We spent a day exploring the Vatican when we were in Rome.  It was incredible.  I have never seen anything quite as impressive.  We did a tour – which meant we got in St Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel without having to wait in line (which can sometimes be a 7 hour wait) and it was cheaper too!

Interesting unverified fact someone told me: St Peter’s Basilica, etc.  is uninsured because it is priceless and no insurance company will insure it.

View of St Peter’s Basilica front on:

On either side are these awesome columns in front of buildings:

Statue by Michelangelo:

This is a dead Pope:

A statue of St Peter – pilgrims are suppose to touch or kiss his feet:

St Peter’s tomb is underneath this:

Throughout the Basilica there are areas to pray:

Everywhere you looks there is something spectacular and old:

[The painting is spectacular, I am old]

The throne of St Peter:

Post Basilica we headed to the Sistine Chapel.  The walk was beautiful.

There is no flash allowed in the chapel (or anywhere else) so the pictures are dark.

The  Sistine Chapel:

Michelangelo’s ceiling – I can’t even imagine how he did this:

Tim, taking it all in:

Next up: Athens, Greece!

We spent 4 nights in Rome.  It was just enough time, but not enough time too.

The most impressive thing I saw on the trip was the Colosseum.  It was so impressive and amazing walking around it.

The city was beautiful and filled with really, really old stuff

The view of the Forum from Capitoline Hill was breathtaking.

We checked out the Spanish Steps . . .

and the Trevi Fountain.

We walked all through the Forum and where Rome was first established . . .

and saw where all the chariot races happened at the Circus Maximus.

The final pic I’ll leave you with is me with a crazy fountain Tim liked.

Stay tuned for our Vatican adventures!

Everywhere you looked in Florence things were old and beautiful.

The Basilica of Santa Maria Novella.

This cool building.

This reminds me of Rapunzel’s tower.

And I loved this building.

Even the streets were spectacular.

This church was right in the middle of the flea market.

The river and bridges were spectacular.

The Ponte Vecchio was too perfect to be true.

and the view off it was amazing!

We went to the Plazzo Pitti.

We celebrated Tim’s birthday and had one of the most amazing days of the trip.

We went to the Uffizi during the day and marveled over the Renaissance paintings.

We walked all along the river.

and over to the less touristy side to a restaurant recommended by my friend Sarah and had a great dinner.

We went to a little dessert place also recommended by the lovely Sarah.

And back to the beautiful Santo Spirito church.

We walked across the Ponta Vecchio at night.

and sat on the steps of the Uffizi and listened to a guitar player and a saxophone player play some amazing music, while we drank a bottle of wine I had secreted away in my purse.

Florence was absolutely amazing and one of my favourite places IN THE WORLD.  Tim and I can’t wait to go back!

Next up is ROME.

It even had propellers!

Venice.  The most beautiful city in the world.  It was breathtaking.

But once you get your breath back – that’s it.  It’s notorious for overpriced bad food, smelliness and there’s not a whole lot to do there.

I do think that EVERYONE should go to Venice at least once – but all you need is a day (max 2) to see all the sites and view all the views.

And the rest of the time you can stop and smell the flowers

There are no cars, bikes etc. in Venice – you get around by boat.  So we took the water bus from the train station to our hotel.  Here’s a typical “bus” stop.

and a bus

The buses were really crowded, so it was hard to manage with all our luggage.

We could have taken a taxi . . .

but we’re too cheap!  Even the “buses” were pricey – 13 Euros per person per trip!

There were tons of gondalas

but they were 200 Euros per trip!  Yikes – I am not paying over $300 CAD for that!  And just like the Eiffel Tower, I knew there was not going to be any bling bling for me

The ambulances were also boats!

Venice is definitely the place of water.  This dude was even playing the water glasses!  He was amazing!

Our hotel was great – the walls were even made of fabric!  And even cooler was that it was a 15th Century residence now converted into a hotel!

Obviously they updated some things, including the floor – in 1844!  Damn, that’s still REALLY REALLY old!

The hotel was great – except somehow mosquitos kept getting into our room and biting us!

We were really close to the Academia bridge -

which has some of the best views in Venice.

We ate a lot of pizza – and did find one great little restaurant (it’s behind me in the pic).

We went to St Mark’s Basilica

which was absolutely beautiful!

We spent 4 nights in Venice and had a great time.  Venice is a very romantic city – everything is beautiful and the city is filled with dark secluded streets so you can feel like it is a romantic date everywhere you walk.

Next recap is on one of my favourite places – FLORENCE!

So now I have been to Law Vegas and Monaco!  And I must say that the Monte Carlo casino in Vegas is much cooler than the actual Monte Carlo casino in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Tim and I were staying in Nice, so we didn’t spend the night in Monaco.  We took the local bus along the French Riviera (for 1 Euro per person) for 45 minutes to get to the principality.  Monaco is totally lifestyles of the rich and famous!  It is an amazing place!

