Europe

Best Accommodation 

 L: The Bed & Breakfast in Brussels. Although the owner was creepy and in desperate need of a belt, the room was spacious and clean. This room also had the best shower of the entire trip and breakfast was great.
J: I liked Brussels the best too. If only because the 500 stairs you had to climb to the room helped me burn off all the waffles and beer. (*On a side note, Jason had to make an additional notch on his belt during this trip to make it smaller. Who does this on vacation??)

Worst Accommodation

L: Oddly enough, the "Perfect Hotel" in Paris was my least favorite. The view was that of a lovely brick wall and the bathrooms were disgusting. Cheap though!
J: Perfect Hotel. I'd rather not talk about it.

Best View

L: I loved the view in Corniglia, Italy. Just past the lemon trees under our window you could see the town perched right at the edge of the ocean.
J: Gryon.

Favorite Gelato Flavor

L: White chocolate hazelnut
J: Chocolato

Favorite Beer

L: The cherry Kreik beer in Belgium
J: The Gueze at Cantilon Brewery

Would Never Return

L: Paris. I would go back to France but never to Paris. I think the Eiffel Tower is something you just need to see once.
J: Brussels. It's like the Edmonton of Western Europe with more waffles.

Would Like to Return

L: To Switzerland, Belgium and Italy... and Amsterdam.
J: More time in the Netherlands and maybe Belgium during the bike racing season.

Favorite Museum 

 

L: The Louvre. The best part was a tie between Napoleons apartment and the Mona Lisa.
J: The British museum was pretty amazing. I could have spent a weekend or two perusing its nooks and crannies.

Easiest city to get around in

L: London. Jason caught on to the underground system really quickly.
J: If I was on a bike, Amsterdam. Without a bike, London for sure. The underground and the train lines are enviable.

Favorite Street Food

L: The crepe that I posted a picture of in Paris was the best crepe I've ever had. We had 2 more later on in the trip but that Paris one blew them out of the water. It was almost paper thin.
J: Waffles

Packed, but didn't need

L: I think the only thing I packed and did not use was a rain-cover for my backpack. This was only because we didn't see any heavy rain. I would still bring it next time though.
J: I used everything in my bag at least once.. even the rain cover.

Wish I'd packed

L: Jeans. I think I would have looked less like a tourist with jeans. Everything I read said not to bring jeans because they're so heavy when they get wet but I think I'd still bring some next time.
J: Jeans. I wouldn't have felt like such a loser in all the swanky cities we visited. However I don't have any fashionably ripped, super tight or $300 jeans so whatever.

Home Sweet Home

We're finally home! Still a little jet-lagged but one more sleep in my bed will cure that.  We were so excited to see the damn cat and she has not stopped chasing and biting us since the minute we walked in the door. This is normal cat behavior apparently. Who knew?

In the next few days we are going make a post of all of our favorite things in Europe. Maybe a "Best & Worst" list?

Any subjects you want to add to the list?

I'll leave you with a picture of my major souvenir! I found this on our second last day in Rome. It's English and weighs about 2lbs so I definitely could not have lugged it around had I found it earlier in the trip.

Italy - Pisa & Rome

Pisa was a one trick pony. Lots of history but not much to see. We were glad we only had one night there because I don't know what you would do for two!

Rome on the other hand... way too much to see and do! We arrived yesterday around 2:30pm, found our B&B and then took the 10 minute walk to the Colosseum. It was spectacular and amazing that it's still standing after many major earthquakes, floods, looting and a couple thousand years.

 Just as we were being shooed to the exit the sun was setting and the light was perfect so we snuck in as many photos as we could.

After wandering for a few hours we found a place for dinner. This pasta was fabulous but everytime I've ordered seafood on this trip it's come to the table with eyeballs. It kind of kills the ambience when I have to cut the head off my fish before digging in. Or perhaps the fact that I was wearing the same hoody I've worn everyday for the past 30 days already killed the ambience? Hard to say. Actually, once the legs and eyes were removed, it was very nice to sit outside and watch the people and motorcycles go by. It's fairly hard to completely kill the ambience when you're in Rome.

Jason had his favorite - lasagna. He said it was lacking in presentation but not flavor. For dessert, we stopped for gelato.

Every second shop in Rome has gelato. It's pretty hot here (don't know the day time temperature but around +18 in the evening) so it's a welcomed treat.

Today our first stop was the Trevi Fountain where we threw our coins in to ensure another visit to Rome.

After that we checked out the Paletino and the Roman Forum ruins. Jason wanted to know who has the job of mowing this lawn and if it really pisses them off hitting rocks all the time.

