Blue

A little friend came along with me to Europe. He saw all the important sites and my tour friends affectionately called him M&M guy. Here are some photos:

Roma

Pisa

Paris

London

Venice

Photos

So I've gone through and posted a couple of photos under each post. I've also re-read my posts and I see many spelling/gramatical mistakes which I was tempted to go back and fix. However I left them to remind me of the limted time I had on the internet and of European keyboards. The keyboard in Paris and Germany weren't qwerty keyboards so it was difficult to type anything out fast.

London 2.5 + Home

Princess Diana FountainView of Tower Bridge from the boat

I'm home! Got in last night after a long day of travel. I was going to post about London my last night there but I ran out time that night. So here is a recap of my time in London town.

Monday May 21 - Paris to London
Left a rainy Paris for London. Drove past Vimy Ridge and caught a quick glimpse of it from the coach. It's too bad we couldn't have stopped to see it. The ferry from Calais to Dover was good - not as choppy as last time. Arrived in London late afternoon and said our good-byes to people on the tour. Although it had been a long day we didn't want to waste time in London hanging out at the hotel so a few of the tour-mates and I went out to Trafalgar Square for supper. Then we walked down Regent street to Hyde Park where I checked out the Princess Diana fountain. The fountain was closed because we were there around 9pm so I just looked at it from the fence. If you've seen the fountain before you'll know that seeing it from the fence isn't a great view since it's a flat fountain.

Tuesday May 22 - London
For the past 15 days we were told what time we need to get up, what time to eat breakfast and what the agenda was for the day. Even on our free time we were given suggestions on what we should do. So today it felt weird today that nothing was planned out for us. So after breakfast we ventured out to the tube and headed to Covent Garden market. The market wasn't fully opened yet when we got there so we just walked around the area. After that we headed to Hyde park again where we joined a hop-on hop-off bus. The bus was a double decker so we sat on the top and enjoyed the views of London. Our ticket also included a river cruise on the Thames to Greenwich so we hopped on that - my last boat of the trip. I think I went on 15 boats during the past 17 days. That's about 15 boats too much! Anyway, back to the Thames crusie. It was a nice warm sunny day so the trip was nice. I even got a light tan - eek, I had forgotten to put sunscreen on! After the cruise we walked around the outside of the Tower of London and then met directionally challenged Kennie for supper - Indian food. After getting lost for 20 minutes we finally found the right street and ended up getting Moroccan food. It was pretty good. Then headed to Camden for a drink and I ordered a Pimms, a gin based drink mixed with lemonade, aka sprite, and fruit.

Wednesday May 23 - London
So instead of taking the tube that morning we took a bus to Hyde Park for the hop-on hop-off bus. Our guide that morning was pretty funny and told us interesting facts of London like the word circus is circle in Latin thus explaining why there are no animals at Oxford Circus. After the bus tour we went to Harrods. The food halls there are amazing. I could have spent all day there. My friend British friend Simon raves about the scones with clotted cream and jam so I decided to splurge and have a scone at the cafe in Harrods. It was delicious. I think it was the best scone I ever had! After Harrods we just walked around Oxford Circus checking out the stores. It was low key day since we were tired of siteseeing. Traveling is such hard work! Since it was our last night there we decided to just stick around the area of the hotel for supper. Kennie met us and we went for Italian food. Originally we were going to go to a pub but the pubs were really busy because of the AC Milan/Liverpool football match. The day we left Italy AC Milan was playing against Rome so I guess Milan had won that match. It turns out Milan also beat Liverpool that night to win something. I have no idea but I think it was the final match of something.

May 24 - London
My last morning in London. Although I couldn't wait to get home it was sad leaving such an exciting city. Got to the airport early and then stood in the security line for the gate for over 30 minutes. What a busy airport! Inside the terminal there were tons of stores so I did some last minute shopping. The flight back to Edmonton was good. Sat between some interesting people and I watched 3 movies on the VOD system on the plane. It was a new plane so there was tons of leg room. Arrived in Edmonton mid afternoon and my flight back to Regina wasn't for 6 hours so I ended up taking a nap. Then back on the plane for a quick trip to Regina. Home at last.

City of Lights!

