Our flight from Pisa to Barcelona was delayed so we didn’t end up getting in until really late. We had planned ahead and booked a hotel near the airport for one night, or so we thought. Because it was so late, there was reduced train/tram service which left us waiting up to 40 minutes just to get to the next mode of transportation. We took a train from the airport to the metro to a tram to realize that our hotel was nowhere close to the airport. We did come in on a Saturday night though and there were tons of people out, our tram was packed and people were singing and taking pictures. As we walked to the hotel, we dodged our old friends – the cockroach – scurrying across the sidewalks as the girls ... read more

The high speed trains in Italy are really high speed. In just under 3 and a half hours, we had travelled half way across the country at an ear popping 250km/hr. The bed and breakfast we booked in Rome was about a 10 minute walk away from the Colosseum so after we checked in that night, we decided to head out for a walk. It was fun for me to revisit Rome and to actually know some of the sights before we arrived. It was Binnson’s first time to Rome and he was pumped to see the Colosseum and all of the old ruins laying around. We went for a huge walk that night, heading to the Trevi Fountain from the Colosseum and stopping to take pictures along the way. The weather was crazy hot and ... read more

We left Lyon to head for Italy; lucky for us our train was booked to stop in Geneva and then drive (train?) most of the way through Switzerland. We had originally planned to go to Switzerland but with limited time and money we decided to save it for another time. So this was great – still got to check out all of the beautiful scenery!! At our stop in Geneva, we hopped out of the train with our big packs on and went for a little walk around the train station. We stopped into their Notre Dame Basilica and then took a couple of dorky photos on the streets before our train was ready to depart. Milan was bittersweet. Milano Centrale station was really beautiful; we booked our tickets to Venice in advance and then made ... read more

Paris, the city of love... and the smell of pee. No seriously, it smells like urine everywhere. We flew into Amsterdam early on Tuesday morning, the immigration guy thought I was Paris Hilton- wasn’t sure whether to take that as an insult or a compliment, grabbed our bags and hopped on a train to Paris. We decided to buy the travel card and a museum pass which promised to get us into monuments and many museums for free (besides the cost of the pass.....). After figuring out how to find our apartment that we had rented on VRBO, we set off on our first mission. Well, like usual we got lost. Got off on the right transit stop but really could not figure out where we were supposed to be. Wandered up and down the streets ... read more

Our final stop in Germany was to Hamburg, home of Europe’s largest red light district and second largest port. On our first night there we took the subway to go see Rathaus in Old Town and emerged to.... China time! A festival in the middle of the town hall square full of red lanterns and Asian trinkets. Even though Binnson claims that “It’s always China time!” we happily walked around inside. Along with China time, comes this big dragon statue that appears once every two years in the square that I forced Binnson to get his picture with (see photos). Moving on from there, we headed down the Alsterarkaden which was lined with shops, hotels, big malls, and restaurants along a water front. We had read something about Chile Haus and decided to go find it ... read more