We arrived in Venice ahead of schedule, and our first excursion was to drive down to Verona to check it out for a few hours. Verona was a cool little city, which we thought was exceptionally clean for an Italian city. Before checking out the shops we did the usual tourist thing and checked out Juliet's balcony! Once our time was up in Verona it was time to head back to Venice to our hotel. To say our hotel was in Venice was stretching the truth a little bit though... it was a bus ride, then ferry which all up took [View Full Entry]

---

---

Our trip to Corfu got off to a very disappointing start! We disembarked from our overnight ferry at 5am, alot of us only having had 2 hours sleep or less. We all would have looked a sorry sight waiting for our fill-in bus driver (Dave on 3 days break) who was a no show. We waited for what seemed like ages - we learnt on Corfu there is a thing called 'Ish time', you never really know what time you are going to get your service! In the end, our tour manager had to organise a whole heap of taxis to [View Full Entry]

---

---

After our first taste of Italy in Florence, we arrived in the afternoon of the 20th of June into one of the most important cities in history, Rome. The influence this great city has had on modern society is without peer, and what better way to start than visiting the Colosseum. This ancient structure, whilst partially in ruin, is still an impressive sight to behold despite the ravages of time and earthquake damage. We can only imagine the sense of awe the ancient Romans of the time must have felt! After the Colosseum we went for a walk through the city, [View Full Entry]

---

---

We arrived in Florence late in the afternoon, and we checked into possibly the worst hotel either of us had ever stayed in! We headed out for dinner and Karaoke on our first night out which was funny - although neither of us got to sing much to Kim’s disappointment (not… haha). The streets in Florence were like nothing else we’d seen before, very distinctive. They are extremely narrow (which explains the bikes and Vespas) and have very tall buildings. Our first port of call was some Italian gelato which was just beautiful, the number of flavours is astounding! Next we [View Full Entry]

---

---

We stopped in Pisa long enough to try and lift the leaning tower up, but we failed in our attempt and had to quickly move on to our next destination! One thing for sure - it is very humid in Italy! [View Full Entry]

---

---

An evening excursion down the road from Nice to a little place called Monaco. This country is famous for its Formula One race, dodgy tax rules and the Monte Carlo casino. The city itself though is absolutely spectacular at night, and the amount of money in this tiny place is astounding! To own one of the yachts in that harbour… we’ll keep dreaming! The casino itself isn’t actually that big on the inside, quite old fashioned compared to the brash cheapness of Star City. But the stakes are not small, and some people bet very big! We lost 50 euros quick [View Full Entry]

---

---

Nice has the highest average number of sunlight hours in the whole of France. We arrived in to this French Riviera city to nice weather - the air was warm and the water was a beautiful shade of blue. How this changed on our free day! We copped a miserable day of clouds and rain, and to top it off it was Sunday so the vast majority of shops were closed. The French continued to show off their culinary skills with a lovely lunch along the main street, although the roadworks spoil the streetscape slightly - our bus only just made [View Full Entry]

---

---

We arrived in Barcelona at approximately 6:30pm on Thursday the 14th of June. Barcelona was not a city that either of us had any expectation of. However we knew before touring there that people seem to either love it, or hate it! On first impression, nothing really stood out to us about Barcelona… although it was good to experience another major city! We were taken past the 1992 Olympic Stadium, up to the top of Mont Juic for photo opportunities, visited the Gaudi’s famous Sagrada Familia church which is still not finished being built and won’t be until 2040, were taken [View Full Entry]

---

---

We arrived in Paris at approximately 4:30pm on the 11/6/07. Due to the fact that the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays, we made a mad dash to see it on our arrival in to Paris. The Louvre is just beautiful & definitely a must see! You could spend days in it and still not have seen everything!! Steve seemed to grasp the French language immediately quite well… or so he thought! On entering the Louvre, he informed everyone not to worry about finding our way back to the bus, that we are at the ‘Sortie’ exit and to follow the signs. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hi everybody! Just a quick message to give our thoughts on London before we head off on our Contiki tour tomorrow morning :) After a long and arduous trip from Aswan, Egypt we were glad to arrive in a modern city with all the creature comforts we're used to (and then some!). Fresh air was also an added bonus that we'd nearly forgotten about! Our hotel, the Royal National is HUGE and the corridors are just a maze! There's not much we can say about it except that it's in a good location and at least it's clean (if only just [View Full Entry]

---

---