time (big gap between checkout and our overnight train) so we had no base. Hence, our lack of love toward the city. We still managed to get some good photos though. Enjoy.

Canal

Rialto Bridge

Through the Rialto Bridge

Gondola Ride

Lots of wandering from bridge to bridge, reading.

See the rest of the pictures here.

So Venice wasn’t out favorite, but I am glad we saw it. Our next city – Vienna – was one of our favorites. Stay tuned.

I have not forgotten about my promise to show you all pictures (I just kind of forgot for a little while). I’ve given you Athens and Rome, so now it is time for Florence.

We adored Florence. We enjoyed everything about the city. And it just happened to be where Ben celebrated his 30th birthday.

Florence

View from the Duomo

Ponte Vecchio

The Birthday Boy

Boboli Gardens

Palazzo Pitti (the Medici Estate)

To see more, click here.

Venice is up next.

It’s time for Rome, the only city on my trip I was revisiting. We were there for a day and a half but we pretty much saw it all.

At the Vatican

The Pope

Ready to fight at the Colosseum

Trevi Fountain

Spanish Steps

To see more, click here. If you missed Athens, click here. Next city: Florence.

Here is what I’ve decided to do about pictures. Since some of you were interested, I am going to post them. But I will just post a few from each city and then a link to the rest of them on Picasa. I’m going to go one city at a time so as not to overwhelm you. And I’m just going to do it on random days that I don’t have other posts. Sound good?

Athens

Athens was our longest stop. We were there for 5 days. Our main event was my cousin’s wedding and we were there with other people, so it was very different (i.e., slower) than the rest of our trip. Here are a few pictures.

Temple of Zeus - Isn't it HUGE?

My beautiful cousin and her new husband

At the church

Me with my other lovely cousin at the Acropolis

Not a bad view for dinner

Hydra - I have found my place in life

See more pictures here. Or don’t. Your choice. Next up: Rome.

When I went on a three week road-trip in 2008, I shared my trip with you in numbers. Since there is no way I can adequately wrap-up this trip either, I thought I would do the same.

11 773…Miles flown (18,947 km)
2,761…..Miles traveled in Europe (4,444 km)
922……..Pictures left after culling (which means we took A LOT more than that)
26……….Days gone
14……….Churches (this seems low)
12……….Train Stations
11……….Cities (including Oxford and Frankfurt, our first layover city)
10……….Museums (this also seems low)
8…………Hostels
8…………Books read
7…………Countries
7…………Airports
7…………Palaces/Castles
6…………Languages
5…………Modes of Transportation (plane, train, automobile, bus, and boat)
3…………Day Trips (Hydra, Aegina, & Poros in Greece; Neuschwanstein in Germany; Windsor, Bath & Stonehenge in England)
2…………Friends we met up with (not including my family in Greece for the wedding) – Jer in Munich and Maria in London
1…………Hotel (Athens)
1…………Dorm Room (we *might* be a little too old to share a twin bed)
1…………Souvenir purchased (you should feel very special Zen)
1…………Missed train
1…………Broken camera
1…………Lost Jacket
1…………Husband left behind
0…………Sunburns

Highs and Lows from each city:

Athens:

• High: My cousin’s wedding (and the food at the wedding)
• Low: Lots of waiting around for family in the hotel lobby (cell phones would have been handy)

Rome

• High: Papal audience (my second at St. Peter’s – I saw Pope John Paul II there  in 2000)
• Low: ???

Florence

• High: Ben’s 30th birthday
• Low: Climbing hill after hill (finding a low was hard – we adored Florence)

Venice

• High: Gondola Ride
• Low: Being homeless and having nothing to do the second day

Vienna

• High: The “feel” of the city – I think I could live there
• Low: Our stay was super short (around 32 hours)

Prague

• High: Prague Castle
• Low: Sketchiest hostel of the trip

Munich

• High: Tie between the day trip to Neuschwanstein and hanging out with our friend from Michigan (and two 60-year-old professors) at a beer hall
• Low: I had just lost my jacket and I was freezing

Paris

• High:I’m going to cheat here because I loved Paris the most. Musée de l’Orangerie, the Eiffel Tower, the dinner cruise on the Seine were three of my favorite things.
• Low: It was HOT (like over 100 degrees) and Paris does not have AC.

London

• Walking around London with Maria
• Low: I was exhausted by this point and kind of done sight-seeing.

The entire trip was amazing. Sure, there were times I was exhausted and three-and-a-half nonstop weeks is a long time to spend with one person (even if that person is your husband), but I am so thankful I had the opportunity to take this trip. I know that I am very lucky. I will miss Ben while he is off being super-smart and studying at Oxford, but I do enjoy the time on my own (maybe I’ll actually do some actual reading this year).

I know that I updated you all with photos on twitter and tumblr as I went, so I’m not sure if I should post any here. Would you like to see a few of my favorites? Or would you like links to some pictures for each city?

Finally, I am happy to be home. I am glad to sleep in my own bed, use my own shower, and wear different clothes. I am also happy to get back to blogging and catching up with everyone.

Oh, and Happy Fourth of July to my U.S. readers.