MalindaMongosa

Friday 28 I woke up early and went to eat breakfast at the hotel lobby. There wasn't much to eat for the £7 that I spent. Since I still had a good 3 1/2 hours before I was able to get into Buckingham palace, I decided to go to one of the other Evans store south of me. I took the Victoria station tube to Brixton. The shop was upstairs across the street from the station. I picked up a few more times and then travel back on the underground and made my way back to the hotel to drop off the packages. I then used the hop on hop off bus that I got for free for using Booking.com twice during my visit to catch a ride to Buckingham palace. I then spent some time ... read more

July 26 Wednesday Even though I had gone to bed late last night, I still got up early but this time closer to 6 AM. I downloaded all the pictures I took last night and then headed off for breakfast. Not surprising I didn't see anyone from my group. Unfortunately most of the food that was cooked was not to my taste, So I ended up with some ham slices, cheese, and croissants. The orange juice actually was very good. I then left the hotel to go across the street again to the bridge over the Seine River. I took some good pictures of the Eiffel Tower and then headed down to the little island below to get a better picture of the Statue of Liberty. There was a plaque in French but I was able ... read more

July 24 Monday Had a great sleep with the window open allowing fresh cool air into my room. For breakfast there was crispy bacon at last! So I filled up on bacon and croissants. Overnight snow had fallen on top of some of the peaks so my view at breakfast was wonderful. We left the hotel at 9 am for a day in Lucerne. As we went along the clouds and fog made the view spectacular. Lucerne is a city in central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the district of the same name. With a population of about 81,057 people. We first went to the Lion Monument. The Lion Monument or the Lion of Lucerne, is a rock relief in designed ... read more

July 22 Saturday Up at 5 to get ready and to finish some more blogs. I'm slowly catching up to present day. I ate breakfast with Ali and Fahi. We discussed our views of Vatican City over breakfast. Then at 8 we were off for Florence. Just minutes into the trip, Willie Nelson's song "On the Road Again" began to play over the speakers. We all had a good laugh. The scenery along the road to Florence was full of ponds, wheat fields, sunflower fields, and river crossings. We passed quite a few old buildings and farm homes of stone and terra-cotta roofs. Simply beautiful. About 2 hours into the trip we saw in the distance hillside with lots of smoke billowing up to the sky. The sky became cloudier as we approached Florence. It may ... read more

July 20 Thursday I got up at 5 am to get out to get some morning photos of the sunrise at the veranda. It was nice and cool outside. I had the park and the terrace to myself unless you count the two cats hanging out. The sun was rising behind the hillside so it gave the sky a nice pink color. I then headed back to the hotel to finish packing. I had internet access but couldn't upload my photos to my blog. I then headed down to breakfast. Almost everyone was eating outside but there were no clean tables available so I sat inside by myself. Once again it was scrambled egg soup, cut hot dog sausages, and barely cooked bacon. Fruits, breads, cereals, deli meat and cheese were also offered. I grabbed some ... read more