This was followed by a gelato because it was HOT out! We walked for quite some time in search of a bike store only to find it was closed on Sundays. We had pizza for lunch and saved the leftovers for dinner. This was complimented by beer (Peroni) and pringles. We are feeling slightly exhausted at this point of the trip and thoughts of home and Honey are starting to creep back in. Tomorrow is our last full day in Rome and we have no plans at this point. I predict a whole lot of walking + gelato.

Italy

The Cinque Terre National Park:

This is where we have been the past few days. On our first day we purchased a Cinque Terre pass which got us unlimited train travel between Levanto & La Spezia and access to the park and all the trails. In the morning we said goodbye to our little bed and breakfast in Levanto...

 ... and headed straight for the last town which is Riomaggiore. Since we had no where to stay, we hiked with our backpacks from Riomaggiore to Corniglia. It started out cloudy and mild but by the end of it we were soaked in sweat. Here we are, only mildly sweaty, in front of the picturesque Riomaggiore:

We ended up finding a room above this restaurant in Cornigllia to spend our 3 nights in:

Also, a tasty tidbit, to get to this particular town you have to walk up 382 stairs from the train station. Our host was a nice guy who gave us a cheap room, free limoncello and home cooking compliments of his mom. The town itself was very quiet and it seemed like everything shut down at 8pm. It was a real taste of what it's like living in small town Italy. Here's what Jason would drive if we did live in small town Italy:

 The second day we hiked from Cornigllia to Vernazza which took about an hour and a half. The sun was out in full force and Jason got his classic "red neck" sunburn.

 We stopped for 16 euro sunscreen, gelato and foccacia pizza which is a specialty of the region.

Due to intense sweat saturation of our clothing, we took a train to Monterosso and sat on the beach. Jason was on his 6th scoop of gelato for the day at this point I think. He worked it off by climbing this rock:

The next day we spent wandering around in La Spezia. Nothing major to report here but it was a nice break from hiking mountainous trails.

We are in Pisa now and listening to a band playing in the Piazza right outside our hostel. Heading off to Rome in the morning on our very last train ride!

Ciao

All Over The Map

Today we had breakfast in Gryon, lunched in Brig (Switzerland) and grabbed dinner in Milan. We are now relaxing in Levanto Italy for the night. It's been a long day of travel - 1 tram and 3 trains. I don't have many pictures of Levanto to share with you as we arrived around 9pm. We are out of here tomorrow to explore the Cinque Terre so I'll be sure to take some pictures in the morning as it it looks like a pretty cute town from what I could see! Here are some random pictures:

We found a cereal that is basically broken pieces of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I was hesitant at first because milk is not refrigerated in stores here but I went for it and am glad I did. 

 

We got a little more creative with dinner on the second night in Gryon and made a stir fry with rice.

This was our view this morning - looks like someone cut the top of the Alps off. 

 

This is what today consisted of  - a whole lot of waiting around in train stations.

 

And a whole lot of swiss chocolate.

Gryon, Switzerland

Who knew - there is internet deep within the Swiss Alps! Limited time however, so I'll make this short and sweet.

We got up early this morning, checked out of the hostel and headed to the outskirts of Switzerland to visit CERN. For those not in the know (like myself, until this morning) this is a EPIC culmention of scientific knowledge from all over the world.  As we had a train to catch, we were unable to take the guided tour but still had a chance to browse their small museum. Some pretty important stuff happened at CERN - Tim Berners-Lee, the man who developed what we know as the internet worked at CERN and we saw the first internet server! Exciting for Jason because he's a computer nerd and exciting for me because I make websites. Jason would like to say more about CERN, including a bunch of words I can't spell and run-on sentences so be sure to ask him once we're home!

Hopped on a train - actually 2 trains and a tram - and 3 hours later we were in Gryon. The hostel we are staying in was recommended to us by my brother and the view from our room is amazing. We look forward to sleeping in, going to the hot springs and just relaxing for this leg of the trip. I don't think the people here realize how lucky they are. On the steep train ride up the mountain, Jason was running all over the tram trying to get pictures while everyone else just stared into their books or was lost in conversation. I guess you get used to your surroundings but we promised ourselves not to take our short 3 hour trip to from home to the Rocky Mountains for granted again.

 This is the third mountain range we've been fortunate enough to visit and are, as always, in awe of the size and beauty. The people here, both in the hostel and the town, are extremely friendly and welcoming.

This place is like no other we've ever stayed. It's more of a community... it feels like we're living with all these people. Very relaxed atmosphere and we cooked our own dinner in the well stocked kitchen tonight. We just had pasta but were drooling over everybody elses gourment dinners so will do better tomorrow night. As I write, Jason is sitting on the balcony addressing postcards as the smell of something delicious from the BBQ is lingering through the open balcony doors. I think we will really like this place.

So Mom, tell Brad not to worry! We are very thankful for his recomendation as we would never have found this on our own. As we were cooking dinner tonight, we both agreed that we could see just why he loved it here so much.