Hi, I'm still in Paris. I've had a busy two days. To recap:

Day one - early start from Lucerne, we got into Paris late yesterday afternoon. After a quick pitstop at the hotel (which is very nice) we headed out to see the Arc de Triomphe. It had the French flag flying in the middle due to the recent election of Sarkozy so it was extra beautiful. Then took a quick walk down the Champ-Elysées (saw the flagship LV store so i must come back one day) before heading over to the Eiffel Tower. We went up to the second level and saw a gorgeous view of the city. After that we were off for a cruise down the river Seine. The cruise ended at the Eiffel Tower where we were lucky enough to see it lit up with flashing blue lights.

Today - Very tired today due to the late night of siteseeing but seeing Paris made everything better. Weather was not great - raining and grey but Paris was still beautiful. So this morning we took a guided tour around the city centre/Latin Quarter and then walked around Notre Dame. A mass was going on at the time so we got to hear some beautiful singing. After a quick walk around the area we were off to the Lourve. We only had 2 hours there so we only got to see a tiny fraction of the museum. Some stuff I did see was of course, the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Supper at Cana & more! It was fantastic. I also got to walk through the Jardin des Tuileries & Place de la Concorde.

Tonight I went to the famous cabaret Moulin Rouge. I was pretty disappointed that Nicole Kidman wasn't there. :) Just kidding. Moulin Rouge is just as old as the Eiffel Tour. It's an interesting show. Michelle, if you are ever in Paris, don't go b/c there is a snake in it. Tonight is the last night of the tour. Tomorrow we head back to London and my little group of friends goes it's separate ways. Sad but on the bright side I now have people to visit in the US and Australia! Once in London, I have 3 more nights and then back home. I can't wait!

ps, I'll have to post pics when I'm back b/c these hotel computers aren't very modern or user friendly. Maybe I can Kennie to help me out when I see him in London again.

Fondue

I'm in Paris right now but I'm going to write about my past couple days that were spent in Lucerne Switzerland. Lucerne is a very beautiful city surrounded by mountains and a lake. My first night there I attended a swiss folklore show where we had cheese fondue. The show reminded me of the stuff you see at Folkfest/Mosaic. The funniest part of the show is when a cow (actually 2 people dressed up) walks around the room licking people. It's probably funnier to see in person (and after a couple of beers)

The second day I went on a tour of the area. I went on a boat cruise on Lake Lucerne, then took a cog train up to mount Pilatus where i got to see swiss snow! The aussies on the trip were excited to see the snow. Then we took a cable car down to the bottom. The rest of the day was spent walking around the city, shopping for chocolate and paddling a paddle boat around the lake. The day would not have been complete without fondue, this time chocolate. Good stuff indeed.

Tomorrow I'll post about Paris. Only a couple days left of the tour. Time just flies!

Florence redux

My previous post was written quickly and I didn't give Florence it's due! Besides leather and gold stores I also saw the unfinished works of Michaelangelo along with his most famous sculpture, "David". It was pretty amazing. Florence is Michaelangelo's home city so I also saw the tombs of Michaelangelo and Dante. As for shopping I didn't end up with a leather jacket. I think my big purchase of the day was a present for my sister!

The 16th Chapel - Italy

Hi. I'm in Switzerland right now. Just spent the past 6 days in Italy. It was great. I'm gonna keep this short because I want to do some shopping. Chocolate!!


Day1/2 - Venice.

St Mark's Square

Burano

Loved Venice. It's many island connected by tons of bridges. Only bad part is the number of stairs I had to climb and the many boat rides I had to take *I hate boats. Got to see St Mark's Square at night and in the day, St Mark's Basillica and the Rialto. Went on a gondola ride and took a trip out to Burano, a fishing village where I ate a fish supper of fish pate, fish lasagna, fish, fish risotto, shrimp and calamari.

Day3/4 - Roma.

St Peter's

Colosseum

Rome was very busy. Tons of people everywhere. I went to the Vatican museum to see the Sistine Chapel and it was amazing. Michaelangelo was an amazing artist. Also got to see the Spanish steps, Tervi Fountain, Panthaton, Collisuem and Peter in Chains church.

Day5/6 - Sienna Florence Pisa.

