http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Mindazzle/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Mindazzle en-us Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:17:31 UTC Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:17:31 UTC Today we got up and went into the town of Florence for a walking tour with a local guide. We saw some beautiful churches with facades made entirely out of marble white green and red. Oddly enough the Santa Croce has a big Star of David on top because the man who designed the facade was Jewish. Our guide told us about all the fascinating people who once lived in Florence. How amazing would it h http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/blog-305251.html It was another early morning as we had to leave at 745 to head to Florence or Firenze in Italian. It was still raining so we loaded up and left again in the pouring rain. On the bright side as we were driving towards Italy all the waterfalls were overflowing and gushing down the mountains. It was beautiful. Switzerland was probably the prettiest country we visited. On the way we stopped in Pisa. http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-305240.html Today we had the opportunity to go up the Jungfrau Mountain. Ash had told us it would be one of the best experiences we would have on the trip so of course Lauren and I paid up and went. Jungfrau means virgin and according to Ash it's surrounded by another mountain called the monk who rescued her from the ogre mountain. Anyways we went up the mountain by train. Well it wasn't a train of sorts be http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Switzerland/South-West/Lauterbrunnen/blog-304899.html This day was a crazy long travel day. We drove from Paris to Switzerland. The scenery was very beautiful. To fill up the time Ash had us go up to the mike is that how you are supposed to spell that and talk about ourselves. We had to tell where we were from and why we chose the tour and all of that stuff. We also had to tell an embarrasing story a joke or a pick up line. There were some very http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Switzerland/South-West/Lauterbrunnen/blog-304524.html They fed us breakfast at the hotel croissants which aren't really French and some meat and cheese. I think I ate about 3 and then we headed into the city of lights around 900. It took us an hour to get into the city because of the traffic. I don't think I could drive in Europe there aren't really any lanes so everyone just drives where ever they feel like it. We were dropped off at the Eiff http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/-le-de-France/Paris/blog-304521.html Tour Day OneWe met at the Globetrotters Hostel in London. We had to ride the tube from our hotel over there so we got up pretty early to make it to our 600 am show time. We grabbed breakfast at a gas station because we didn't know when we would have the chance to eat again but there weren't many options. You could definitely tell we were tourists because we were in shorts and light jackets and http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/-le-de-France/Paris/blog-304514.html Well I should have been arriving home in about 3 hours. But alas we haven't even left yet. Somehow Lauren and I overslept a bit.. no that's an understatement. We slept until almost 5 p.m. I knew we were tired.. but wow. Every other day on the trip my little alarm has served just fine. But today we didn't even get up when housecleaning came in and turned the lights on and off. Lauren says she reme http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/United-Kingdom/England/blog-303757.html here we are in Rome lauren and i are having a great time here in europe. i love all of it but especially switzerland probably because it rained so much i dont have much time but i wanted to let you know we are just fine and loving it here. we even found some houses on our house hunt in tuscany. more soon and much lovemindy http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Pisa/blog-300146.html Well.. we made it to London lauren and I are a little ashamed of our uncool nonaccents here but oh well. the flights were long and unexciting but after the guys we got to sit next to yesterday today flights were better. The men yesterday did not say anything to us and the one next to lauren didn't smell so good. but today we were together and survived the less than pleasant airplane food. they http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/United-Kingdom/England/blog-297177.html Here we go off to the other side of the world more or less. Packing wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be.. but I'm taking a pretty big suitcase and an extra one for souveniers ha. I took a picture of it because I just wanted to see how they worked.. I know a packed bag isn't all that fun to look at. D. It's a little scary thinking about having to do everything by ourselves but I know http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Oklahoma/Norman/blog-296664.html At this time 4 days from now Lauren and I will be checking into our hotel in Chicago hopefully on our way to England We have a rather long layover but hey whatever works for me. I'm hoping that we'll be able to find some internet cafes while we're in Europe to keep you updated. I'm so excited and a little nervous but I try not to think about it. I've got to go work on packing. I went shopp http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Oklahoma/Norman/blog-295096.html