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Jeff Edwards Joined: August 12th 2007
Logged in: December 3rd 2008
Logged in: December 3rd 2008
Travel Blog Posts
The Forum from Palatine Hill
There is a lot to see in Rome. We smashed it all into two exhausting days. The first day we started early in the morning at the Vatican museums. The line went on forever, but the wait was worth it. We hit the highlights inside. A full tour would take days. The Sistine Chapel was probably my favorite thing to see inside, but again, no pictures! Then we headed to St Peter's Basilica. It is massive. We felt like ants inside. In the afternoon, we saw the awesome Pantheon. Its probably my favorite sight in Rome. Its 2000 years old, but is amazingly well preserved and the inside is just as impressive. The artist Raphael's tomb is something to look for. Then, we headed to a couple of small churches off the beaten path, both were ... read more
Morning in Riomaggiore
If I decide not to come home, you'll know where to find me. The Cinque Terre is five little villages clinging to the Mediterranean coast between Genoa and Pisa. The villages are surrounded by vineyards, olive trees, and breathtaking views. All five are connected by hiking path and rail. We easily covered all five in a day. The villages are all made up of multistory buildings decorated in vibrant contrasting colors. Tourism exists in the Cinque Terre, but its not overwhelming like Venice or Florence. The herd did make an appearence though with their florescent stickers and numbered signs. We stay in Riomaggorie, which turned out to be our favorite of the towns. From the ocean, it looks like the town is spilling down the ravine into the sea. The atmosphere is very laid back and ... read more
Giant me holding up the tower
We made a short stopover in Pisa on the way to the Cinque Terre. Our plan is to spend a couple of hours in Pisa to take the standard holding up the tower pictures. It looks as though a thousand of our closest friends have the same idea. We get our pictures and get back on the train. Off to the Cinque Terre!... read more
Duomo in Florence
We arrived in Florence at about 11 am after an uneventful (and cheap!) bus ride from Siena. Florence is definitely busier than sleepy little Siena. Florence is really a great city. It is full of culture, good food, famous art and TOURISTS. We have seen a lot of Americans. They seemed to be a lot in Venice too, but not really is any of the other places we have been. You always know the tour groups because they are following someone with a microphone or an obnoxious umbrella. I had the brillant idea that we should climb the dome of the Duomo. It was 463 steps to the top! That was a long sweaty climb, but definitely worth it. We could take in the city from above and see some of the surrounding hill towns. After ... read more
A view of the Tuscan countryside
Jeff thought it was time I took up some of the blog slack. I am a little more long winded than him so bear with me. We arrived in Siena after an eventful day. After Venice, we took a train to Florence to connect with our train to Siena. We must have awful timing because we got on the same train as about 200 Italian soccer hooligans . As we sat there, more and more of them just kept coming on the train. Apparently the Empoli team (a nearby city inbetween Florence and Siena) had just had a game in Florence and all the hooligans were heading home. In true hooligan form, fights were started, pot was smoked, soccer cheers were yelled, etc... It did not take long for 15 police to show up with helmets ... read more
Typical Venetian street
to going on a gondola ride! Hahahaha, just a little Venice engagement humor! Hope we caused a gasp, but thankfully, ITS ONLY A JOKE! Sorry for the delay in updates. Its been a busy few days. We started out on a terrible night train journey from Munich to Venice. The train compartment was loud, tiny, and old. On top of that, our Asian neighbors accidentally broke into our compartment at 2am. No harm, but it kept both of us awake for awhile. We were both expectedly tired when we pulled into Venice at 630am. Venice is just a few hour stopover for us as Nicole has already been there and I just want to cross it off my list. We check our bags and take a water taxi to the center. It is very pretty, but ... read more
Beautiful little village
Yesterday, we rented a car and drove down to Austria. Our destination was the little mountain village of Hallstatt. The rental car place didn't have our Opal, so we got stuck with a Mercedes E class, darn, haha! The first bit of driving on the autobahn was a little scary, but once I got the hang of it, it was a blast. It was like I was driving in a luxury car dealership. Porsche's, BMW's, Mercedes's, etc. all flying by at least 150km/hr (95~ mph), often much faster. The scenary was beautiful on the drive. Definitely 'Sound of Music' country. We made to Hallstatt still early in the morning before all the tour buses arrived. We had the town pretty much to ourselves most of the morning. I can't describe how pretty it was there. Hopefully ... read more
Neuschwanstein
Hello from day 3 in Munich. We arrived early in the morning Tuesday off the night train. With not much to do and a free day of train riding, we decided to head out to Dachau. Dachau was the first concentration camp built by the Nazis. It was a great experience. I couldn't believe how close the concentration camp was to the city of Dachau. There were houses right next to the walls... The next day we took the trip out to the castles near Fussen. Neuchwanstein is the big fairy tale castle that was used by Disney as the model for the the Disney World castle. It was very pretty, but also very touristy. We decided not to go in as the castle really was just built for show only a couple hundred years ago. ... read more
Church at the Castle in Prague
Big sight seeing day today. We visited Prague Castle first. I don't know how we'll see anything more spectacular than this. It looks like a postcard. I kept telling Nicole it wasn't real even as I looked at it with my own eyes. The inside of the Castle cathedral was just as great as the exterior. Inside the Cathedral, we climbed 287 winding steps to the top of one of the church spires for great views of the city. I haven't had any luck with pictures yet, but I'm going to keep trying! We headed down from the castle back into the city across the Charles Bridge. Nicole bought a great panomramic picture of the city. I bought a water color picture of the bridge and castle. Mine cost a lot more! We crossed the bridge ... read more
Train in Germany
We made it to Prague yesterday. We went from a sub par American Airlines Boeing 777, to a specatular German train, to a scary Cold War era, Soviet holdover, Czech train before finally making it to Prague. Our journey from Frankfurt to Prague looked a lot like Missouri, with rolling hills and fields... of course with little red roofed villages and the occassional castle sprinkled in. Prague is a gorgeous city, straight out of a fairy tale. Its also very cheap. I ate beef, boiled potatoes, broccoli, carrots, and corn (a perfect Jeff meal) for about $5 last night. A 1/2 liter Pilsner Urquell is just over $1. Going to check out Prague castle and all the other highlights today. I'll post pics next time! Jeff ... read more
