Thought the blogs were over? Nope, we just got busy now that we are finally home and it has taken us a while to get these last few together. Just pretend we're still out there traveling. We traveled over to England from Amsterdam via Brussels and arrived into the Kings Cross/ St. Pancras train station. In order to get around town we picked up our Oyster cards (local transport passes) and Underground maps so we could navigate the great but somewhat confusing metro system. It took us a little time to figure out all of the closures and best routes [View Full Entry]

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As many of you know Rich and I are back in the United States, but we still want to tell you about the rest of our adventures, so we are going to finish the rest of the countries for you. So, on February 16th we headed to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Amsterdam is a very cool city that is full of canals, very narrow houses, and steeped full of history and traditions. The next morning we joined a walking tour to explore the city. The walking tour started at the Dam, in the center of the city, near the war memorial, which [View Full Entry]

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When we left Spain and Portugal we headed up the west coast and into the Loire Valley. This region contains more than 300 chateaus and was the center for the french seat of power during the Renaissance period. We went on a day tour to see some of these great chateaus starting with one of the most famous, Chenonceux. The Chateau de Chenonceux sits over the Cher River and the residence that is on the site today was built in the early 1500's. The residence is interesting in that it sit over the river as if built on top of a [View Full Entry]

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During our spanish adventure we decided to go over to Portugal to explore Lisbon and the surrounding areas. On the 31st of January we took an overnight train to Lisbon and arrived the morning of the 1st of February in Lisbon. After getting settled, we explored Rossio Square where the Teatro Nacional is. Next, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Oceanaria de Lisboa, or the Lisbon Aquarium. The aquarium has a huge tank (the size of four football fields) where the animals of the world's oceans can interact just like they do in the wild. Otters as you [View Full Entry]

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We rolled into the southern coast of Spain from France and into the coastal city of Barcelona. We found a great little hostel just off the popular Las Ramblas which is one of the main streets in the city. At the start of our first day we were greeted by sunny skies and warm temperatures for the first time since we left Athens. For the first time in what seemed like forever we didn’t have to wear our jackets during the day, which was amazing. After a short ramble down Las Ramblas we came upon the harbor and the monument to [View Full Entry]

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In the hills of southern France we found our next destination, the historic walled city of Carcassonne. The Romans first fortified the hill in Carcassonne around 100BC and the fortifications were expanded over the years. The fortified city that had been built up over the years became a centerpiece of the crusades to wipe out the cathars of the area. The city and battlements were expanded over the years and the city became a vital military outpost along the boarder with Spain. In the 1800's the city was put up to be demolished, but after some heavy campaigning the city was [View Full Entry]

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We left Switzerland on the 16th of January and took an all day train to Rome. My mom was coming to visit on the 17th so we headed to Italy to meet up with her. Rich also took me to a nice Italian dinner for my birthday! On Thursday, January 17th we met my mom at our hotel and headed out for the day. After a quick stop at a cafe we walked down to Piazza del Campidoglio, in the pouring rain, where Emperor Marcus Aurelius sits atop his Horse with his back to the Roman Forum! Michelangelo actually designed the [View Full Entry]

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We took the train down to Zurich and settled into our nice "cheap" (if you can call $30 a night in a dorm bed cheap) hostel. Our first day was a cold, wet day so we spent time inside at the Schweizerisches Landesmuseum which took us through the history of the area from prehistoric times to the present. We also got a nice introduction to just how expensive the city is with a nice simple dinner that only cost us $80 or so. The next day we walked around the city checking out the sites on the banks of the Limmat [View Full Entry]

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On January 6th we took an all day train from Krakow, Poland to Berlin. This was one of the cities in Europe I was most looking forward to. Obviously, having grown up during the Cold War you would hear Germany, and especially Berlin, was under communist rule and it really was not a place you wanted to visit. So, I was eager to see Berlin after it had been free from dictators for almost 20 years. On Monday, January 7th Rich and I went out to explore Berlin. We took the metro passed the many "platz" (squares) to Potsdamerplatz first which [View Full Entry]

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There we were sitting on the train to Krakow all by ourselves watching the snow-covered landscape crawl by when this young, rather inebriated guy sits down next to us and begins to talk to us in rapid Polish. I finally get a chance to tell him that I don't understand a word he's saying. Now normally you would expect the conversation to be over at this point but this didn't phase him at all. For the next hour or so we talked in sign language, broken English, and the few new Polish words this guy taught us. What a great introduction [View Full Entry]

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