Florence

Pisa

Other nice cities in the Tuscany region. Sienna was a quick afternoon stop so didn't see alot. Not much to say about Florence. Full of leather shops and gold. Pisa, saw the leaning tower!

I ate gelato everyday! It was great. That's it for now!

The land beside the Rhine

Hi! I'm in Germany!! Arrived in Germany on Wednesday. Sadly it rained the whole day. That day we went on a Rhine cruise and then stopped in a town called St Goar to see some beer steinds. Then we headed to Heildburg for some Germany food. My food wasn't very Germany (grilled chicken breast whereas everyone else go pork snitzel) but it was good. The room in Heidlburg was very interesting, the bathtub had 8 taps. It was confusing to use.

Thursday we walked around Heildburg and then headed to Munich. The rain finally let up today so it was nice not worrying about getting wet. Munich is an interesting city. The architeture is baroque instead of gothic and it has 400 beer halls. Last night we went to beer hall and I sampled a stein of beer with some americans, canadians, kiwi and aussies. Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish the litre of beer but it was fun to try.

Today we are going to Innsbruck to see the Golden Roof and then it's off to Venice. I'm pretty excited to go to Venice. Gelato here I come!

On a side note, holy comments! Thanks everyone for posting. It's nice to hear from home. I don't know if i'll be able to post much in Italy because the we are staying in small hotels and the internet cafe makes you leave a copy of your passport. I'll try my best!

If it's Tuesday it must be Amsterdam

Hi. I'm in Amsterdam. Got here last night. Yesterday was a really long day. Up at 3.30am (due to jet lag) and left the hotel at 6am. As we were leaving London it started to rain and by the time we got to Dover is was a down pour. The ferry ride to France was terribly rocky. I could here people in the bathroom throwing up. Once in France we drove through Belguim into the Netherlands. Traffic jams and the weather made things slow going so we didn't get into Amsterdam till 6pm. Last night we went on a canal cruise, supper at an Indonesian restaurant and then a walk through the red light district. It was an interesting walk.

Today we went and saw a cheese/clog demonstration and a windmill. Then we went to a dutch village which was very "dutch" for lunch. After that we were bused back to Amsterdam where I checked out the Vincent Van Gogh Museum and did more exploring around the city. Amsterdam is a pretty cool city. It would have nice if it wasn't so rainy or cold. I guess the weather here (before we got here) was in the mid 20s and it was nice and sunny. Oh well, it's still nice here nevertheless.

Tomorrow we are off to Rhineland. More rain in the forecast. Please excuse any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. I only have 1min 45 left on the internet so I need to post now. Later!

London Calling

Arrived in London today (May 6th) at 10am to a grey sky. Atleast it wasn't raining which is what the bbc website predicted. I guess British weatherpeople are just as good at predicting the weather as North American ones. The temps are comparable to home right now.

After getting my luggage I headed over to the hotel and meet up with Esther (cousin from NZ) and we explored the area around the hotel and to eat lunch. Ate lunch at BK because I never eat BK at home! Then around mid afternoon we meet up with Kennie (ex-pat from SK who is working in London) who took us around the city. Turns out that although Kennie has been here for over 6 months his knowledge of the tube stations still isn't good. Let's just say we circled a couple stops and got to see several tube routes/stations before getting to our destination. But we finally reached it and I saw St James Park, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Parlament building, the London Eye, and river Thames. It was a jammed packed day and I couldn't believe that I was finally seeing these great buildings and places in person. For supper we went to a pub beside the Thames and I ate fish and chips and mushy peas. My English experience is almost complete. Unfortunately the place was out of sticky toffee pudding and I need to find a scone. I am super tired from the day since I hardly slept on the plane. Even though the day was overcast it was a nice day and the sun did come out for parts of the afternoon.

So tomorrow it's Amsterdam and our wake up call is set up for4:45am. Eek, that's even earlier than I get up for work.

Test for Jeff

So my bags are packed and I'm ready to go. Just thought I'd post at least once in case Europe turns out to be a computer-free continent. :) My flight leaves in a couple of hours and tomorrow at this time I'll be in London having a pint at the pub. So sayonara and see ya later!

ps. Jeff, hope this post got to you via Google reader.