Here is part of the city of Monte Carlo, seen from part of the Monaco Grand Prix racetrack.

Our first stop was the Monte Carlo Casino.  We stopped to take pictures outside . . .

But no pictures were allowed inside.  We played slots.  I started with 10 Euros and got 30 Euros – so I made my money back and could pay our entrance fee into the card rooms (10 Euros per person).

It was super intimidating in the table games room.  Now, I’ve been to A LOT of casinos in my time.  In fact, I worked at one for 5 years, so I know my way around a casino.  But this place was intimidating.  Possible because it was pretty empty – we were there at 2:30 pm and it only open around 2:00 pm.  And possibly because they had a million people working.  Seriously, there were 3 dealers at each roulette table!  And it was dead!  In the main part of the casino the games have reasonable limits – 10 Euros +.  But there are A LOT of high limit rooms.  Which we never went into of course

Tim found some nice cars in the parking lot . . .

and he spotted his teenage “dream car” cruising about . . .

We walked by the marina and looked at the pretty boats . . .

and I found my dream boat . . .

We went to the church that Princess Grace (aka Grace Kelly) was buried in.

and we checked out the fancy train station . .

before we made our way back to the hotel on the cheap bus

Stay tuned for recaps of . . . Venice, Florence, Rome, Athens and Santorini!

But we also went there during the day.  Pretty much every day we were there

Our hotel lent us mats and beach towels.  You could rent chairs, but they cost 18 Euros per person per day.  With the exchange rate, that was like $50 CAD just to SIT.  No thanks!  Although, after a few hours on the “sand” (see below), those chairs started to look pretty good.

I received an email telling me that we won our trial, so Tim brought me out to a fancy dinner.  And got me a $70 bottle of wine (BTW – it tasted HORRIBLE).

We explored Old Nice (where were staying).

And we went to a cool (but pricey) place our last night in Nice.

and had some good-ish food.

and fantastic wine!

Next recap will be . . . MONACO! We only spent a day there, but it is so cool it deserves its own recap

We had a fantastic hotel that greeted us with some cava (sparking wine) – from that first glass of wine I knew I would love Barcelona  Our hotel room was very pretty and modern.

Too bad the magazine was in Spanish!

We did A LOT of walking in Barcelona.  It was such a beautiful city.  Everywhere you looked there was great style.  Take, for example, this balcony.  This was just a plain old apartment building balcony.

We walked  to the Barcelona port to check out the boats . . .

and we found a cool mirrored building to take pictures at . . .

and the best kiddie toy ever!  This crazy contraction was all around Europe. You buckled the kids in and they jumped on a trampoline surface and bungee corded back to the trampoline.  The kids were jumping so high and got awesome air time.  I was really jealous and wanted to play :p

Then we randomly stumbled on the start of a lag in the Mongol Rally!

When we weren’t walking we were sampling the local specialties – BIGASS sangrias! (that BIGASS was in honour of you Jaime!)

Tim enjoyed a local BIGASS brew.

On one of our random walks we accidentally hiked up a mountain, which I blamed on Mr.  Map Man . . .

but we were rewarded with fantastic views of the city.

After walking a long time in the heat of the day (35 degrees plus!) I was very happy to find a gondola that brought us up to the peak of the mountain where there was a fortress.

Tim liked the cannon.

And I liked the view.

I wasn’t expecting to hike up a mountain and I was wearing 2 inch wedge sandals.  After seeing other people dipping their feet, I also made the most of the Mountjuic fountain

We toured the architecture of Barcelona – especially the Gaudi buildings, which was Tim’s brother’s (the architect) favourite architect.

and his piece de resistance, the Sagrada Familia – which is cool as hell!

We did an open top bus tour, and hot hit with water balloons from a bunch of hooligan kids!

We checked out our favorite football team’s stadium – F.C. Barcelona.  Barca Barca Bacra!

So that was Barcelona in a nutshell!

Stay tuned for the next recap and one of my favourite places – NICE!

and here . . .

We drank a lot of wine . . .

and ate a lot of paella.

It might of been the wine, but all the signs (and there were A LOT of different ones) using the work “Poupee” seemed really funny to us.

FYI – in French poupee means doll/puppet not poop

Speaking of funny signs, this one from London got a few laughs too.