Geneva Day 2

Not much new to report today, but as we are heading to the Alps tomorrow I thought I should fit in one more post before heading off into the internet-less wilds.

Today we headed to the Red Cross Museum which I enjoyed more than I thought I would.  That seems to be the theme of the trip for me. Good thing I go to all these things! It was inspiring to see something started out of selfless compassion that has made such a difference in the world. With all these places, Paris mostly, it felt like everything I was looking at or experiencing was done or created in the pursuit of money. The Red Cross was started by  people who just wanted to help.

We just had to cross the street for a tour of the UN Headquarters.  A guide directed us around the New Wing that was added onto the original League of Nations building in the 70's.  He explained that the fixtures and artwork were all gifts from various UN nations.  The marble walls from Italy, the coconut fibre carpet was from Thailand and the doors from France.

This tapestry was a gift from China, the temple of peace and the entrance stairway seemed to be directly facing you no matter what angle you viewed it from.

We moved onto the original section of the building, viewing the gardens from the breezeway between the two gardens.  There are peacocks roaming the grounds to honor the man who left the land the building stands on to the city of Geneva.

After our sightseeing we hit a local supermarket called Migros for some stinky swiss Gruyere cheese and swiss chocolate. Tonight is fondue night!

PS - Can you tell Jason wrote the bit about the UN Headquarters? His writing always has actual names, facts and dates.

Geneva

I knew there was beauty in France! It took a trip outside of Paris to see it but we had a great day at Versailles yesterday. We took a tour of the palace which was full of loud pushy tourists (worse than the Louvre... way worse) but it was the gardens that we loved. Jason figures we walked about 15kms in that garden.
We stayed there until it closed! I can only imagine how it would look in the summer. This picture was taken by a friendly couple who were getting a kick out of watching Jason trying to set up the camera on top of a pop bottle:

We got the fixins for a picnic at a nearby grocery store and sat down at the edge of the canal in the gardens behind the palace. Jason was so excited to have found this huge Babybel for 2 euros!

We were joined by a pair of ducks while we ate and then a very bold swan. At first I was super excited but as with most of my encounters with birds, I soon freaked out. We have some great videos of this swan almost helping itself to our baguette and making what Jason refers to as "terror noises". Here's me, in the ready position:

So after a good day in Paris, we said aurevoir!

We left this morning and arrived in Geneva, Switzerland 3 hours later. As soon as we stepped off the train we liked this place. You can see the alps in the distance and the air smelled so fresh and clean. The weather is fantastic... sunny with a little breeze.

We wandered for only a few hours and came across lots of old buildings mixed with extremely modern shops. The people don't seem to take themselves as serious as Perisans. We decided tomorrow we would have our very first fondue experience so had dinner at this little resteraunt that served only organic chicken!

We were so excited to eat "meat & potatoes"!

We are now in our room, drinking beer. Jason is about to do laundry - I would join him, but a lack of clean pants prevents me. I'm off to have a shower and then run back into the room in my bathing suit. Fingers crossed the hallways are empty!

Paris

Bonjour! It is our third night in Paris with limited internet usage but I'll do the best I can. Paris is almost as busy as London but I feel like it lacks the heart of London. We arrived here around 5pm on Saturday and our hotel is... interesting. It is a bed and a sink in a room that is as big as the bed.

Our first full day in Paris, we did a bike tour. Again, a great thing to do on your first day just to get your bearings. It was a 4 hour tour and we checked out the Museum D'Orsay after that. For dinner, we ventured into a grocery store to find that a half decent bottle of wine is around 3 euro! Everyone in line had a baguette too.. people go wild for baguettes here. For breakfast we get a baguette and a chocolate croissant with jam and butter. I gotta say, I don't miss the meat for breakfast.

For the bike tour, it was pretty chilly but today was beautiful:

 Here is Jason enjoying the French style of landscaping at the Jardin des Tuileries:

We learned from our bike tour guide that the French like to show dominance over nature in their gardens as opposed to the British style which shows harmony between man and nature. I prefer British - Jason, French. The battle continues.

We tackled the Louvre today and after around 6 hours of wandering, I know I didn't see even half of the collection! My absolute favorite part was seeing Napoleons private apartment. We have so many gorgeous pictures from here:

We shared a crepe consisting of nutella and almonds. It doesn't look like I'm sharing, but I did. I also look like a bum but I only have one outfit and no hairdryer so give me a break:

Tomorrow the plan is to visit Versailles for the day then one more night in Paris! I don't want to sound bitter but I am excited to move on. Paris is nice to visit but I can't imagine spending more than a week here. It has a certain....aroma that I can't get used to. The Eiffel tower, for me, was underwhelming but seeing the Mona Lisa did bring with it a certain sense of wonder.

Next stop, Geneva.