European Vacation

tryrrthg

Well, we leave tomorrow. I can't wait! The mp3 player is loaded with good tunes, so I'm ready to travel.

I've jotted down some notes from this thread. Thanks for the help guys!

unc2701

Oh one last thing- make a few photocopies of your passport. It can save you a lot of trouble if it gets stolen.

Good luck & have fun!

tryrrthg

unc2701 wrote:

Oh one last thing- make a few photocopies of your passport. It can save you a lot of trouble if it gets stolen.

Good luck & have fun!

Thanks! I made copies this morning. if only our pictures weren't so hideous. :eek:

jdhdiggs

How was the trip?

Demiurge

I was getting ready to tell him to have a great trip, and then I realized how old the post was. Hope you had fun!

tryrrthg

Trip was GREAT! We had great weather, no rain for two weeks, no travel issues. We had just a fantastic time. It was a lot of walking, probably 8-10 hours a day on our feet walking and seeing everything, but well worth it.

A random sample of some of our pictures.

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Demiurge

Nice pics! Glad you had a good time.

Polk65

I'm jealous of the fine weather you had and hoofing it. The rain in Paris and Rome this time of the year can hurt. You were able to experience the sights, sounds, and smells from the street which are priceless. Any impressions of what you saw?

wodom1

I'm jealous of the weather you had too! When I went to Paris last year, it snowed for 3 out of 5 days there.

tryrrthg

Polk65 wrote:

Any impressions of what you saw?

London was great. I liked it a lot. Very clean compared to the rest of the tirp, the tube was easy to use. We had amazing weather in London, mid to high 50's, sunny, no clouds, and NO RAIN. I was amazed. I actually liked London more than I thought, I wasn’t as excited to go there as some of the other cities, but it turned out to be very nice. Westminster Abby was pretty cool, and we attended a free organ concert there, which was cool to sit and listen to those 32' pipes. talk about BASS!

Paris has fantastic sites, my favorite of the cities we visited. I loved Notre Dame; the architecture is just way cool. Our favorite museums were la orangerie and the Marmottan, both lesser known museums. We actually went to the la orangerie twice because we liked it so much. The giant Monet’s in the oval rooms were amazing. Paris the city was so-so. Most of it smelled like piss to me, it was way dirtier than London. We also had trouble finding stuff to eat, as we were traveling on the cheap, and I’m an American meat and potatoes kinda guy, I could do without all the fancy shmancy food.

Venice was really neat, but a bit boring. I’m really glad I saw it and was there, but we got kinda bored there. If we would ever go back we would do some island hopping. And I’m sure as hell glad we weren’t there during the height of tourist season, man were all the people in those tiny streets annoying. I don’t deal well with people walking around aimlessly not watching where they’re going. And there were PLENTY of them in Venice.

Florence was excellent. My wife lived there for a month or so in college so she knew her way around pretty well. The David was pretty cool, I didn’t think I’d like it that much but the detail carved into the stone was just incredible. The Duomo was pretty cool. I liked all the squares in the city. There was some great music in one of the squares on our last night. Not a whole lot of green space in the Italian cities we visited.

Rome was excellent. Weather was in the upper 60’s which was great. Our first day there we went to the Coliseum, which is way cool, and as we were leaving we noticed a movie being filmed. We got to looking at the actors and they were Hayden Christianson and Rachel Bilson. We watched a couple of takes and then went to the Paletine Hill (spelling?). Rome’s traffic is insane, everyone is go go go, and if I ever hear the squeal of another scooter it will be the end of me. Man it was like a swarm of angry bees 24-7. Trevi fountain was pretty cool, except for all the street vendors that bugged the hell out of you every second to buy there stupid crap. Oh, and probably the “funniest” thing I’ve seen in a while. On our walk to the Coliseum we saw a beggar sit up and start talking on her cell phone. Real nice!

Italy was like a smoker’s paradise. Non-smokers have to be in the minority there. I can’t stand the smoke and it was really getting to me by the end of each day. Walking down the sidewalk was agony because there was always someone blowing smoke in our faces. I also managed to step in dog **** in Florence. Gotta love watching out for that on the sidewalks!

I was really surprised how much I enjoyed seeing everything, I wanted to go, but I wasn't dying to. In all the years I've known my wife she was always saying how much she wants to go back (and travel in general) and now I know why. I'm glad I got to see this stuff in my lifetime, everyone should. I hope we can do something like this again before my time is up.