Then, Tim got sick.  He got a really bad cold, complete with a fever.  This kind of threw our plans for a loop and we stayed in the rest of the time.  Him being sick and me playing nurse.  I’d say playing doctor but that’s his job not mine, and it sounds kind of dirty

So that was pretty much Madrid.  We hadn’t planned on doing a lot there, but we did miss out on a flamenco dancing show and some museums and gardens.  But that’s life – you gotta roll with the punches.  And when one door closes, you find a great English bookstore down the street and stock up

We left London on a Eurostar train – I thought a high speed train would be a cool entry to a cool city.  And only through the Chunnel was something I wanted to do.  It was quick and fast and Tim slept the whole way Ah Paris.  The place of love and romance and gourmet food.  NOT!  There was love and romance, Tim and I brought it with us.  But the food was horrible!  And since we were there for 6 nights, and ate out 3 meals a day, we tried A LOT of places.  Cheap, middle and high.  All bad.  So that really put me off Paris.  And escargot, my favourite food, wasn’t even close to as good as you can get at a French restaurant in Canada (let alone The Keg escargot)

And it was COLD!  I would wear a long sleeved shirt, a cardigan, a pashmina and a jacket – and still be cold! So love was not in the air . .  . but guess what was? SMOKE!  Everyone there smokes!  It was crazy!  People write about how French women are so thin?  Well, they are thin but not because of what you think (walking, small portions).  From my experience, French women chain smoke and only consume expresso and wine.  In almost every restaurant or cafe we were in, I rarely ever saw anyone eating.  Just smoking and drinking.  And we were in a less-touristy area.  We thought we were off schedule for everyone’s eating habits, but no.  No matter what time we ate (6:00 om – 12 am) NO ONE WAS EATING!  Okay, on to the hotel.  This place was recommended to me by a friend who had stayed there a couple years ago.  And I loved the website.  I didn’t love the hotel – it was just okay.  Dingy and okay.  But for location and value, I wouldn’t pay that much to stay there ever again. We didn’t do anything the first night.  Just wondered around (took us over an hour to find a place that we actually saw someone eating in, not just drinking and smoking in).

Day 2

One of the things I had been looking forward to the most in Paris was the Monet museum – the Musee de l’Orangerie.  And it did not disappoint!  Monet’s water lilies were the most beautiful paintings I have ever seen.  I know they were big – but wow were they ever big!  The water lilly  display was in 2 rooms – both circular – that together formed an infinity sign.  The ceiling let in the sunlight and the rest of the rooms were bare except the paintings.  The paintings covered all the walls.  Tim, who didn’t know his Monet from his Manet, was blow away.  We spent hours looking at the water lillies.  Only the small side of the circle ones would fit onto the camera screen.

Here’s one of me so you can get the feel of the size of them.

There were also some other great paintings at the museum, but mostly it was all about the water lillies. Post Monet induced bliss, we headed up the Champs-Elysées to wonder around before straight to the Arc de Triomphe.  It would be pretty amazing to drive past that every day!

After the Arc, we set off for the Eiffel Tower.

Not a very romantic place to propose in my opinion – there was a 2 hour wait to get to the top!  As I wasn’t going to get any bling out of it, I vetoed going to the top. However, I did go to the bottom of it . . .

Day 3

On the third day we went to the Louvre!

It was gigantic and full of very interesting stuff!  (not the greatest description – but it was overwhelming).  Some highlights were

the Mona Lisa . . .

and the Venus de Milo.

To round off our great museum day, we headed to the Musee D’Orsay.  I had been dying to get here, as my favourite art is form the Impressionism and Post-Impressionism periods.  The museum did not disappoint, and I proceeded to take pictures of everything I liked.  I won’t bore you with all those, but here are a few . . .

What an amazing day that was.  I was blown away by all the art and so pleased that Tim really liked it was well.

Day 4 On the fourth day, we went to see Notre Dame.  The outside of this was amazing!  It really blew me away with its beauty.

One thing that I did not like was that, unlike Westminster Abbey, you could take pictures inside.  I found that took away from the splendor of the inside, but the stained glass windows blew my sock off nonetheless!

We walked along the Seine . . .

And then we went to McDonald’s, where Tim was delighted to find that they served beer with meals instead of pop.

Day 5

On the fifth day in Paris . . . we crashed!  It was too much, with the whole move across the country and then off the Europe right away and all the long days we were pulling.  We spent the day exploring and drinking copious amount of cheap French wine.

Day 5

Our last full in in Paris was spent at Versailles.  It made me want to watch Sofia Coppola‘s Marie Antoinette again, as the movie brought the palace to life for me.

My favourite parts were the gardens . . .

and the awesome fountains . . .

.

The ceilings in all the rooms and halls weren’t too shabby either.

And that was Paris!  If the food was better, the weather was nicer and I wasn’t so tired I think I would have liked it a lot more!

Stayed tuned for the next recap . . . MADRID!

Tim and I took the red eye from Halifax to London at 11:45 pm June 30th.  After a 5.5 (+) hour direct flight (during which I did not sleep a wink because I was so excited) we arrived!  Due to the 4 hour time change, it was about 9:45 am by the time we arrived.  We hopped on the subway and sped to our hotel – which was a 45 minute ride away in the Paddington area of London.

