Copenhagen would have never been on our list of travel sights if some of our best friends wouldn't have moved there earlier this year. So while we enjoyed visiting this city during our travels, what we LOVED more was seeing the Giff family! The city itself was quite small so it was easy to navigate for those reasons however you had to be EXTRA careful not to get runover by a bike. For those of you who don't know about a luxury tax, get ready for this, in Denmark if you would like a luxury item such as say.....a car, you better be prepared to shell out an extra 180% tax! So needless to say bikes are the economical way to drive. We passed on the adventure of using the colorful albeit ugly public bikes just ... read more

Vienna is our next stop, Vienna home of the Hapsburg family had more palaces than anything else. This royal family liked their residences more than their incestous relationships. We proceeded to visit as many palaces as we could, our favorite was the summer residence "Shoobrum Palace" this of course being around 5 miles from their Winter residence "Neuberg". I had to see all there was to see in the summer palace so we dished out the money for the 40 room tour instead of the measly 20 room tour. It was worth the dough just to see the royal porcelain potty! We also enjoyed some culture by enjoying the outdoor operas by city hall in the evenings. We lasted maybe an hour before starting to get really bored, operas are definitely not our thing. All in ... read more

Ahhh Venice, we will never forget it for both the good and the bad memories. In the good ones category we have some unforgetable panoramic shots, everywhere you look we had some amazing postcards come alive in front of our eyes. We went to the Murano glass island and saw some master glass blowers at work and to top it off saw the most amazing concert one afternoon while sipping some sangria. The concert was actually a couple playing for money on the street and they were soo good we wonder how long they will be doing it. As if all this was not enough the canal next to our little concert had the added bonus of having a gondolier class. Hard work I tell you, if we had not seen the poor student almost wreck ... read more

After a hectic couple of days in Naples, we really needed a break so decided to take the hydrofoil directly to Sorrento and hopefully spend a few days at the beach. The weather was still as hot as it gets, the only way we've been surviving is with a siesta in the afternoon. Sorrento is a small resort town jammed halfway up a cliff about an hour's ferry ride or an hour and a half's train ride from Naples. The town itself was a very tourist oriented town, expensive stores, restaurants advertising the 'menu touristico' and generally not a lot of Italian being spoken. We were staying in a cabin at a campground about 10 minutes walk outside the town, so were just close enough to make trips in to town easily but far enough away ... read more

After a two hour train trip from Rome, we were pleasantly surprised to find a hotel with Air conditioning AND a bathroom. Now don't get me wrong the heat of Rome was the perfect excuse for the gelato and all but the fact that we had air conditioning just made my day. Anyway guess I forgot to mention that we have taken up the European custom of a siesta in the afternoon? Well, this is the best ever with AC. Back to Naples, it was quite a treat after the hustle of Rome to find Naples practically asleep. Since we made it in on a Sunday, we were able to just walk and enjoy the sights. We got some great shots of Mt. Vesuvius and the Castel Nuovo. Needing to get a late lunch we stopped ... read more