European Panorama 2012

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In the summer of 2012 I experienced the trip of a lifetime. I, along with two of my best friends, went on EF College Break's 'European Panorama Tour.' It was a twenty five day adventure that exposed us to some of the wonders of Europe.

First we arrived in Dublin where we met up with 18 other group members to begin our adventure. We spent three days in Ireland, visiting the country side, experiencing Temple Bar and it's traditional Irish pubs and visiting the Guinness Factory.

After falling in love with Ireland, we made our way to North Wales. Along the way we stopped at Snowdonia National Park (which was absolutely gorgeous) and Beaumaris Castle. I was not expecting to love Wales as much as I did; but it was so beautiful, green and serene!

After a quick day in Wales we made our way to Stratford and then on to London. As it was just days before the 2012 London Olympics, the city was overly busy. Of course we saw the London Eye, Big Ben and St. Paul's Cathedral. We also experienced London's nightlife on a pub crawl full of other backpackers.

For me, the biggest surprise was our next stop: Amsterdam. Our 'hotel with hostel like qualities' (Inner Amsterdam Hotel) was absolutely disgusting!! One of my friends was lucky enough to find bed bugs in her bed at 2am so she jumped in my bed where we got to share a twin (cough teenie tiny cot). Despite our brutal accommodations, I was in awe at the beauty of Amsterdam. We took a bike tour up the Dutch countryside and then in the evening sipped our wine along the beautiful canals. Of course we also checked out the red light district (did you know it was themed??? Pick your type and there's a street for it).

The next day was surreal, we had breakfast in Amsterdam, lunch in Brussels (waffles, French fries and chocolate- heaven) then ended up in Paris for dinner. We went to the cutest little basement restaurant that had live music, a five course meal and unlimited wine. Amazing. Our next few days in Paris were spent eating baguettes and wine in parks, seeing the Louvre, the Eiffel Tour and Montmartre- go!!! And since we are children at heart we made a little stop at Disneyland Paris.

Our next stop: Lucerne Switzerland. Holy beautiful. We went to the top of Mount Pilatus, took a cruise through the pristine water and then spent the afternoon by the beach at the bottom of the Swiss Alps. It was truly too beautiful for words.

Next we stopped in Riomaggiore in Cinque Terre- stunning!!

To finish off our trip we visited Florence, Monaco, Nice and Barcelona.

In Florence we went to the most amazing vineyard for a wine tasting and in Monaco we went to the Monaco Casino (not my thing).

In Barcelona we experienced traditional Spanish cuisine- paella! Along with unlimited sangria! Parque Guell was stunning and the beach was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. We finished our trip of a lifetime with a pub crawl and a dash to the airport.

It was a non-stop trip that I will never forget.

Each country was beautiful in its own way. Writing this is making me nostalgic and causing my travel bug to grow.

Trip highlights: Lucerne, Riomaggiore and Barcelona.

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Photos

Tourists in London

Comments

[shnave]

European Panorama tours - a great way to see
Hey there, it's been quite a good show on my Europe Panorama tour that I went in 2013 with Cosmos Vacations and they called it European Jewels and it was a 12 day tour. Our tour was quiet well organised and with a lot of places covered yet got our own free time during evenings and was set to do things on my own with a little bit of guidance with the local restaurants, bars, interesting places... and yes, it was fun. The coach bus made its journey connecting to places and was a smooth ride throughout. Got alerted much in advance on any beautiful landscapes, lakes or places that were on enroute. So much so it was a tour that has given me beautiful memories to cherish. Oh yeah! I just bumped to this tour http://cosmosvacations.in/tour_group_code.aspx?group=Multi-Country%20European%20Panoramas when i was searching for the Europe tours.