Sidenote – the London metro system is the oldest and most rickety system I have ever been on.  The cars shake and rattle and there is no air conditioning  I actually got motion sick when I was on it!

I was super happy with our London hotel, and we even got upgraded to a slightly bigger room.  That being said, the room was so small that you couldn’t open your suitcase in it properly.  But it was one of the nicest rooms I have ever been in, despite the size.  It was all chocolate leather and white linen.  And the leather headboard went to the ceiling!  It looked like a designer had decorated it!  It was the most expensive hotel room of our trip, as London is one of the most expensive cities in the world.  I would recommend it to anyone for location and quality, as long as you know you have to pay for it!

We had a l-o-n-g nap and then decided to take a walk and get some food.  Less than 5 minutes away is Hyde Park, so we went there and walked all through it and Kensington Gardens.  It is such a gorgeous and giant park!  It was filled with other walkers, runners and people playing all kinds of sport (including cricket!)  We walked all along the giant lake.  We probably spent 3 hours walking off our jet lag!

Day 2

Our second day in London was jam packed with tourist stuff.  We headed to the London Dungeon first.  It wasn’t what I expected, way too cheesy (and I had expected A LOT of cheese to begin with) but we had a great time anyway.  No pics were allowed inside, but it was basically a cheesy “haunted house” thing with actors in each area.  There was a Jack the Ripper area, a torture device area, a Sweeny Todd area, etc.  Plus 2 rides.  One was a “boat” that went around a roller coaster-ish area, and the other was a ride that you get strapped into, it rises ,and then you suddenly free fall.  The last ride was my favourite.  The only pic from there is this one of me in a crazy chair.

After that, we walked to the Tower of London.  I had always pictured it much bigger than it really was, and much more scary seeing as so many people died there under suspicious circumstances.

But it was cool as hell to see the place old Kings lived and where people like Anne Boleyn were beheaded.  The Traitor’s Gate was my favourite part – I could almost visualize boats pulling up with prisoners in it, ready to die in the Tower.

The part where Kings had lived was incredibly small.  For some reason I always pictured Kings living the high life – but not at the Tower.  Very small sparse rooms were the norm.  I guess they saved the luxury for their other castles.  And size wise,  the Tower was no tower.  It was maybe 3-5 floors high at most.  We did an audio tour of the place and probably spent minimum 4 hours there.

Day 3

The third day we headed to the British Museum to see all that the Brits had stolen from other countries  The museum was free, as are all museums in London.  But we got audio tours because hey, Tim and I are geeks and get off on all this history stuff.

The Rosetta Stone was my favourite, but very hard to look at as it is probably the most important piece in the museum.

The museum was very crowded, especially the Egypt section – mostly school children on summer school/camp trips so it was THAT kind of crowded  I figure I’ll save my Egypty viewing for when I go to Egypt (which will be the next trip I take – I hope!)

However, I did look at all the mummies  . . .

and at this guy – whose body just dried up naturally thousands of year ago out in the Egyptian desert.

For the evening, we had tickets to see “As You Like It” at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre for 7:30 pm.  I really wanted to see the theatre, and tickets weren’t that pricey so it all worked out well.  I had booked well in advance, so we had great seats.  No pictures were allowed but I actually took some before I realized that.  Whoops!

The play was fabulous!  Tim really loved it and said it was the highlight of London for him.

Day 4

Our last day was one of the most jam-packed days of the whole trip.  We spent the morning at Parliament and Big Ben

and went up on the London Eye.

Then went to  Westminster Abbey.  Of all the impressive church I have ever been in (and after this trip that is a lot!) Westminster Abbey is my favourite.  It is incredibly beautiful inside, and seeped with such history that it kind of blows your mind.  I mean, people like Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots are buried here!  The audio guide was also the best one I have ever listened to, with Jeremy Irons as the guide.

Then we rushed back to our hotel to meet one of Tim’s best friends and his wife and baby who had driven down from Newcastle to see us.  Tim hadn’t seen this friend since he was best man at his wedding a few years ago.  We spent the rest of the day and evening together (but for some reason I have absolutely no pics of them!)  We had brought baby Alex (he’s 1.5 years old) a plush stuffed lobster  - so that he doesn’t forget his Nova Scotia heritage – and it turns out that it is now his favourite toy and he has to bring it every where he goes and sleeps with it every night.  So cute!  We took them to dinner at this really nice organic farm food restaurant (fancy place that only serves things grown on its own farm or that it can vouch for) and had a good meal.  We had 2 rounds of olives which were the best olives I have ever had in my life!  I took an early night, but Tim and his buddy went pub crawling long onto the night

Stay tuned for the next recap . . . PARIS