Thanksgiving 2014

Americans in Paris!

We celebrated the 4th of July with an Effiel Tower light show! 

The Top of Europe!

Today we traveled up Jungfrau mountain. The railway that it takes to get there is the highest in Europe. 

If you look at the picture about closely, you can see what looks like a waterfall; however, it was actually and avalanche. I have a video of the snow falling down. It makes that crazy loud cracking noise. 

Once we got to the top, you could go through some exhibits. One was an ice palace. I did not dress warmly enough for that place! The ground was made of ice so it was difficult not to slip as you were walking. 

We then went to the top for some pics. 

Matt had a Mohawk for the occasion that has a Swiss flag painted on it. He REALLY loves Switzerland...

Tomorrow we will arrive in our final destination..Paris!

Off to Switzerland!

Our tour manager, Matt, has been talking about how much he loves Switzerland nonstop since the beginning of the trip. I figured it could only be a let down after all the talking up he did...however..it was not. I was amazed at the beauty of this country! The water is really blue and the mountains are beautiful! 

We are staying at a contiki camp site. This is the view from my cabin window. 

I love that there are at least 5 waterfalls out of my window! 

We stopped in Lucurne on the way to the camp site. Unfortunately it was raining, and Matt lost half of us at one point, but we finally found our way to Harry's store. They sell watched, knives, and Swiss chocolate here! 

Laura wasn't prepared for the rain..

Today we are taking a train up Jungfrau mountain!

Firenze

Yesterday we were in Florence (or Firenze, as they call it). We started with a walking tour. We got to see a copy of the statue of David, but we didn't end up going into the museum to see it. Our guide said we might have to wait in line for 3 hours and possibly still not get a ticket! 

The rest of the day was a free day. Laura and I walked around til about 4 and then went back to the hotel to sleep. 

Here are some more pics: 

The only bridge in Florence that wasn't bombed during WW2. 

The government building. 

The church..part of it was being washed..so this is my no scaffolding photo. 

 View from the bridge. 

Vatican and Pisa!

On our way out of town, we did a 2 hour guided tour of the Vatican. I was glad we had group tickets because the line for buying them was forever long! 

 

 

The Pope's balcony: 

We did get to go to the Sistine Chapel, but we weren't allowed to take pictures. They really rush you through that place too! The security people literally start pushing you when you walk in the door. 

On the way to Florence, we made a quick stop in Pisa for some photos! 

We arrived in Florence and have the whole day here tomorrow!

When in Rome...

This morning we got up and headed over to the Colosseum for a guided tour. Our guide was very interesting--he gave us a lesson on how to spot pick pockets. Our tour was kinda rushed, but we had time to take some lovely pictures! 

And then we stopped at the Roman Forum 

We had a free day after that tour. Laura and I thought we could easily navigate the metro and travel all over the city..2 hours later we had made it back to the trevi fountain (not even where we were trying to go). I was pretty hangry at this point (hungry + angry) so we stopped and got another plain cheese pizza. Luckily Rome has lots of gluten free places for Laura to eat at! 

Laura wanted to find the synagogue in the Jewish quarter because she had some relatives buried there. After another 2 hours in several different directions, we found the synagogue...only to be told that the cemetery was not near there. Here are some pics we took along the way. 

Circus Maximus:

Trajan's pillar: 

Roman Holiday

We arrived in Rome today around 4pm. I'm surprised we made it there with the crazy way Italians drive! They just make their own lanes and cut over in front of people last minute. We did a driving tour of the city before Matt took us around to see a couple of the famous landmarks. 

Apparently it is illegal to give guided tours here without a permit, so Matt kept trying to nonchalantly tell us about different places. Below he pretended to talk on the phone to his mother, telling her about the sites he was seeing around him. 

We saw the mouth of truth (made popular by Roman Holiday).  That's on my camera. 

The Pantheon 

The Trevi Fountain. As you can see, I got a pretty awesome picture..complete with scaffolding and plastic walls 

Tomorrow we have the whole day in Rome. 

Venice :)

Our day trip to Venice started with a boat cruise over the lagoon. This was the first summer weather we have encountered so far in the trip. We switched out our sweaters and jeans for tanks and shorts. Unfortunately I got sunburned on the cruise over. 

We did a walking tour of Venice--nothing too special. We then walked around for awhile and did some shopping. The streets there are very confusing! One of my students had told me about a pasta place to go to, and it took us about 30 mins of being lost before we found it. I got Alfredo pasta; it was delicious! 

Around 5 we met back up with the group for a gondola ride. The man on our boat found it quite funny to tip the boat back and forth. I was not amused. Our group is so large that it looked like an army of gondolas rowing through the water. 

Laura and I tried to find a gluten free place to eat at for dinner. She ended up paying €19 for a plate of thinly cut ham as it was the only gluten free thing they offered. I ordered pizza :) 

We sat on the water front until our group left at 9. We enjoyed people watching. We saw several wannabe models and many unhappy gondola couples. Overall quite amusing. 

Ljubljana (sounds nothing like it's spelled)

These might be out of order..we went from Budapest to Ljubljana to Venice 

Another travel day...meaning a short post! We drove most of the day, but we stopped at Lake Bled right after we crossed the Slovenian border. I had seen pictures of this lake on Pinterest and thought it looked cool. Our guide suggested we climb up to the castle to get a better view..he failed to mention however that this climb would have you sweating profusely, breathing heavily, and dying for water by the time you got to the top. It was a nice view though! 

(Forgot to take picture on my phone) 

We then drove on to Ljubljana. It was a small town, but still lovely. I've found like I like the smaller towns better. Matt took us on a walking tour. Here are some of pics: 

Tomorrow we are off to Venice!

Budapest

Things have slowed down for us in Budapest. We have more free time and less planned outings. We arrived in Budapest in the evening, did a quick walk around Castle Hill, and then drove up to look at the Holocaust Memorial.  Laura and I had gyros at the restaurant next to our hostel for dinner.

The next morning we woke up pretty early (our roommates were just coming in from the night before) and left to go back to Castle Hill to get some better pictures. We did not know, however, that this was a 5 mile walk almost all up hills and stairs :( 

There was a strange man there letting people take pics with this eagle for €6. 

We had made reservations at the thermal baths, so we went there next. On our way, we passed Hero Square. 

When we arrived at the spa, I decided to try the pedicure where the fish come and nibble on your feet. It surprisingly wasn't a ticklish experience. I don't think it did much though. The baths had varying temperatures to sit in, but tons of different pools to choose from. Some where inside and there was a huge one outside. Supposedly the water helps heal ailments. Laura and I decided to try the steam rooms too. 

We did a hop on hop off tour after that which took us back to the hostel. At dinner that night Laura ended up fainting and hitting her head on the table as she was collapsing. We ended up having to go to the hospital to get an X-ray done. 

Communicating at a foreign historical was an interesting experience. Also, when we walked in, we noticed that there we tons of head trauma patients with intense injuries in there. They just kept coming in. It was the weirdest thing. We finally got back to the hostel around 3am. Everything was ok. We got up around 7 to make our way to Ljubljana (no idea about this place).